DSHD for Linux

DSHD stands for DeepSeek Harness Desktop.

DSHD brings DeepSeek Harness Desktop to Linux as a normal desktop app — a native window with sessions, a local workspace, plugins, a terminal, and Office-to-PDF conversion. Current status: 0.2.2-rc.1 release candidate. Download a signed package, or install from the signed APT/DNF repositories.

Download the latest release · Install with apt/dnf · Screenshots · Documentation

Native desktop, not a browser tab — a real Electron window with local sessions, files, plugins, and workspace tools.
Your key, your machine — bring your own API key or provider endpoint; workspace data stays on your computer.
Office without the cloud — DOCX/XLSX/PPTX and legacy DOC/XLS/PPT convert to PDF locally through the bundled WASM engine. No system LibreOffice.
Install the way you prefer — AppImage, deb, rpm, Flatpak, or signed APT and DNF repositories for x86_64.
Verified release assets — every package has a detached GPG signature and a signed SHA256SUMS.

This is an independent packaging and distribution project, not the upstream DeepSeek Harness source tree. The desktop runtime is bundled from the upstream release. See Trademarks.

Download

All packages are built and signed by GitHub Actions and attached to the GitHub Release.

Architecture	AppImage	deb	rpm	Flatpak
x86_64 (Intel/AMD)	Download	Download	Download	Download
aarch64 (ARM64)	Download	Download	Download	Download

The unsigned in a filename means “no platform code-signing certificate”; the packages still have detached GPG signatures and a signed checksum file.

Which file do I need?

uname -m   # x86_64 = Intel/AMD, aarch64 = ARM64

AppImage is portable: chmod +x and run. Best for a first try.
deb for Debian/Ubuntu and derivatives.
rpm for Fedora/RHEL/Rocky/openSUSE.
Flatpak for any glibc distribution; install the 25.08 runtime first.
On Debian/Ubuntu x86_64 and Fedora/RHEL x86_64, the signed APT/DNF repositories are the easiest update path.

Every Release asset has a detached .asc signature. Verify before installing:

gpg --verify <file>.asc <file>

See Verification and signing for the public key, checksums, and install steps.

Screenshots

Chat workspace, settings, and a local Office → PDF preview.

APT and DNF repositories (x86_64)

GitHub Pages hosts signed APT and DNF repositories generated from the Release by GitHub Actions:

https://openviewmobile.github.io/dshd-linux/

Debian / Ubuntu:

curl -fsSL https://openviewmobile.github.io/dshd-linux/key.asc \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/dshd-linux.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/dshd-linux.gpg] https://openviewmobile.github.io/dshd-linux/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dshd-linux.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install deepseek-harness

Fedora / RHEL / Rocky Linux:

sudo curl -fsSL https://openviewmobile.github.io/dshd-linux/dshd-linux.repo \
  -o /etc/yum.repos.d/dshd-linux.repo
sudo dnf install deepseek-harness

These repositories are x86_64 only and are hosted as static GitHub Pages (under the 1 GB Pages limit). aarch64 users should use the .deb/.rpm Release assets; AppImage and Flatpak remain direct Release downloads for all architectures. The APT InRelease and DNF repomd.xml.asc are signed by the release key.

Supported Linux platforms and how to install

The packages bundle Electron, Node.js, Python and the application runtime. The host only needs a glibc-based Linux desktop (glibc 2.32 or newer) and the architecture must be x86_64 or aarch64.

The first four formats are attached to the CI Release. AUR, openSUSE, Nix and Gentoo are source recipes in this repository, not binary Release assets.

Distribution	Version	How to get it	Install command	Verification
Debian	12, 13	Release `.deb` (x64/arm64) or APT repo (x64)	`sudo apt install ./deepseek-harness-*.deb`	deb installed/launched in amd64 Docker + Xvfb; arm64 structure checked
Ubuntu	22.04, 24.04	Release `.deb` (x64/arm64) or APT repo (x64)	`sudo apt install ./deepseek-harness-*.deb`	x64 deb path verified; 24.04 t64 dependency names measured
Fedora	41, 42	Release `.rpm` (x86_64/aarch64) or DNF repo (x64)	`sudo dnf install ./deepseek-harness-*.rpm`	rpm metadata/unpack checked; full Fedora install still to verify
RHEL / Rocky Linux	9	Release `.rpm` (x86_64/aarch64) or DNF repo (x64)	`sudo dnf install ./deepseek-harness-*.rpm`	glibc baseline sufficient; install on target still to verify
Arch Linux / Manjaro	rolling	Source recipe: `packaging/aur` (not yet published to AUR)	`cd packaging/aur && DSHD_APPIMAGE_X86_64=/path/to/dshd.AppImage makepkg -si` (or `pacman -U`)	x86_64 built, installed with `pacman -Udd`, launched under Xvfb
openSUSE Leap / Tumbleweed	15.6 / current	No OBS repository yet. Release → `*-linux-x86_64-unsigned.rpm`, or build `packaging/obs`	`sudo zypper install ./deepseek-harness-*.rpm` (not verified)	local `rpmbuild` only; OBS service build not done
NixOS	current	Source recipe: `packaging/nix` (flake)	`cd packaging/nix && nix build .#default`	template/static checks only; not built on NixOS in the reference environment
Gentoo	current	Source recipe: `packaging/gentoo` (local overlay)	Add the ebuild to a local overlay, then `emerge deepseek-harness-bin`	ebuild/static checks only; not built on Gentoo in the reference environment
Any glibc distribution (AppImage)	—	Release → `*.AppImage`	`chmod +x deepseek-harness-.AppImage && ./deepseek-harness-.AppImage`	AppImage launched under Xvfb on x86_64/aarch64
Any glibc distribution (Flatpak)	—	Release → `*.flatpak`	`flatpak install --user --bundle ./deepseek-harness-*.flatpak`	Flatpak 25.08 x86_64/aarch64 installed and launched
Snap	—	Source recipe: `packaging/snap` (PoC, not in Snap Store)	`snapcraft pack`	`.snap` assembled manually; no `snap install` verification
Alpine Linux	—	None	—	❌ unsupported: musl/Electron incompatibility

The CI Release currently contains 8 primary packages: AppImage, deb, rpm and Flatpak for x86_64 and aarch64. Snap, openSUSE OBS, AUR, Nix and Gentoo remain source/packaging recipes until they are built and verified in their native channels. armv7, 32-bit x86 and musl distributions are not supported. Wayland-native sessions, tray icons and IME behavior still need verification on physical desktops.

High-value derivatives and immutable desktops

These reuse the same packages but are not yet full acceptance targets:

Debian/Ubuntu derivatives: Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, Zorin OS, elementary OS, MX Linux, Kali/Parrot, Deepin/UOS — use the .deb (Kali/Deepin are experimental due to dependency drift).
RHEL/Fedora derivatives: AlmaLinux, CentOS Stream, Oracle Linux, Nobara — use the .rpm.
ARM64: Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit — use the aarch64 .deb or AppImage.
Immutable desktops: Fedora Silverblue/Kinoite, Bazzite, SteamOS 3, openSUSE Aeon/MicroOS — use the Flatpak bundle; do not document dnf/pacman installation into the immutable root.
Arch derivatives: EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Garuda, Manjaro — use the packaging/aur recipe; AUR publication and an Arch custom repository are not done yet.

See docs/distro-support-matrix.md for the candidate table, effort, and acceptance checklist.

Install and first run

# AppImage
chmod +x deepseek-harness-*.AppImage
./deepseek-harness-*.AppImage

# deb
sudo apt install ./deepseek-harness-*.deb

# rpm
sudo dnf install ./deepseek-harness-*.rpm

# Flatpak (runtime 25.08 required)
flatpak install flathub org.freedesktop.Platform//25.08
flatpak install flathub org.electronjs.Electron2.BaseApp//25.08
flatpak install --user --bundle ./deepseek-harness-*.flatpak

First launch

Start DSHD from the AppImage, application menu, or deepseek-harness.
Choose Add API Key (or sign in if your provider supports it).
Open Settings → Models, select or add the model endpoint you want to use.
Create a session and start working. Files, sessions and plugins stay in your local workspace.

The network is contacted only for the model provider you configure. Office→PDF uses the bundled LibreOfficeKit WASM engine, so system LibreOffice is not required.

System requirements

Linux with glibc 2.32+ (Debian 12+, Ubuntu 22.04+, RHEL/Rocky 9+, current Arch/openSUSE/NixOS/Gentoo).
x86_64 or aarch64; 32-bit x86, armv7 and musl/Alpine are unsupported.
About 1 GB free disk for an installed copy (the AppImage itself is ~350 MB) and 4 GB RAM recommended.
A working desktop session (X11 or Wayland) and a network connection only for your model endpoint.
No system LibreOffice, Node.js or Python installation is required.

FAQ

Is this the official DeepSeek app?
No. DSHD is an independent Linux packaging/distribution project, not the upstream DeepSeek Harness source tree. See Trademarks.

Do I need an API key?
Yes: bring your own key for your provider, or sign in if your provider supports it. DSHD does not ship API keys.

Does DSHD upload my workspace?
Workspace files and sessions stay local. Network requests go to the model provider or endpoint you configure.

Where do I download packages?
From the Release page or the signed APT/DNF repositories above. Do not use random third-party mirrors.

How do updates work?
apt/dnf users get repository updates; AppImage/deb/rpm/Flatpak downloads are manual re-downloads. Auto-update and platform code signing are not implemented.

Why is apt/dnf only x86_64?
The static GitHub Pages site is limited to about 1 GB. aarch64 users should use the Release .deb/.rpm assets; AppImage and Flatpak work on both.

Where are the screenshots from?
They are real DSHD screenshots, with sample content localized to English for the promotional assets.

Something is broken. Where do I report it?
Open an issue at https://github.com/openviewmobile/dshd-linux/issues and include your distribution, architecture, package format, and the exact error. For security issues, use the private advisory flow in SECURITY.md.

Verify a download before installing:

gpg --import keys/deepseek-harness-release-signing.asc
gpg --verify SHA256SUMS.asc SHA256SUMS
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

Open source used and acknowledgements

DSHD is a distribution layer. It bundles or builds on the following open-source projects; their licenses remain in force. This table lists the major components, not every transitive dependency. The full upstream notices ship in the packages and in NOTICE.

Project	License	Role
DeepSeek Harness	MIT	Upstream desktop UI, Host, CLI and runtime
Electron	MIT	Desktop shell
Chromium	BSD-3-Clause and third-party licenses	Renderer/runtime used by Electron
Node.js	MIT	Bundled JavaScript runtime
pnpm	MIT	Package manager and plugin installation
Python	PSF-2.0	Bundled runtime tooling
ripgrep	MIT / Unlicense	Workspace search
LibreOffice / LibreOfficeKit	MPL-2.0	Office document conversion
koffi	MIT	Native FFI bindings
sharp	Apache-2.0	Image processing
node-pty	MIT	Terminal support
electron-builder	MIT	AppImage/deb/rpm/Flatpak packaging
fpm	MIT	deb/rpm construction
Flatpak / flatpak-builder	LGPL-2.1+ / GPL-2.0+	Sandboxed Flatpak bundle
AppImage	MIT	Portable AppImage runtime
Three.js	MIT	Promo video rendering
Puppeteer	Apache-2.0	Promo frame capture

Test fixtures from Apache POI (Apache-2.0) are used only in evidence/legacy-office/ and are not shipped in the application. Development and CI also use Docker, Xvfb, GitHub Actions and the distribution packaging tools listed in docs/distro-packages.md.

Thank you to the DeepSeek Harness maintainers, the Electron/Chromium/Node.js and pnpm communities, the LibreOffice and LibreOfficeKit teams, the Flatpak and AppImage projects, and the Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL/Rocky, Arch, openSUSE, NixOS and Gentoo packagers and testers whose work makes this distribution possible.

Trademarks

DSHD is an independent Linux distribution project. It is not the upstream DeepSeek Harness source tree and is not affiliated with or endorsed by DeepSeek. DeepSeek and DeepSeek Harness are trademarks of their respective owners; no trademark license is granted by this repository. See NOTICE.

What is in this repository

Linux target patches in patches/ (desktop target, deb/rpm/Flatpak, runtime mirrors, Flatpak launcher);
AppImage, deb, rpm and Flatpak artifacts for x86_64 and aarch64;
Arch/AUR, Snap, openSUSE OBS, Nix/NixOS and Gentoo packaging definitions in packaging/;
Docker + Xvfb build and smoke scripts in scripts/;
screen-by-screen acceptance evidence in evidence/;
Apache-2.0 project license plus the upstream MIT notice, contributor and security guides, issue/PR templates, and CI;
detached GPG signatures for every release artifact and checksum file.

Repository layout

Dockerfile              build and test image
patches/                Linux target and packaging patches
scripts/                build, package, smoke, signing and verification
evidence/               Xvfb/GUI/artifact evidence
docs/                   design, acceptance, release and signing documentation
dist/                   local artifacts (gitignored)

Project status

AppImage, deb, rpm and Flatpak are built for x86_64 and aarch64. AppImage, deb and Flatpak have launch verification; rpm has metadata and unpacking checks.
Flatpak uses the supported 25.08 runtime and has x86_64/aarch64 install/launch evidence.
Arch/AUR -bin was built, installed and launched under Xvfb.
Snap (manually assembled) and openSUSE OBS (local rpmbuild) are packaging artifacts, not Store/service-verified channels.
Nix and Gentoo definitions are statically checked only.
Every release artifact and checksum has a detached GPG signature; platform code signing and auto-update are not implemented in v1.
Wayland, tray icons and IME behavior still need physical-desktop testing.

Per-channel details and evidence are in docs/distro-packaging-implementation.md, docs/distro-packages.md and docs/acceptance.md.

Build from source

docker build -f Dockerfile -t dshd-linux-test .
docker volume create dshd-linux-src
docker run --rm -it -v "$PWD:/work" -v dshd-linux-src:/src dshd-linux-test
# Inside the container
/work/scripts/build-and-smoke.sh

Build the installable formats with /work/scripts/package-formats.sh. The release workflow builds and signs packages on GitHub; do not upload locally built binaries to the Release page. See docs/release.md for build details and docs/testing.md for the verification matrix.

Documentation

GitHub Actions release builds

Release packages are built on GitHub-hosted x86_64 and arm64 runners, not on a maintainer workstation. Pushing a v* tag (or running the Build Linux release assets workflow manually) builds AppImage, deb, rpm and Flatpak, signs the combined checksums with the GPG_PRIVATE_KEY repository secret, and publishes a pre-release. The workflow pins upstream commit fcc0ad462172522aaf5c93a7b2e01f6b9f0b0159 and uses the container in Dockerfile.

Docker tests

# From the repository root
docker build -f Dockerfile -t dshd-linux-test .
docker volume create dshd-linux-src

docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$PWD:/work" \
  -v dshd-linux-src:/src \
  dshd-linux-test

Inside the container:

/work/scripts/build-and-smoke.sh

/src must be a Docker named volume. A macOS bind mount such as /tmp makes electron-builder fail with EACCES: permission denied, chmod when copying the Windows node.cmd.

The script:

clones/updates upstream into /src;
applies the patches;
runs pnpm install;
runs pnpm --filter @deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop package:linux:arm64:dir (or linux-x64);
launches linux-arm64-unpacked/deepseek-harness --no-sandbox under Xvfb;
captures a screenshot and checks the window/log.

Build deb/rpm/Flatpak (not the --dir smoke package):

/work/scripts/package-formats.sh

Known risks

The first pnpm install downloads Electron/Node/Python wheels and can take a long time.
Electron inside Docker needs --no-sandbox; test use only.
Linux auto-update and platform code signing are not implemented. Detached GPG signatures and SHA256SUMS are available; updates remain manual or use a custom updater.
The upstream Desktop has Linux code paths but no official Linux release acceptance; each capability must be tested here.

Promo video

A 50-second YouTube promo, thumbnail, subtitles and upload copy are in promo/; the storyboard and render pipeline are documented in docs/promo.md. The video uses Three.js and deterministic hyper-frame transitions rather than a screen recording.

Verification and signing

gpg --import keys/deepseek-harness-release-signing.asc
scripts/verify-artifacts.sh
DSHD_GPG_KEY=0E6023DF4DB8C68AA2202EF876CE5675AFF067FF scripts/sign-artifacts.sh

SHA256SUMS and every artifact have detached .asc signatures. The public key fingerprint is 0E6023DF4DB8C68AA2202EF876CE5675AFF067FF; see docs/release-signing.md. The private key is not in the repository; replace it with an offline, passphrase-protected key before a production release. The unsigned filename suffix only means there is no platform code-signing certificate; it does not mean the detached signature is missing.

License

Apache-2.0 for this repository. See LICENSE and NOTICE. Upstream DeepSeek Harness is MIT-licensed; the full upstream notice is in LICENSES/MIT-DeepSeek-Harness.txt. Third-party components, including Electron, the bundled runtime, LibreOfficeKit WASM and Apache POI test fixtures, remain under their respective licenses.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
LICENSES		LICENSES
docs		docs
evidence		evidence
keys		keys
packaging		packaging
patches		patches
promo		promo
scripts		scripts
site		site
.dockerignore		.dockerignore
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
GOVERNANCE.md		GOVERNANCE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
NOTICE		NOTICE
README.md		README.md
README.zh-CN.md		README.zh-CN.md
ROADMAP.md		ROADMAP.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
SUPPORT.md		SUPPORT.md

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DSHD for Linux

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Supported Linux platforms and how to install

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FAQ

Open source used and acknowledgements

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DSHD for Linux

Download

Screenshots

APT and DNF repositories (x86_64)

Supported Linux platforms and how to install

High-value derivatives and immutable desktops

Install and first run

First launch

System requirements

FAQ

Open source used and acknowledgements

Trademarks

What is in this repository

Repository layout

Project status

Build from source

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GitHub Actions release builds

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Known risks

Promo video

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