> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.getbifrost.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# DeepSeek

> DeepSeek API conversion guide - OpenAI-compatible format, chat, streaming, tool calling, reasoning, and beta text completions

## Overview

DeepSeek is an **OpenAI-compatible provider** with a dedicated Bifrost provider implementation for DeepSeek's endpoint layout. Bifrost uses the shared OpenAI-compatible request and response converters, while preserving DeepSeek-specific extra parameters and routing text completions to the beta FIM endpoint. Key characteristics:

* **OpenAI-compatible chat** - Chat Completions use `/chat/completions`
* **Streaming support** - Server-Sent Events for chat and text completions
* **Tool calling** - Function tools are passed through using the OpenAI-compatible schema
* **Reasoning support** - Reasoning parameters and DeepSeek extra parameters are forwarded
* **Responses API** - Supported by converting Responses requests to Chat Completions internally
* **Beta text completions** - Text/FIM completions use DeepSeek's `/beta/completions` endpoint

### Supported Operations

| Operation            | Non-Streaming | Streaming | Endpoint            |
| -------------------- | ------------- | --------- | ------------------- |
| Chat Completions     | ✅             | ✅         | `/chat/completions` |
| Responses API        | ✅             | ✅         | `/chat/completions` |
| Text Completions     | ✅             | ✅         | `/beta/completions` |
| List Models          | ✅             | -         | `/models`           |
| Embeddings           | ❌             | ❌         | -                   |
| Image Generation     | ❌             | ❌         | -                   |
| Speech (TTS)         | ❌             | ❌         | -                   |
| Transcriptions (STT) | ❌             | ❌         | -                   |
| Files                | ❌             | ❌         | -                   |
| Batch                | ❌             | ❌         | -                   |

<Note>
  **Unsupported Operations** (❌): Embeddings, Image Generation, Speech, Transcriptions, Files, Batch, cached content, containers, token counting, compaction, OCR, rerank, video, and passthrough are not supported by the upstream DeepSeek API through this provider. These return `UnsupportedOperationError`.
</Note>

## Setup & Configuration

Configure DeepSeek as a provider.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Web UI">
    <img src="https://mintcdn.com/bifrost/wp-nS-cprTmBkUu1/media/provider-dashboard-deepseek.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=wp-nS-cprTmBkUu1&q=85&s=2677c34c2168a9f6bace8bdc6ea50e6c" alt="DeepSeek provider dashboard" width="2048" height="1152" data-path="media/provider-dashboard-deepseek.png" />

    1. Navigate to **Models** > **Model Providers**. Look for **DeepSeek** under **Configured Providers**. If it is missing, click on **Add New Provider** and select **DeepSeek**.
    2. Click **Add Key** or edit an existing key.
    3. Set a name for your key.
    4. Paste your API key directly or use an environment variable (for example, `env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`).
    5. Set **Allowed Models** to **All Models** (default) or the specific model allowlist you want this key to serve.
    6. Save the provider configuration.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="config.json">
    ```json theme={null}
    {
      "providers": {
        "deepseek": {
          "keys": [
            {
              "name": "deepseek-key-1",
              "value": "env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY",
              "models": [
                "*"
              ],
              "weight": 1.0
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
    ```
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="API">
    Refer to the API documentation for [Provider Keys Management](https://docs.getbifrost.ai/api-reference/providers/create-a-key-for-a-provider).
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Go SDK">
    ```go theme={null}
    case schemas.DeepSeek:
        return []schemas.Key{{
            Name:   "deepseek-key-1",
            Value:  *schemas.NewSecretVar("env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY"),
            Models: []string{"*"},
            Weight: 1.0,
        }}, nil
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

***

# 1. Chat Completions

## Request Parameters

DeepSeek supports OpenAI-compatible chat completion parameters. For the full parameter reference and message conversion behavior, see [OpenAI Chat Completions](/providers/supported-providers/openai#1-chat-completions).

### Filtered Parameters

Removed for DeepSeek compatibility:

* `prediction` - OpenAI-specific predicted output
* `prompt_cache_key` - OpenAI-specific prompt cache key
* `prompt_cache_retention` - OpenAI-specific prompt cache retention
* `verbosity` - Anthropic-specific
* `store` - OpenAI-specific response storage
* `web_search_options` - OpenAI-specific web search options

### Reasoning Parameter

DeepSeek delegates through `ToOpenAIChatRequest` with provider-specific compatibility handling. Reasoning effort is normalized using the OpenAI-compatible provider convention, and DeepSeek V4 models preserve `reasoning.effort: "max"` when requested.

Assistant-message `reasoning` details are stripped before sending follow-up messages because DeepSeek rejects `reasoning_details` in assistant messages.

### Extra Parameters

DeepSeek enables passthrough extra parameters for chat and text completion requests. Provider-specific options such as DeepSeek thinking controls can be sent through `extra_params` without being dropped by Bifrost.

DeepSeek supports standard OpenAI message types, tools, responses, and streaming formats. For details on message handling, tool conversion, responses, and streaming, refer to [OpenAI Chat Completions](/providers/supported-providers/openai#1-chat-completions).

***

# 2. Responses API

Bifrost converts Responses API format to Chat Completions internally, then converts the response back:

```
BifrostResponsesRequest
  → ToChatRequest()
  → ChatCompletion
  → ToBifrostResponsesResponse()
```

Same parameter support as Chat Completions with response format differences (output items instead of message content). Streaming Responses requests are also routed through Chat Completions streaming.

***

# 3. Text Completions

DeepSeek supports beta text/FIM completions through `/beta/completions`:

| Parameter      | Mapping                    |
| -------------- | -------------------------- |
| `prompt`       | Sent as-is                 |
| `max_tokens`   | max\_tokens                |
| `temperature`  | temperature                |
| `top_p`        | top\_p                     |
| `stop`         | stop sequences             |
| `extra_params` | Passed through to DeepSeek |

Response returns `choices[].text` with completion text.

***

# 4. Text Completions Streaming

Streaming text completions use DeepSeek's OpenAI-compatible SSE format on `/beta/completions`.

***

# 5. List Models

Lists available models from DeepSeek through `/models`.

***

## Unsupported Features

| Feature              | Reason                                                      |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| Embedding            | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Image Generation     | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Speech/TTS           | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Transcription/STT    | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Batch Operations     | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| File Management      | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Cached Content       | Only Gemini and Vertex AI support cached content in Bifrost |
| Container Management | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Token Counting       | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |
| Rerank/OCR/Video     | Not offered by DeepSeek API through this provider           |

***

## Caveats

<Accordion title="Default Base URL">
  **Severity**: Low
  **Behavior**: DeepSeek defaults to `https://api.deepseek.com`
  **Impact**: Custom DeepSeek-compatible deployments must override `network_config.base_url`
  **Code**: `NewDeepSeekProvider` sets the default base URL when no provider-level base URL is configured
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Beta Text Completion Endpoint">
  **Severity**: Medium
  **Behavior**: Text completions are routed to `/beta/completions`
  **Impact**: FIM/text completion behavior follows DeepSeek's beta API contract and may differ from standard OpenAI `/completions`
  **Code**: `TextCompletion` and `TextCompletionStream` use `/beta/completions`
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="User Field Size Limit">
  **Severity**: Low
  **Behavior**: User field > 64 characters is silently dropped
  **Impact**: Longer user identifiers are lost
  **Code**: `SanitizeUserField` enforces 64-char max in the shared OpenAI converter
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Reasoning Details in Assistant Messages">
  **Severity**: Medium
  **Behavior**: Assistant-message `reasoning` details are removed before forwarding follow-up chat messages
  **Impact**: Prevents DeepSeek request failures when previous assistant turns contain reasoning metadata
  **Code**: `stripReasoningDetails` applies to DeepSeek in `ToOpenAIChatRequest`
</Accordion>