# DeepSeek

> Configure deepseek deployments and understand provider-specific behavior.

URL: https://boelabs.com/en/docs/ai-gateway/providers-deepseek
Language: English

## Configure a deployment

Send this body to `POST /admin/deployments` with an operator credential. Replace the example
credentials and choose a model available to your provider account. See
[Creating deployments](https://boelabs.com/docs/ai-gateway/creating-deployments) for the shared configuration fields.

```json
{ "publicModel": "deepseek", "adapterKey": "deepseek", "upstreamModel": "deepseek-v4-flash", "credentials": { "apiKey": "..." } }
```

## Behavior and limitations

- **Credentials**: `apiKey` only. No `baseUrl` needed — defaults to `https://api.deepseek.com/v1`.
- **Default transport**: Chat Completions. Strict tools automatically use DeepSeek's `/beta` Chat
  endpoint and require every declared function to set `strict: true` — DeepSeek validates the schema
  server-side and rejects unsupported constructs. JSON Schema output on V4 models requires an
  explicit `transportOverrides["text.generate"]: "responses"`, where `text.format` is supported and
  tool `strict` is not. Requests never switch transport automatically, and the two strict modes
  cannot be combined in one DeepSeek request.
- **Base URL per feature**: the Responses transport is pinned to `https://api.deepseek.com` and
  strict tools to `https://api.deepseek.com/beta`, because DeepSeek documents `/v1` only as an
  OpenAI-SDK alias for Chat Completions. A custom `baseUrl` is never rewritten.
- **Reasoning**: `openai_body` (native `thinking`/effort controls), per model in the catalog. On the
  Responses transport those controls are emitted as OpenAI's nested `reasoning.effort` instead, which
  is what DeepSeek supports there — it silently ignores unknown top-level keys, so the Chat-shaped
  `thinking` field is deliberately not sent.
- `deepseek-chat` and `deepseek-reasoner` are retired compatibility aliases. New deployments should
  use `deepseek-v4-flash` or `deepseek-v4-pro`.
- Catalog: `src/adapters/deepseek/catalog.json`.

## Next steps

- [Reasoning](https://boelabs.com/docs/ai-gateway/reasoning) — the `openai_body` kind in detail.
- [Creating deployments](https://boelabs.com/docs/ai-gateway/creating-deployments) — the full request shape.