DeepSeek MCP Connector

Use DeepSeek as a cheap subagent for Claude Code, in the terminal or in VS Code. Claude stays the orchestrator. It hands tasks such as planning, coding, reviews, bug fixes, debugging, tests and docs to DeepSeek, and gets back a short report. That saves Claude tokens.

• You choose who does what. A routing table you control says which task types go to DeepSeek, which stay with Claude, and which ask you first. Slash commands override it for a single task.

• DeepSeek works on its own. It reads, searches, creates and edits files and runs your tests in a loop until the job is done. Claude only sees a compact report of roughly 800 tokens or less.

• Deletes need your permission. DeepSeek has no delete tool. It can only request a delete, and nothing happens until you approve. Deleted files are moved to a trash folder, not destroyed.

• Sandboxed to the project. DeepSeek can't reach files outside the workspace, .git internals, or secrets like .env and keys. Commands are limited to an allowlist.

How it works

You ─▶ Claude Code (orchestrator) ──MCP──▶ deepseek-mcp (local) ──▶ DeepSeek API
                    ▲                             │  agent loop with file/search/test tools,
                    └──── compact report ◀────────┘  jailed to the project folder

Related MCP server: Nanites

Setup

1. Get an API key at platform.deepseek.com. Then do one of these:

   • Set it as a user environment variable, for example in PowerShell: setx DEEPSEEK_API_KEY "sk-...". Restart VS Code afterwards.

   • Or save it in the file %USERPROFILE%\.deepseek-mcp\api-key.

2. Build and install:

   npm install
   npm run build
   npm run setup

   npm run setup does four things:

   • registers the MCP server user-wide (claude mcp add deepseek --scope user ...)

   • installs the slash commands into ~/.claude/commands

   • creates your routing table

   • adds a permission rule so that approve_actions always asks you

   Add -- --allow-tools if Claude shouldn't ask you before every DeepSeek call. Approving deletes still asks either way.

3. Restart Claude Code or VS Code and run /mcp. deepseek should show as connected.

Choosing who does what

Routing lives in ~/.deepseek-mcp/routing.json. You can override it per project in <project>/.deepseek-mcp/routing.json.

{ "plan": "claude", "code": "deepseek", "review": "claude", "bugfix": "deepseek",
  "debug": "deepseek", "research": "deepseek", "tests": "deepseek", "docs": "deepseek",
  "question": "deepseek", "default": "claude" }

Each value is deepseek, claude or ask. With ask, Claude asks you each time. The server enforces the table too: if Claude tries to send DeepSeek a task type you routed to Claude, the server refuses unless you explicitly asked for DeepSeek.

You can also just say it: "have DeepSeek review this" or "do this one yourself".

Tools Claude gets

Models and cost

The default is deepseek-flash. Claude can pick pro (deepseek-v4-pro) for hard tasks. To always use pro for a task type, set it once with /route review pro; it is stored in ~/.deepseek-mcp/models.json (or <project>/.deepseek-mcp/models.json), for example { "review": "pro", "default": "flash" }. Every report ends with DeepSeek's token use and a cost estimate at peak prices; off-peak is half.

Long runs stay cheap: cached input (the re-sent history) counts at 10% toward the token budget, and once a prompt passes about 60k tokens, old tool outputs are shortened to one-line summaries.

Safety

See docs/security.md. In short:

• DeepSeek has no delete tool.

• Commands outside the allowlist wait for you.

• Edited files are backed up to .deepseek-mcp/backups/ and deleted files go to .deepseek-mcp/trash/.

• Every action is logged to .deepseek-mcp/logs/.

The .deepseek-mcp/ folder ignores itself in git.

Code you delegate is sent to DeepSeek's API, which is hosted in China. Secret files are never sent, but don't delegate code you can't share.

Configuration

All settings are optional environment variables; see .env.example. Useful ones:

• DEEPSEEK_ALLOW_COMMANDS: extra auto-allowed commands, for example make test;cargo fmt --check

• DEEPSEEK_MAX_STEPS: how many tool-loop steps a task may take (default 25)

• DEEPSEEK_MAX_STEPS_REVIEW / _RESEARCH / _DEBUG / _PLAN: higher limits for those types (defaults 80 / 80 / 50 / 40)

• DEEPSEEK_THINKING=enabled: turn thinking on for every type; it is off for code/tests/docs/question/general and on at low effort for plan/review/debug/bugfix/research. Per type: DEEPSEEK_THINKING_<TYPE>, DEEPSEEK_REASONING_EFFORT[_<TYPE>]

• DEEPSEEK_ELICITATION=off: stop the server prompting you directly

Development

npm test            # unit tests (no API key needed)
npm run build
npm run inspect     # MCP Inspector, to call the tools by hand