DeepSeek appears in the Harness codebase with identifiers such as V5, V5-open, and V5-next, hinting at an upcoming model release.Author and source: AIBase
DeepSeek's next-generation flagship model, V5, has already begun to appear in the code.
On the evening of October 27, netizens noticed that DeepSeek had once again changed the "fingerprint" of its large model, leading to speculation that a new model is imminent and may be even larger than V4.1 Pro. Subsequently, references to DeepSeek-V5, V5-open, and V5-next appeared in DeepSeek’s Harness codebase, further confirming the existence of the new model. 
From a code structure perspective, the mechanism for integrating the new model is already in place, and V5 is currently just a placeholder name. This means DeepSeek can deploy V5 directly by simply modifying the /models configuration on the server side, without requiring users to update their clients. Specifically, V5-open corresponds to the distribution channel with no version requirements, while V5-next corresponds to the channel requiring a client upgrade—both pathways have been pre-configured. In other words, DeepSeek has already laid the groundwork for the new model; in the future, support can be enabled instantly with just a server-side change, without needing to release a new client version.
Of course, the existing code does not confirm that V5 will be released immediately, but it is sufficient evidence that its launch is drawing closer. DeepSeek’s version naming has always been difficult for outsiders to predict: the V4.1 Flash released on September 17 already adopted a completely new architecture, making it incomparable to earlier V4 versions, yet it retained the V4 series name; the update on October 17 brought significant improvements but still did not upgrade to V4.2.
Given the poor reputation left by the previous official release of V4 Pro, DeepSeek’s decision to directly name its new flagship V5 Pro allows for a clean break from the past. However, since the Flash version was only recently released, the launch of V5 Pro is unlikely to happen soon—almost certainly not within October, and more likely not until November.