DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Venice) on Agent bake-off: find a premium flight home

DDeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Venice) · venice-mini-agent v1.2 · cloud · 2026-10-15 · by @bobsiopener

Trust 80%Fully autonomoussuccess · first tryCompare

Cost: $0.0033
Wall time: 8s
Human step-ins: 0
Outcome: Pass

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Exact prompt

Mock flight search (no real booking). flights.json lists available flights. I need a flight home to SJC or SFO from LGA or JFK on October 5th or 6th 2026, in business or first class, nonstop only, departing at or after 09:00 local. Choose the cheapest flight meeting all constraints. Write choice.json: {"best": flight_id, "runner_ups": [up to 2 next-cheapest qualifying flight_ids], "reason": "..."}.

Task prompt given to the agent (headless, offline, synthetic fixture inputs): Mock flight search (no real booking). flights.json lists available flights. I need a flight home to SJC or SFO from LGA or JFK on October 5th or 6th 2026, in business or first class, nonstop only, departing at or after 09:00 local. Choose the cheapest flight meeting all constraints. Write choice.json: {"best": flight_id, "runner_ups": [up to 2 next-cheapest qualifying flight_ids], "reason": "..."}. Inspired by https://x.com/twid/status/2101789185598247390 (unverified; not checked with the author). This is an independent re-run on a reproducible synthetic task; it does not report or reproduce the original post's numbers. Cost is real Venice spend (paid from DIEM credit), as reported by Venice.

Success criteria: All automated rubric checks pass: best = cheapest qualifying; runner-ups are next cheapest qualifying; reason given.

Setup notes: Harness: venice-mini-agent v1.2 via Venice OpenAI-compatible API. Minimal OpenAI-compatible tool loop (/workspace/usecase-runner/venice_agent.py): tools list_files/read_file/write_file/run_shell in the work dir, max 25 turns, max_tokens 16000/call, temperature 0.2, Venice system prompt and web search off, $0.08 per-run cost cap. Identical for all Venice models. Cost source: Venice /api/v1/models model_spec.pricing (USD per 1M tokens), fetched 2026-10-14; cost computed from per-call usage. Paid from Bob's DIEM daily allowance. input_tokens includes cached reads; cached_tokens = cache reads; cache_write_tokens = cache writes (0 if not reported). Single run, no retries; scored automatically (3/3 checks). Runner notes: Adapted: live flight search replaced by mock flights.json with one correct answer; no booking. Single run, no retries. Same rubric/score.py as Claude runs. Web disabled.

Metrics

Cost: $0.0033
Wall time: 8s
Human step-ins: 0
Turns: 5

Model usage
Model	Input tok	Output tok	Cost
DDeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Venice)venice/deepseek-v4-1-flash	24,193	1,016	$0.0033

Reproduce this run

Use the use case prompt on the use case page.
Same setup: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Venice) (venice/deepseek-v4-1-flash) via venice-mini-agent v1.2, cloud.
It counts as a success only if it meets every success criterion: All automated rubric checks pass: best = cheapest qualifying; runner-ups are next cheapest qualifying; reason given.
Log model, tokens, wall time, human step-ins and the evidence log, then submit it as a reproduction. A different model? Submit a head-to-head rerun.

How runs are scored: Methodology.

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Automated checks

Trust 80% comes from these checks (how Trust % works).

Run date is not in the future : passed
Model is in the dated pricing table : passed
Cost recomputed from tokens matches : passed
Cached tokens are consistent : passed
Output throughput is plausible : passed
Autonomy matches step-ins : passed
Step-ins do not exceed turns : passed
Retries agree with first-try result : passed
Evidence log SHA-256 matches : passed
Evidence log is substantial : passed

Evidence log

{"turn": 1, "response": {"id": "chatcmpl-7725059cbbb543f28eb162dc388c251e", "object": "chat.completion", "created": 1792022395, "model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash", "choices": [{"index": 0, "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "I'll start by inspecting the working directory and the flights data.", "tool_calls": [{"index": 0, "id": "chatcmpl-tool-9001b618adeb5f83", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "list_files", "arguments": "{\"path\": \".\"}"}, "name": null}, {"index": 1, "id": "chatcmpl-tool-ba2c40ba45b71c53", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "read_file", "arguments": "{\"path\": \"flights.json\"}"}, "name": null}], "tools": null}, "finish_reason": "tool_calls"}], "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 609, "completion_tokens": 80, "total_tokens": 689, "prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 374}, "cache_read_input_tokens": 374, "completion_tokens_details": {"reasoning_tokens": 0}}, "cost": {"usd": 0, "diem": 0.00016930500000000002}, "venice_parameters": {"strip_thinking_response": false, "disable_thinking": false, "enable_e2ee": true, "enable_web_search": "off", "enable_web_scraping": false, "enable_web_citations": false, "include_search_results_in_stream": false, "include_venice_system_prompt": false, "enable_x_search": false, "web_search_citations": [], "return_search_results_as_documents": false}}}
{"turn": 1, "tool": "list_files", "args": {"path": "."}, "result": "./flights.json"}
{"turn": 1, "tool": "read_file", "args": {"path": "flights.json"}, "result": "[\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F001\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"JFK\",\n    \"dest\": \"SJC\",\n    \"cabin\": \"economy\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_local\": \"09:30\",\n    \"duration_min\": 493,\n    \"price_usd\": 323,\n    \"airline\": \"Alpha Air\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F002\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"JFK\",\n    \"dest\": \"SJC\",\n    \"cabin\": \"premium_economy\",\n    \"stops\": 0,\n    \"depart_local\": \"09:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 370,\n    \"price_usd\": 985,\n    \"airline\": \"Delta Mock\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F003\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"JFK\",\n    \"dest\": \"SJC\",\n    \"cabin\": \"business\",\n    \"stops\": 0,\n    \"depart_local\": \"16:30\",\n    \"duration_min\": 372,\n    \"price_usd\": 1687,\n    \"airline\": \"Alpha Air\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F004\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"JFK\",\n    \"dest\": \"OAK\",\n    \"cabin\": \"business\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_local\": \"13:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 445,\n    \"price_usd\": 1346,\n    \"airline\": \"Alpha Air\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F005\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"JFK\",\n    \"dest\": \"OAK\",\n    \"cabin\": \"first\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_local\": \"15:30\",\n    \"duration_min\": 508,\n    \"price_usd\": 2712,\n    \"airline\": \"Bay Jet\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F006\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"LGA\",\n    \"dest\": \"SFO\",\n    \"cabin\": \"business\",\n    \"stops\": 0,\n    \"depart_local\": \"13:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 337,\n    \"price_usd\": 1263,\n    \"airline\": \"Coastal\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F007\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"LGA\",\n    \"dest\": \"SFO\",\n    \"cabin\": \"first\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_local\": \"16:30\",\n    \"duration_min\": 439,\n    \"price_usd\": 3103,\n    \"airline\": \"Coastal\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F008\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"LGA\",\n    \"dest\": \"SJC\",\n    \"cabin\": \"premium_economy\",\n    \"stops\": 0,\n    \"depart_local\": \"18:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 418,\n    \"price_usd\": 628,\n    \"airline\": \"Delta Mock\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F009\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"LGA\",\n    \"dest\": \"SJC\",\n    \"cabin\": \"business\",\n    \"stops\": 0,\n    \"depart_local\": \"07:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 385,\n    \"price_usd\": 1426,\n    \"airline\": \"Bay Jet\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F010\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"LGA\",\n    \"dest\": \"OAK\",\n    \"cabin\": \"economy\",\n    \"stops\": 0,\n    \"depart_local\": \"06:30\",\n    \"duration_min\": 416,\n    \"price_usd\": 897,\n    \"airline\": \"Delta Mock\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F011\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"EWR\",\n    \"dest\": \"SFO\",\n    \"cabin\": \"economy\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_local\": \"11:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 478,\n    \"price_usd\": 720,\n    \"airline\": \"Coastal\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F012\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"EWR\",\n    \"dest\": \"SFO\",\n    \"cabin\": \"premium_economy\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_local\": \"09:00\",\n    \"duration_min\": 462,\n    \"price_usd\": 763,\n    \"airline\": \"Alpha Air\"\n  },\n  {\n    \"id\": \"F013\",\n    \"date\": \"2026-10-05\",\n    \"origin\": \"EWR\",\n    \"dest\": \"SJC\",\n    \"cabin\": \"business\",\n    \"stops\": 1,\n    \"depart_lo"}
{"turn": 2, "response": {"id": "chatcmpl-87405a75249b4e468797ee37e4511b9d", "object": "chat.completion", "created": 1792022396, "model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash", "choices": [{"index": 0, "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Let me filter programmatically to be precise.", "reasoning_content": "Let me filter with a script.\n\nConstraints:\n- date 2026-10-05 or 2026-10-06\n- origin LGA or JFK\n- dest SJC or SFO\n- cabin business or first\n- stops == 0\n- depart_local >= 09:00\n\nLet me compute.", "tool_calls": [{"index": 0, "id": "chatcmpl-tool-92176fd9600ff4e2", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "run_shell", "arguments": "{\"command\": \"python3 - <<'EOF'\\nimport json\\nfl=json.load(open('flights.json'))\\nq=[f for f in fl if f['date'] in ('2026-10-05','2026-10-06') and f['origin'] in ('LGA','JFK') and f['dest'] in ('SJC','SFO') and f['cabin'] in ('business','first') and f['stops']==0 and f['depart_local']>='09:00']\\nq.sort(key=lambda f:(f['price_usd'], f['id']))\\nfor f in q: print(f['id'],f['date'],f['origin'],f['dest'],f['cabin'],f['depart_local'],f['price_usd'],f['airline'])\\nprint('count',len(q))\\nEOF\"}"}, "name": null}], "tools": null}, "finish_reason": "tool_calls"}], "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 5362, "completion_tokens": 292, "total_tokens": 5654, "prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 480}, "cache_read_input_tokens": 480, "completion_tokens_details": {"reasoning_tokens": 68}}, "cost": {"usd": 0, "diem": 0.0018186}, "venice_parameters": {"strip_thinking_response": false, "disable_thinking": false, "enable_e2ee": true, "enable_web_search": "off", "enable_web_scraping": false, "enable_web_citations": false, "include_search_results_in_stream": false, "include_venice_system_prompt": false, "enable_x_search": false, "web_search_citations": [], "return_search_results_as_documents": false}}}
{"turn": 2, "tool": "run_shell", "args": {"command": "python3 - <<'EOF'\nimport json\nfl=json.load(open('flights.json'))\nq=[f for f in fl if f['date'] in ('2026-10-05','2026-10-06') and f['origin'] in ('LGA','JFK') and f['dest'] in ('SJC','SFO') and f['cabin'] in ('business','first') and f['stops']==0 and f['depart_local']>='09:00']\nq.sort(key=lambda f:(f['price_usd'], f['id']))\nfor f in q: print(f['id'],f['date'],f['origin'],f['dest'],f['cabin'],f['depart_local'],f['price_usd'],f['airline'])\nprint('count',len(q))\nEOF"}, "result": "exit=0\nstdout:\nF006 2026-10-05 LGA SFO business 13:00 1263 Coastal\nF025 2026-10-06 LGA SFO business 21:00 1395 Coastal\nF017 2026-10-06 JFK SFO business 10:00 1532 Alpha Air\nF003 2026-10-05 JFK SJC business 16:30 1687 Alpha Air\ncount 4\n\nstderr:\n"}
{"turn": 3, "response": {"id": "chatcmpl-14cbbcdb69e049fdb5048004dcf118b8", "object": "chat.completion", "created": 1792022398, "model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash", "choices": [{"index": 0, "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Four flights qualify. Writing the result.", "reasoning_content": "Four qualifying flights. Best F006 ($1263), runner-ups F025 ($1395), F017 ($1532).\n\nNote F009 (LGA-SJC business, 07:00) excluded due to departure before 09:00. F020 (JFK-SJC business 06:00) excluded. F040/F041 are Oct 7, excluded.\n\nWrite choice.json.", "tool_calls": [{"index": 0, "id": "chatcmpl-tool-b27865e05ddf7491", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "write_file", "arguments": "{\"path\": \"choice.json\", \"content\": \"{\\n  \\\"best\\\": \\\"F006\\\",\\n  \\\"runner_ups\\\": [\\\"F025\\\", \\\"F017\\\"],\\n  \\\"reason\\\": \\\"Filtered flights.json to nonstop (stops=0) business/first-class flights from LGA or JFK to SJC or SFO on 2026-10-05 or 2026-10-06 departing at or after 09:00 local. Only 4 flights qualify: F006 (LGA->SFO, 10/05 13:00, business, $1263), F025 (LGA->SFO, 10/06 21:00, business, $1395), F017 (JFK->SFO, 10/06 10:00, business, $1532), and F003 (JFK->SJC, 10/05 16:30, business, $1687). F006 is the cheapest at $1263, so it is the best choice; F025 and F017 are the next-cheapest qualifying flights. Note: cheaper business options like F009 (LGA->SJC, $1426) and F020 (JFK->SJC, $1461) were excluded because they depart at 07:00 and 06:00, before the 09:00 cutoff, and F040/F041 fall on 10/07.\\\"\\n}\\n\"}"}, "name": null}], "tools": null}, "finish_reason": "tool_calls"}], "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 5705, "completion_tokens": 429, "total_tokens": 6134, "prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 5232}, "cache_read_input_tokens": 5232, "completion_tokens_details": {"reasoning_tokens": 80}}, "cost": {"usd": 0, "diem": 0.00069594}, "venice_parameters": {"strip_thinking_response": false, "disable_thinking": false, "enable_e2ee": true, "enable_web_search": "off", "enable_web_scraping": false, "enable_web_citations": false, "include_search_results_in_stream": false, "include_venice_system_prompt": false, "enable_x_search": false, "web_search_citations": [], "return_search_results_as_documents": false}}}
{"turn": 3, "tool": "write_file", "args": {"path": "choice.json", "content": "{\n  \"best\": \"F006\",\n  \"runner_ups\": [\"F025\", \"F017\"],\n  \"reason\": \"Filtered flights.json to nonstop (stops=0) business/first-class flights from LGA or JFK to SJC or SFO on 2026-10-05 or 2026-10-06 departing at or after 09:00 local. Only 4 flights qualify: F006 (LGA->SFO, 10/05 13:00, business, $1263), F025 (LGA->SFO, 10/06 21:00, business, $1395), F017 (JFK->SFO, 10/06 10:00, business, $1532), and F003 (JFK->SJC, 10/05 16:30, business, $1687). F006 is the cheapest at $1263, so it is the best choice; F025 and F017 are the next-cheapest qualifying flights. Note: cheaper business options like F009 (LGA->SJC, $1426) and F020 (JFK->SJC, $1461) were excluded because they depart at 07:00 and 06:00, before the 09:00 cutoff, and F040/F041 fall on 10/07.\"\n}\n"}, "result": "wrote 758 chars"}
{"turn": 4, "response": {"id": "chatcmpl-f70b8d385f9448e7aefb2e6ecf183648", "object": "chat.completion", "created": 1792022400, "model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash", "choices": [{"index": 0, "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "", "tool_calls": [{"index": 0, "id": "chatcmpl-tool-9db99243bf5f08e2", "type": "function", "function": {"name": "run_shell", "arguments": "{\"command\": \"cat choice.json && python3 -c \\\"import json;json.load(open('choice.json'));print('valid json')\\\"\"}"}, "name": null}], "tools": null}, "finish_reason": "tool_calls"}], "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 6070, "completion_tokens": 66, "total_tokens": 6136, "prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 5576}, "cache_read_input_tokens": 5576, "completion_tokens_details": {"reasoning_tokens": 0}}, "cost": {"usd": 0, "diem": 0.00026922000000000003}, "venice_parameters": {"strip_thinking_response": false, "disable_thinking": false, "enable_e2ee": true, "enable_web_search": "off", "enable_web_scraping": false, "enable_web_citations": false, "include_search_results_in_stream": false, "include_venice_system_prompt": false, "enable_x_search": false, "web_search_citations": [], "return_search_results_as_documents": false}}}
{"turn": 4, "tool": "run_shell", "args": {"command": "cat choice.json && python3 -c \"import json;json.load(open('choice.json'));print('valid json')\""}, "result": "exit=0\nstdout:\n{\n  \"best\": \"F006\",\n  \"runner_ups\": [\"F025\", \"F017\"],\n  \"reason\": \"Filtered flights.json to nonstop (stops=0) business/first-class flights from LGA or JFK to SJC or SFO on 2026-10-05 or 2026-10-06 departing at or after 09:00 local. Only 4 flights qualify: F006 (LGA->SFO, 10/05 13:00, business, $1263), F025 (LGA->SFO, 10/06 21:00, business, $1395), F017 (JFK->SFO, 10/06 10:00, business, $1532), and F003 (JFK->SJC, 10/05 16:30, business, $1687). F006 is the cheapest at $1263, so it is the best choice; F025 and F017 are the next-cheapest qualifying flights. Note: cheaper business options like F009 (LGA->SJC, $1426) and F020 (JFK->SJC, $1461) were excluded because they depart at 07:00 and 06:00, before the 09:00 cutoff, and F040/F041 fall on 10/07.\"\n}\nvalid json\n\nstderr:\n"}
{"turn": 5, "response": {"id": "chatcmpl-cb59b10adae041619e4ba15cb3d70bfb", "object": "chat.completion", "created": 1792022402, "model": "deepseek-v4-1-flash", "choices": [{"index": 0, "message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Done. Wrote `choice.json`.\n\n**Result:** Best = **F006** (LGA\u2192SFO, 2026-10-05, 13:00, business, nonstop, $1263). Runner-ups: **F025** ($1395) and **F017** ($1532).\n\nOnly 4 flights met every constraint (nonstop, business/first, LGA/JFK \u2192 SJC/SFO, Oct 5\u20136 2026, depart \u226509:00). Notably, cheaper business fares like F009 ($1426) and F020 ($1461) were excluded for departing at 07:00/06:00, before the 09:00 cutoff.", "tools": null}, "finish_reason": "stop"}], "usage": {"prompt_tokens": 6447, "completion_tokens": 149, "total_tokens": 6596, "prompt_tokens_details": {"cached_tokens": 5940}, "cache_read_input_tokens": 5940, "completion_tokens_details": {"reasoning_tokens": 0}}, "cost": {"usd": 0, "diem": 0.00037545000000000005}, "venice_parameters": {"strip_thinking_response": false, "disable_thinking": false, "enable_e2ee": true, "enable_web_search": "off", "enable_web_scraping": false, "enable_web_citations": false, "include_search_results_in_stream": false, "include_venice_system_prompt": false, "enable_x_search": false, "web_search_citations": [], "return_search_results_as_documents": false}}}