DeepSeek CLI 🤖

Your AI-powered terminal companion for DeepSeek models

Unofficial terminal UI (TUI) + CLI for the DeepSeek platform — chat with DeepSeek models and collaborate with AI assistants that can read, write, execute, and plan with approval-gated tool access.

Not affiliated with DeepSeek Inc.

✨ Features

• Interactive TUI with multiple modes (Normal, Plan, Agent, YOLO, RLM, Duo)
• Comprehensive tool access – File operations, shell execution, task management, and sub-agent systems
• File operations: List directories, read/write/edit files, apply patches, search files with regex
• Shell execution: Run commands with timeout support, background execution with task management
• Task management: Todo lists, implementation plans, persistent notes
• Sub-agent system: Spawn, manage, and cancel background agents for parallel work
• Web search: Integrated web search with DuckDuckGo
• Multi‑model support – DeepSeek‑Reasoner, DeepSeek‑Chat, and other DeepSeek models
• Context‑aware – loads project‑specific instructions from AGENTS.md
• Session management – resume, fork, and search past conversations
• Skills system – reusable workflows stored as SKILL.md directories
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) – integrate external tool servers
• Sandboxed execution (macOS) for safe shell commands
• Git integration – code review, patch application, diff analysis
• Cross‑platform – works on macOS, Linux, and Windows

🚀 Quick Start

1. Get an API key from https://platform.deepseek.com
2. Install and run:

# Install via Cargo
cargo install deepseek-tui --locked

# Set your API key
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"

# Start chatting
deepseek

3. Press F1 or type /help for the in‑app command list.

If anything looks off, run deepseek doctor to diagnose configuration issues.

📦 Installation

From crates.io

cargo install deepseek-tui --locked

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI.git
cd DeepSeek-TUI
cargo build --release
./target/release/deepseek --help

Direct download

Download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases and put it on your PATH as deepseek.

⚙️ Configuration

On first run, the TUI can prompt for your API key and save it to ~/.deepseek/config.toml. You can also create the file manually:

# ~/.deepseek/config.toml
api_key = "YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"   # must be non‑empty
default_text_model = "deepseek-reasoner" # optional
allow_shell = false                 # optional
max_subagents = 3                   # optional (1‑5)

Useful environment variables:

• DEEPSEEK_API_KEY (overrides api_key)
• DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL (default: https://api.deepseek.com; China users may use https://api.deepseeki.com)
• DEEPSEEK_PROFILE (selects [profiles.<name>] from the config; errors if missing)
• DEEPSEEK_CONFIG_PATH (override config path)
• DEEPSEEK_MCP_CONFIG, DEEPSEEK_SKILLS_DIR, DEEPSEEK_NOTES_PATH, DEEPSEEK_MEMORY_PATH, DEEPSEEK_ALLOW_SHELL, DEEPSEEK_MAX_SUBAGENTS

See config.example.toml and docs/CONFIGURATION.md for a full reference.

🎮 Modes

In the TUI, press Tab to cycle modes: Normal → Plan → Agent → YOLO → RLM → Duo → Normal.

Approval behavior is mode‑dependent, but you can also override it at runtime with /set approval_mode auto|suggest|never.

🛠️ Tools

DeepSeek CLI exposes a comprehensive set of tools to the model across 5 categories, with 16+ individual tools available, all with approval gating based on the current mode.

Tool Categories

File Operations

• list_dir – List directory contents with file/directory metadata
• read_file – Read UTF‑8 files from the workspace
• write_file – Create or overwrite files
• edit_file – Search and replace text in files
• apply_patch – Apply unified diff patches with fuzzy matching
• grep_files – Search files by regex pattern with context lines
• web_search – Search the web and return concise results

Shell Execution

• exec_shell – Run shell commands with timeout support
• Background execution – Run commands in background with task ID return

Task Management

• todo_write – Create and update todo lists with status tracking
• update_plan – Manage structured implementation plans
• note – Append persistent notes across sessions

Sub‑Agents

• agent_spawn – Create background sub‑agents for focused tasks
• agent_result – Retrieve results from sub‑agents
• agent_list – List all active and completed agents
• agent_cancel – Cancel running sub‑agents

System Behavior

• Workspace boundary: File tools are restricted to --workspace unless you enable /trust (YOLO enables trust automatically).
• Approvals: The TUI requests approval depending on mode and tool category (file writes, shell).
• Web search: web_search uses DuckDuckGo HTML results and is auto‑approved.
• Skills: Reusable workflows stored as SKILL.md directories (default: ~/.deepseek/skills). Use /skills and /skill <name>.
• MCP: Load external tool servers via ~/.deepseek/mcp.json (supports servers and mcpServers). MCP tools currently execute without TUI approval prompts, so only enable servers you trust. See docs/MCP.md.

🧠 RLM (Reasoning & Large‑scale Memory)

RLM mode is designed for "too big for context" tasks: large files, whole‑doc sweeps, and big pasted blocks.

• Auto‑switch triggers: "largest file", explicit "RLM", large file requests, and large pastes.
• Shortcut: /rlm (or /aleph) enters RLM mode directly.
• In RLM mode, /load @path loads a file into the external context store (outside RLM mode, /load loads a saved chat JSON).
• Use /repl to enter expression mode (e.g. search("pattern"), lines(1, 80)).
• Power tools: rlm_load, rlm_exec, rlm_status, rlm_query.

rlm_query can be expensive: prefer batching and check /status if you're doing lots of sub‑queries.

👥 Duo Mode

Note: Duo mode is experimental and may not work correctly in all cases. Use with caution.

Duo mode implements the player‑coach autocoding paradigm for iterative development with built‑in validation:

• Player: implements requirements (builder role)
• Coach: validates implementation against requirements (critic role)
• Tools: duo_init, duo_player, duo_coach, duo_advance, duo_status

Workflow: init → player → coach → advance → (repeat until approved)

📚 Examples

Interactive chat

deepseek

One‑shot prompt (non‑interactive)

deepseek -p "Write a haiku about Rust"

Agentic execution with tool access

deepseek exec --auto "Fix lint errors in the current directory"

Resume latest session

deepseek --continue

Work on a specific project

deepseek --workspace /path/to/project

Review staged git changes

deepseek review --staged

Apply a patch file

deepseek apply patch.diff

List saved sessions

deepseek sessions --limit 50

Generate shell completions

deepseek completions zsh > _deepseek
deepseek completions bash > deepseek.bash
deepseek completions fish > deepseek.fish

🔧 Troubleshooting

No API key

Set DEEPSEEK_API_KEY environment variable or run deepseek and complete onboarding.

Config not found

Check ~/.deepseek/config.toml (or DEEPSEEK_CONFIG_PATH).

Wrong region / base URL

Set DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL to https://api.deepseeki.com (China).

Session issues

Run deepseek sessions and try deepseek --resume latest.

MCP tools missing

Validate ~/.deepseek/mcp.json (or DEEPSEEK_MCP_CONFIG) and restart.

Sandbox errors (macOS)

Ensure /usr/bin/sandbox-exec exists (comes with macOS). For other platforms, sandboxing is limited.

📖 Documentation

• docs/CONFIGURATION.md – Complete configuration reference
• docs/MCP.md – Model Context Protocol guide
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md – Project architecture
• docs/RLM.md – RLM mode deep‑dive
• docs/MODES.md – Mode comparison and usage
• CONTRIBUTING.md – How to contribute to the project

🧪 Development

cargo build
cargo test
cargo fmt
cargo clippy

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines.

📄 License

MIT

DeepSeek is a trademark of DeepSeek Inc. This is an unofficial project.