How to uninstall DeepSeek Harness on Mac
DeepSeek Harness is a plugin-based AI agent desktop app. It keeps its own working state in a hidden folder, ~/.dsh, which held 629 MB on the test Mac, including sign-in credentials and sessions. That folder is the one thing to decide about before you remove the app: copy it to a private place if you want your sessions back later, and do not share or sync the copy because it holds credentials. This guide covers the app from the DeepSeek Harness site and the Homebrew cask deepseek-harness. It is an Apple silicon build.
Quit and remove the app
- Press Command + Q inside DeepSeek Harness, or choose its application menu › Quit. Stop any agent task that is still running first.
- Open Finder, go to Applications, and drag DeepSeek Harness to the Trash.
The app registered no login item in the test.
Where the data lives
Press Shift + Command + G in Finder to open each path. Skip any path that is not present on your Mac.
| Location | What it holds | What to do |
|---|---|---|
~/.dsh |
The app's working folder: sign-in credentials and sessions. It is named in the Homebrew cask's zap list. | Copy it first if you may come back, then remove it if you want the credentials gone. Mole lists it for review and does not select it, even with the data setting on. |
~/Library/Application Support/@deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop |
The Electron data folder, with the app's caches inside | Remove. Mole lists the folder for review and selects only the six cache folders inside it. |
~/Library/Application Support/@deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop/Cache, Code Cache, GPUCache, DawnGraphiteCache, DawnWebGPUCache, blob_storage |
Chromium caches | Remove. Selected by default. |
~/Library/Logs/DeepSeek Harness |
Logs | Remove. Selected by default. |
~/Library/Preferences/com.deepseek.dsh.plist |
Preferences | Remove. Selected by default. |
~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments/com.deepseek.dsh.sfl4 |
The app's recent-documents list | Remove. Selected by default. |
~/Library/Application Support/@deepseek-ai |
The empty scope folder that stays after the data folder is gone | Optional. It holds nothing once dsh-desktop is removed. |
Temporary caches for com.deepseek.dsh and com.deepseek.dsh.helper also sit in your per-user cache folder (getconf DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR prints it), and Mole removes them with the app.
Check the result
pgrep -il "DeepSeek Harness"
ls -d "/Applications/DeepSeek Harness.app" 2>/dev/null
ls -ld "$HOME/.dsh" "$HOME/Library/Application Support/@deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop" "$HOME/Library/Logs/DeepSeek Harness" "$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.deepseek.dsh.plist"
- No output from
pgrepmeans no matching process was found. A printed line is a process whose name contains the app's name, and it may be a helper, so quit the app again. - No output from the second command means the app is gone from Applications.
- A path printed by the last
lsstill exists. A surviving~/.dshis expected if you chose to keep your sessions.No such file or directorymeans the path is gone.
Account
Removing the app does not sign you out of a DeepSeek account or close it. Credentials the app saved in ~/.dsh go with that folder if you remove it.
If you installed it with Homebrew
brew uninstall --cask deepseek-harness
The cask asks com.deepseek.dsh to quit during uninstall and removes the app. It has no other uninstall step. Its zap list includes ~/.dsh, ~/Library/Application Support/@deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop, the recent-documents list, the caches under ~/Library/Caches (@deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop, @deepseek-aidsh-desktop-updater, com.deepseek.dsh and com.deepseek.dsh.ShipIt), ~/Library/HTTPStorages, the logs, the preferences file and the saved window state. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap deepseek-harness removes that whole list, including your credentials and sessions in ~/.dsh, and does not read Mole's checkboxes. Mole adds --zap only when every zap path is inside ~/Library; ~/.dsh is not, so Mole never runs this cask's zap and removes the rows you selected itself.
What Mole lists
Mole selects the app, the preferences file, the recent-documents list, ~/Library/Logs/DeepSeek Harness, the six cache folders inside dsh-desktop and the temporary caches. It lists ~/Library/Application Support/@deepseek-ai/dsh-desktop and ~/.dsh for review without selecting them.
These defaults assume “Remove data and settings with apps” in General › Cleaning is off. With it on, Mole also ticks the dsh-desktop folder, but ~/.dsh stays unticked: it sits outside ~/Library and its name is not the app's name, so you have to tick it yourself.
What this test covered
On October 19, 2026, the test removed a copy of DeepSeek Harness 0.2.1-rc.2 for Apple silicon that was already installed and signed in on the test Mac, with ~/.dsh holding its sign-in credentials and sessions. The app was not running at the time. With the review rows ticked, Mole moved 13 rows and the app to the Trash, ~/.dsh and the dsh-desktop folder included. The only thing left in place was the empty @deepseek-ai scope folder, which neither the cask nor Mole lists. Afterwards the app, ~/.dsh, the dsh-desktop folder and the preferences were moved back from the Trash to their original places, which restored that install, and the app was launched again to read Status: one DeepSeek Harness row with 10 processes. The caches, logs and recent-documents list stayed in the Trash, since the app rebuilds them. The app ships an Electron update feed on its nightly channel, and Mole's update page read it as an Electron app; no update was run. Mole's startup items showed nothing for the app before or after, and no launch agent was found. A Homebrew install was not tested.