Via cnet.com
DeepSeek builds new AI agent team to compete with Claude Code
The Chinese AI company is recruiting for its Harness team as it looks to turn its models into agentic products capable of handling complex coding and work tasks.
DeepSeek is expanding its push into AI agents with a new team focused on building software that could compete with products including Anthropic’s Claude Code.
The Chinese AI company has established an official WeChat account for its DeepSeek Harness Team. The account is registered to a Beijing entity owned by DeepSeek’s Hangzhou based parent company.
DeepSeek is also recruiting engineers and product managers for the team. Earlier job listings described its goal as turning DeepSeek’s models into advanced agent products, with the company framing the approach as “Model + Harness = Agent.”
A harness provides the software around an AI model that allows it to use tools, manage context, execute actions, and complete longer tasks. The approach has become increasingly important as companies shift from standalone chatbots toward agents capable of coding and automating professional work.
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DeepSeek has been building out these capabilities alongside its V4 model family. Its official documentation says V4 includes Pro and Flash models with support for agent focused workloads and context windows of up to one million tokens.
The new team puts DeepSeek more directly into competition with Anthropic’s Claude Code and other coding agents as AI developers increasingly focus on systems capable of completing complex tasks with less human intervention.