---
type: reference
title: DeepSeek Platform Provider (deepseek/deepseek-flash)
description: The vendor-cloud row added to agent/models.yml on 2026-10-29 — why the provider label is the bare word `deepseek`, where its key lives, and the window/maxTokens/cost values it declares.
resource: https://api-docs.deepseek.com/
tags:
  - omp
  - models-yml
  - deepseek
  - providers
verified: 2026-10-29
timestamp: 2026-10-29
---

# DeepSeek Platform Provider (`deepseek` / `deepseek-flash`)

`agent/models.yml` gained its first vendor-cloud chat row on 2026-10-29: DeepSeek's
own hosted API, added alongside the four fleet endpoints and the OpenWebUI WAN
door. Use this page when a `deepseek/…` selector fails, when the key needs
rotating, or before adding another upstream-vendor row.

```bash
omp --model 'deepseek/deepseek-flash:off'
```

## Why the label is the bare word `deepseek`

The house pattern for provider labels is `<api> (<host>)` — `llamacpp (dankclaw)`,
`openwebui (franksdank.cloud)`. This row breaks it deliberately: the harness
resolves a provider's behaviour set by matching the label (and the `baseUrl`)
against the catalog's host table, `pi-catalog/src/hosts.ts`, whose entry reads

```ts
/** DeepSeek's first-party API only — gates direct-API quirks (max_tokens field, thinking extraBody). */
deepseekDirect: { providers: ["deepseek"], urlMarkers: ["api.deepseek.com"] },
```

A label of `deepseek (platform)` matches neither the provider list nor the URL
marker rule for the *name*, and the row loses the direct-DeepSeek quirks the
catalog gates behind that key — the `max_tokens` field name, the thinking
`extraBody`, and the thinking-disable mode, which on this provider must be
`zai-thinking-disabled` (`thinking: {"type":"disabled"}`), not the
`none-effort` the LAN rows need. The `baseUrl` carries the host the label
cannot name.

The same table is why the provider's roster is not one row but four. A `models.yml`
entry is an **overlay** on the built-in catalog, keyed by `provider/id`
(`#mergeCustomModels` → `mergeByModelKey`), so `omp models deepseek` now prints:

| Row | Source |
|---|---|
| `deepseek-flash` | the authored row — 1M context, 262K max-out |
| `deepseek-v4-flash` | built-in catalog row, untouched |
| `deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp` | built-in catalog row, untouched |
| `deepseek-v4-pro` | built-in catalog row, untouched |

The other three keep catalog windows and pricing; adding a model to the file does
not replace the provider.

## What the row declares, and from where

| Field | Value | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| `baseUrl` | `https://api.deepseek.com/v1` | official docs, OpenAI base_url |
| `api` | `openai-completions` | same |
| `id` | `deepseek-flash` | official model name — `deepseek-v4-flash` / `deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp` are retired aliases that route to `DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017` and bill at the Flash price |
| `contextWindow` | `1048576` | model card (`context_window 1M`) |
| `maxTokens` | `262144` | model card (`max_tokens ≥ 256K`) |
| `input` | `[text, image]` | V4.1 is natively image-text-to-text |
| `cost` | `0.3 / 1.2 / 0.006 / 0` per 1M (in / out / cache-read / cache-write) | October 2026 rate card, peak tier |
| `compat.supportsToolChoice` | `false` | V4 thinking mode rejects the `tool_choice` parameter; tool calls still work and default to `auto` |
| `compat.supportsDeveloperRole` | `false` | V4 has no `developer` role |
| `compat.reasoningContentField` | `reasoning_content` | same field every fleet engine uses |
| `compat.extraBody.thinking` | `{type: enabled}` | the documented request shape |

Laws worth carrying forward:

- **`maxTokens` and `contextWindow` are a pair.** The serving contract is
  `prompt + max_tokens ≤ contextWindow`; the harness clamps
  `max_tokens = min(maxTokens, contextWindow − est − 4096)`, so a declared pair
  that exceeds the engine's own contract turns into a 400 rather than a
  truncation. `1048576 / 262144` is the pair the card itself states, and it is
  the pair the row declares.
- **Cost rates go on the row or nowhere.** `cost` is optional in the schema, and a
  custom row that omits it reports `$0` in the status line forever. The schema
  models one rate per direction, so the off-peak tier (`$0.15 / $0.60`) cannot be
  expressed — peak is the value.
- **Sampling.** The card recommends `temperature 1.0 / top_p 1.0`; thinking mode
  floors `top_p` at 0.95 server-side, and `top_k` is not accepted through the
  OpenAI surface. The row pins `temperature: 1.0` + `top_p: 1.0` anyway —
  `extraBody` is merged last and wins, so pinning it survives a server-side
  sampler edit, exactly as the LAN rows do.
- **A row behind a proxy or a vendor façade copies its direct twin's compat
  block**; this row has no LAN twin, so it copies the harness's own built-in
  descriptor for the same provider (`pi-catalog/src/provider-models/openai-compat.ts`,
  `openAiCompletionsDescriptor("deepseek", …)`) instead of inventing one.

## The key

`apiKey: "!cat ~/.config/secrets/deepseek_api_key"` — 600-mode file, same
convention as `gitea`, `kagi_api_key`, `hf_token`, and `openwebui_api_key`. The
rules are the ones in [WAN Model Access](/core/wan-model-access.md#the-key): a
literal `sk-…` in the tracked file trips the pre-commit shape gate, and a quoted
`!cmd` value is the only shape that both resolves and stays out of the gate's
assignment scan. Rotation is rewrite-then-restart; the resolved value is cached
for the process lifetime. Every workstation that pulls this repo needs its own
copy — nothing in the repo carries the value.

## Verification performed 2026-10-29

- `omp models --no-extensions` from a scratch `HOME` containing the edited
  `models.yml` + `config.yml`: zero `validation failed` lines, all four fleet
  providers still listed, `deepseek (4)` present with `deepseek-flash 1M/262K`.
- Live call through the scratch `HOME` — the only proof that auth came from the
  new `apiKey` line and not from `~/.omp/agent/auth.json`:
  `omp --model 'deepseek/deepseek-flash:off' … -p 'Reply with exactly the word OK'`
  → `OK` in 2.6 s. The same scratch tree with the `baseUrl` port poisoned to `:9`
  hangs instead of answering, which is what rules out a cached or built-in answer.

## See also

- [WAN Model Access](/core/wan-model-access.md) — the credential law and the
  off-network route to Frank's own engines; `deepseek` is reachable from anywhere
  but is not that door.
- [Core config](/core/index.md) — the rest of `agent/config.yml` / `models.yml`.
- [OMP Subagent Limits](/core/subagent-limits.md) — `providers.maxInFlightRequests`
  is set per provider id; the `deepseek` row currently has no cap.