---
title: DeepSeek Harness
description: How ClawMetry observes DeepSeek Harness — where its data lives, the environment variables that move it, what cost data is real, and the traps in its store.
eyebrow: Runtime reference
---

# DeepSeek Harness

DeepSeek Harness (`dsh`) keeps everything under one home and compresses its session logs with Zstandard by default — which makes it the one runtime where reading real data may need an optional decoder.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Runtime id** | `deepseek_harness` |
| **Category** | Agent harness |
| **Vendor** | DeepSeek |
| **Tier** | Paid tier (Starter and up) |
| **Upstream** | [github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness) |

## Where the data comes from

ClawMetry reads these locations, in order, and never writes to any of them.

- `$DSH_HOME/sessions/--<project-key>--/<encoded-session-id>/session.jsonl[.zstd]`
- `$DSH_HOME/sessions/_no-cwd/<encoded-session-id>/session.jsonl[.zstd]`

**Format.** A header line followed by typed events: `user/message`, `assistant/message`, `tool/call`, `tool/result`, `turn/start`, `turn/end`, `session/title`.

## Environment variables

| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
| `DSH_HOME` | home override (default ~/.dsh) |

See [Environment variables](/docs/config/environment/) for the variables that apply to every runtime.

## Tokens and cost

**Tokens.** Inline on each assistant message: input, output, cache read and reasoning tokens, with the provider and model.

**Cost.** Derived from the inline token split.

:::note Why this section exists
Runtimes differ enormously in what they persist. Rather than showing a plausible number everywhere, ClawMetry reports what the store actually contains and marks the rest unknown. A cost of `$0.00` and a cost of *unknown* mean different things, and the dashboard keeps them different.
:::

## Things worth knowing

- Zstandard is the default encoding and Python does not ship a decoder. ClawMetry treats `zstandard` as a detection-gated lazy dependency: it is only installed after real compressed dsh data is found, and until then compressed logs are skipped and the status is reported honestly.
- The format is pinned at version 0 and upstream promises breaking changes, so any unknown header version is skipped rather than mis-parsed.

## Verify it is being read

```bash
# Is this runtime detected, and would this install unlock it?
clawmetry runtimes --json | jq '.runtimes[] | select(.id=="deepseek_harness")'

# Why is it locked, if it is?
clawmetry runtimes --why deepseek_harness

# Any sessions ingested yet?
curl -s 'http://localhost:8900/api/local/sessions?limit=5' \
  | jq '.rows[] | {session_id, agent_id, events, cost_usd}'
```

If detection succeeds but no sessions appear, work through [Troubleshooting](/docs/ops/troubleshooting/) — the usual causes are a relocated data directory (set the override above), a session limit that is hiding older runs, or a runtime that simply has not written anything yet.