Use DeepSeek in your coding agents

Get a key and add it

Create a key at https://platform.deepseek.com/api_keys, then add it. There is no separate key check for this preset. Instead, the interactive flow fetches https://api.deepseek.com/v1/models with your key to build the model picker, so a wrong key shows up as a rejected request at that step, before anything is written.

yoink add
 
echo "$DEEPSEEK_API_KEY" | yoink add --external --name deepseek --preset deepseek \
  --models <model> --connect opencode,pi,crush --default <model> --token-stdin

The scripted form never contacts DeepSeek: a preset is not probed, and the models you pass are taken as given. It does look the ids up on models.dev, preferring entries filed under the provider key deepseek or served from api.deepseek.com, so opencode and Crush get real context and output limits.

What opencode gets

opencode prefers OpenAI Chat Completions, so yoink writes the /v1 endpoint through the @ai-sdk/openai-compatible package and sets the default as deepseek/<model>:

{
  "provider": {
    "deepseek": {
      "npm": "@ai-sdk/openai-compatible",
      "name": "DeepSeek",
      "options": {
        "baseURL": "https://api.deepseek.com/v1",
        "apiKey": "<your key>"
      },
      "models": { "<model>": { "name": "<model>", "tool_call": true } }
    }
  },
  "model": "deepseek/<model>"
}

The rest of opencode.json is left alone, and the original file is copied to opencode.json.yoink.bak the first time yoink changes it (backups).

Where the /anthropic URL goes

Three agents take Anthropic Messages from this preset: Claude Code, Droid (which lists it first) and Claude Desktop. Claude Desktop is experimental and gets a file of its own, Claude-3p/configLibrary/yoink-deepseek.json:

{
  "inferenceProvider": "gateway",
  "inferenceGatewayBaseUrl": "https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic",
  "inferenceGatewayApiKey": "<your key>",
  "inferenceModels": ["<model>"]
}

yoink does not activate it. The notice after connecting tells you to open Claude Desktop, go to Developer, then Configure third-party inference, select yoink-deepseek, and relaunch.

Claude Code is the other Anthropic consumer. Connecting DeepSeek there writes ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic with your model in every tier and makes DeepSeek the active profile; Providers lists the seven keys and the per-project scope.

Keys outside config files

Two agents read the DeepSeek key from your environment instead of a file yoink writes the key into. Goose looks for CUSTOM_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY (unless GOOSE_DISABLE_KEYRING is set, in which case yoink fills secrets.yaml), and Zed looks for DEEPSEEK_API_KEY. Qwen Code keeps it in its own env block as YOINK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY, which yoink manages.

FAQ