DeepSeek TUI

npm i -g deepseek-tui

A coding agent for DeepSeek models that runs in your terminal.

Quickstart

npm install -g deepseek-tui

Start the TUI:

deepseek

On first launch, it will prompt for your API key if one is not already configured. The package also installs deepseek-tui; both commands share the same ~/.deepseek/config.toml for DeepSeek auth and default model settings.

You can also set auth ahead of time with either of these:

deepseek login --api-key "YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"
deepseek-tui login --api-key "YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="YOUR_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" deepseek-tui

Other install methods

# From crates.io (requires Rust 1.85+)
cargo install deepseek-tui --locked       # TUI
cargo install deepseek-tui-cli --locked   # deepseek CLI facade

# From source
git clone https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI.git
cd DeepSeek-TUI
cargo install --path crates/tui --locked

The canonical crates.io packages for this repository are deepseek-tui and deepseek-tui-cli. The unrelated deepseek-cli crate is not part of this project. crates.io publication can lag the repository workspace version and the npm wrapper, so use npm or install from source if you need the newest release surface immediately.

What it does

A terminal coding agent for DeepSeek models with file editing, shell execution, web.run browsing, git operations, session resume, and MCP server integration.

Three visible modes (Tab to cycle):

Mode	Behavior
Plan	Review a plan before the agent starts making changes
Agent	Default interactive mode with multi-step tool use
YOLO	Auto-approve tools in a trusted workspace

Shift+Tab cycles the reasoning-effort tier for DeepSeek thinking mode: off → high → max. The current tier is shown as a ⚡ chip in the header. Set a default in config with reasoning_effort = "max" (or off / low / medium / high).

Models & pricing

Model	Thinking	Context	Input cache hit	Input cache miss	Output
deepseek-v4-pro	default	1M	$0.145 / 1M	$1.74 / 1M	$3.48 / 1M
deepseek-v4-flash	default	1M	$0.028 / 1M	$0.14 / 1M	$0.28 / 1M

Legacy deepseek-chat and deepseek-reasoner remain as silent aliases for deepseek-v4-flash (priced identically). Pricing is per 1M tokens as published by DeepSeek and is subject to change.

Usage

deepseek                                      # interactive TUI
deepseek "explain this in 2 sentences"        # one-shot prompt
deepseek --model deepseek-v4-flash "summarize" # one-shot with model override
deepseek --yolo                               # YOLO mode
deepseek login --api-key "..."                # save API key to shared config
deepseek doctor                               # check setup
deepseek models                               # list live DeepSeek API models
deepseek sessions                             # list saved sessions
deepseek resume --last                        # resume the latest session
deepseek serve --http                         # HTTP/SSE API server

Controls: F1 help, Esc backs out of the current action, Ctrl+K command palette.

Configuration

~/.deepseek/config.toml — see config.example.toml for all options.

Key environment overrides: DEEPSEEK_API_KEY, DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL, DEEPSEEK_MODEL, DEEPSEEK_PROFILE.

The client targets DeepSeek's documented OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions API (/chat/completions). DeepSeek context caching is automatic; when the API returns cache hit/miss token fields, the TUI includes them in usage and cost tracking.

Full reference: docs/CONFIGURATION.md.

Docs

docs/ — configuration, modes, MCP integration, runtime API, and release runbooks.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Not affiliated with DeepSeek Inc.

License

MIT