DeepSeek restructures teams into product department

On October 16, 2026, it was reported that DeepSeek has recently merged the Harness, Web, App, and Platform teams into a new 'Product Department,' which will oversee all product, design, and R&D efforts. The department is led by Cui Tianyi, who also heads the Agent Harness team. Cui Tianyi, who joined DeepSeek in March 2026, previously worked at JaneStreet for nine years and holds six ACM Asia regional competition medals. The Harness team was established this year in March. DeepSeek Harness, a desktop application released in September 2026, was officially launched on the company's website on September 29, 2026. It is an open-source framework released in August 2026 under the MIT license. The framework's standout feature is its 'Everything is a Plugin' approach, allowing all agent capabilities to be delivered through the Cordis plugin system. Cui emphasized that the product's core philosophy is scalability and modularity, with the ability to expand and adapt as needed.