DeepSeek Harness: Can AI Build Its Own Tools?

Welcome back to "Learn English with Podcasts"! Sarah, here is a strange question. Imagine you are fixing your car. You look around and you do not have the right tool. What if you could build that tool on the spot, and then keep working?欢迎回到"Learn English with Podcasts"！Sarah，给你出个奇怪的问题。想象你在修车。你环顾四周，发现手边没有合适的工具。如果你能当场把工具造出来，然后继续干活，会怎样？

You guessed right. It is about a new product from the Chinese AI company DeepSeek. It is called DeepSeek Harness. And it is not a normal AI assistant. It is a system for building AI agents.你猜对了。这跟中国AI公司DeepSeek的新产品有关。它叫DeepSeek Harness。它不是普通的AI助手，而是一套构建AI智能体的系统。

Good question. Think of it this way. An assistant talks to you. An agent does work. An agent can use tools, write code, check its own mistakes, and finish a whole task by itself.好问题。这么想吧。助手只跟你说话。智能体是干活的。智能体能使用工具、写代码、检查自己的错误，然后自己完成整个任务。

Exactly. They have a famous formula. Agent equals Model plus Harness. The model is the brain. The harness is everything around it. The tools, the memory, the rules, the whole work space.没错。他们有个著名公式。智能体等于模型加Harness。模型是大脑。Harness是它周围的一切。工具、记忆、规则，还有整个工作空间。

Here it is. DeepSeek says everything in this body is a plugin. The tools, the memory, even the screen you look at. Every single piece can be taken out and replaced.来了。DeepSeek说，这个身体里的一切都是插件。工具、记忆，甚至你看着的屏幕。每一个部件都可以拿出来换掉。

Ha! And they really mean it. The core system only does one job. It loads plugins, unloads plugins, and manages how they depend on each other. Nothing else.哈！而且他们是认真的。核心系统只做一件事。加载插件、卸载插件，管理它们之间的依赖关系。别的都不管。

Right. And here is the magic trick. You can change plugins while the agent is working, without crashing it. They call this composability, and it comes in two flavors.没错。而神奇之处在这里。你可以在智能体运行的时候更换插件，而且不会崩溃。他们管这个叫可组合性，还有两种。

The first is time composability. When you remove a plugin, all the effects it made disappear cleanly, as if it was never there. The second is space composability. If a plugin needs another plugin, and that one changes, it can fix its own connection.第一种是时间可组合性。当你卸载一个插件，它产生的所有影响都会干净地消失，就像从没存在过。第二种是空间可组合性。如果一个插件依赖另一个插件，而后者变了，它能自己修复这种连接。

It means an agent can build new tools for itself while it works. If it has no screwdriver, it makes a screwdriver, and then uses it. This is what they call self-improvement.这意味着智能体在干活时能给自己造新工具。没有螺丝刀，它就造一把，然后马上用起来。这就是他们说的自我进化。

Great example. To make all this possible, they built it on a plugin system called Cordis. And there is even an 88-page paper about it.好例子。为了让这一切成为可能，他们基于一个叫Cordis的插件系统来构建。甚至还为它写了88页的论文。

Ha! The product also comes with four ready-made modes, like templates. Standard mode is for most people. It has all the usual tools. Minimal mode only has two tools, just for testing.哈！这个产品还自带四种预设模式，就像模板。标准模式适合大多数人，有全部常用工具。极简模式只有两个工具，专门用来做测试。

Exactly. Then there is PTC mode. There, the AI writes a small program to do many steps in one go. And the most interesting one is Creation mode. There, the agent can look at its own plugins and build new ones while it runs.正是。还有PTC模式。在这种模式里，AI写一个小程序，一次完成很多步骤。最有趣的是创造模式。在这个模式里，智能体能查看自己的插件，并在运行中造出新插件。

Yes. People have already made many community plugins. One lets you call files with an at symbol, like in a chat app. Another adds charts and tables to the answers.对。社区里已经有人做了很多插件。一个插件让你像在聊天软件里一样，用@符号调用文件。另一个给回答加上图表和表格。

Right. DeepSeek also cares about something else. Every run is saved as a log that only adds events, never deletes them. You can see exactly what the model saw, thought, and did.没错。DeepSeek还很在意另一件事。每一次运行都会保存成只追加、从不删除的事件日志。你能清清楚楚地看到模型看到了什么、想了什么、做了什么。

That is very valuable for developers. It makes AI work observable and repeatable. And by the way, DeepSeek released this as a developer preview, version 0.1, under the MIT license. Anyone can use it for free.这对开发者价值巨大。它让AI工作变得可观察、可复现。顺便说一句，DeepSeek是以开发者预览版v0.1发布的，采用MIT协议。任何人都可以免费使用。

Almost 37 thousand stars in just a few days. But to be honest, it is not a product for everyone. It feels technical and a little rough. Regular users may find it hard to use.短短几天就有接近3万7千颗星。但说实话，它不是面向所有人的产品。它很技术化，还有点粗糙。普通用户可能会觉得难以上手。

Their slogan says it best. Explore the undiscovered. And I think that is a beautiful way to end today's show.他们的口号说得最好。探索未至之境。我觉得这是给今天节目最好的收尾。

And the coolest idea of all? An agent that can build its own tools while it works. If it has no screwdriver, it makes one.而最酷的想法是什么？一个能在工作时给自己造工具的智能体。没有螺丝刀，就造一把。

And that is the story of DeepSeek Harness. Thanks for listening to "Learn English with Podcasts". See you next time. And keep exploring!这就是DeepSeek Harness的故事。感谢收听"Learn English with Podcasts"。下次见。继续保持探索！