DSH Desktop

A DSH Harness workbench distribution for DeepSeek Harness (DSH) —
embedded runtime, minimal-grayscale workspace, Smart routing, Skills discovery, and a curated plugin stack.

MIT License · Electron 39 · TypeScript 5 · Windows / macOS / Linux

English · 中文

What is it

DSH Desktop is the distributable, opinionated DSH Harness workbench. It packages the locked DSH runtime, the official dsh web UI, an opinionated minimal-grayscale surface, a selectable Smart routing preset, a Skills discovery contract, and a curated plugin stack into an offline-capable application.

The Electron window is only the delivery shell. The product experience is the combination of:

Layer	What is included
DSH runtime	@deepseek-ai/dsh@0.1.0-rc.6, launched from the bundled closure
Default workbench	Minimal grayscale tokens, grayscale background/editor/terminal treatment, and glass panes
Agent behavior	Standard DSH capability plus the selectable routing-suite Smart routing preset
Skills	list_skills, /see-skills/skills, the Skills sidebar tab, and user skill discovery
Extensions	Curated forked plugins, vendored with license/provenance notices

This is not a generic Electron wrapper and it does not replace DSH's model or provider layer. Users configure their provider, model, credentials, and local skill directories through DSH. The app preserves the standard tool/context surface so a capable model such as DeepSeek V4 Pro can be evaluated through the same public DSH workflow rather than through a reduced demo harness.

It consumes only DSH's public boundary — the official dsh web UI — and never patches DSH source. The runtime is bundled, so end users need no Node.js and no dsh CLI installed.

What we changed beyond upstream

This repository is a second-development distribution, not a one-line fork or a collection of unmodified plugins. The following work is maintained in this repository and is what makes the product different from the upstream DSH web UI, upstream plugin repositories, and a generic Electron wrapper.

Area	Our optimization, addition, or fix	Result for users
Desktop productization	Built an Electron 39 desktop application around the public dsh web boundary; added a frameless window, custom title bar, no default menu, single-instance locking, safe external-link handling, workspace resolution, and child-process cleanup.	A native-feeling Windows/macOS/Linux DSH application with the same official web UI and shared DSH sessions.
Runtime delivery	Locked @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.1.0-rc.6; bundled the production dependency closure; launch the local runtime with an ephemeral port; probe host.describe before showing the window; recover from first-profile creation with one controlled restart.	Release downloads work without a separately installed Node.js, pnpm, or dsh CLI, and startup failures are detected before a blank window is shown.
Dependency and plugin seating	Replaced fragile hand-written .pnpm flattening with pnpm deploy --node-linker=hoisted; materialize profile bundle entries and profiles/node_modules links idempotently; preserve user-owned packages.	Curated plugins load offline and do not depend on the user's package manager layout.
Plugin curation	Use direct selected subpackages instead of the upstream aggregate bundle; deliberately exclude the rc.6-incompatible dsh-liangshen and unnecessary pet/remote-web-ui/ssh/liangshen packages; vendor fork provenance and licenses.	Smaller, more predictable plugin surface with fewer startup crashes and less unrelated UI.
Grayscale workbench	Added dsh-skin-grayscale; desaturate design tokens with Rec.709 perceptual luminance, cover deep background/editor/terminal layers, and preserve contrast and hierarchy.	A consistent minimal-grayscale DSH experience instead of a shallow color filter.
Glass workbench	Integrated the forked Aqua surface and tuned it to coexist with the grayscale skin, including translucent panels, blur/frost controls, background layers, and the frameless title bar.	Codex-style glassmorphism without losing grayscale readability.
Smart routing	Integrated dsh-routing-suite as a selectable routing-suite preset; classify the first durable task as inspect-first, direct, or neutral; append only a bounded guidance section through system-prompt/assemble.	Task-aware behavior that preserves DSH persona, tools, context, model settings, and request count.
Routing safety	Added explicit boundaries: no file/process execution, no tool filtering, no hidden model call, no DSH source patch, and no silent model/provider changes; added contract tests for the routing decisions.	Smart routing remains inspectable and cannot silently reduce Harness capability.
Skills host contract	Built dsh-see-skills with the list_skills tool, GET /see-skills/skills, structured records, safe root normalization, and discovery of $DSH_HOME/skills, .agents, .codex, environment-provided, and bundled roots.	Existing user Skills are visible without copying private Skill bodies into this repository.
Skills client experience	Added a better-sidebar Skills tab backed by the same host inventory; documented SKILL.md frontmatter, references/scripts/assets layout, safety rules, and contribution contract.	Skills are a real workbench capability rather than a README-only promise.
Vision and workbench integration	Integrated the modlens vision bridge, describe_image, better-sidebar, task board, git graph, AionUI right panel, web UI settings, and skin center as a tested curated stack.	Vision, files, editor, terminal, Git, jobs, preview, and settings work together in one DSH workbench.
Release engineering	Added Windows x64, macOS Intel/ARM64, and Linux x64 installers; unsigned-package guidance; bilingual documentation; release checklist; tag-to-package-version CI validation; secret scans; runtime, routing, Skills, and installer smoke checks.	Release assets and README claims are checked against the actual product before publishing.
Download optimization	Release v0.1.4 removes runtime-unused source maps and PDB debug symbols while keeping the complete offline runtime and standard installer compression; CI caches Electron downloads and retries transient failures on all platforms.	Smaller downloads and more reliable cross-platform publishing without turning the first launch into a partially installed shell.

Upstream relationship and responsibility boundary

The DSH runtime and upstream projects remain credited in their package metadata and license files. Third-party plugins are vendored under app/plugins/fork/ with forkedFrom metadata where applicable. This project owns the Electron delivery layer, plugin selection and seating, grayscale/glass integration, Smart routing integration, Skills host/client contract, release process, and the product documentation. It consumes DSH through the public web boundary and does not modify DSH source code.

Features

• Frameless window + custom title bar — no default File/Edit menu; drag region, minimize/maximize/close controls.
• Bundled DSH runtime — spawns dsh web --port 0 on Electron's Node, loads the official Web UI; shares ~/.dsh sessions & credentials with the CLI.
• Offline plugin pre-seating — the plugin closure is materialized via pnpm deploy --node-linker=hoisted and seated into dsh.profile.bundles + profiles/node_modules symlinks on first launch.
• Minimal grayscale skin (dsh-skin-grayscale) — every DSH design token desaturated by perceptual luminance; editor & terminal deep-grayscaled.
• Grayscale-first workbench — the default bundled surface activates the grayscale skin over both token-driven UI and skin-provided background layers.
• Skills viewer (dsh-see-skills) — list_skills tool + /see-skills/skills route + a sidebar "Skills" tab, structured output following modlens' evidence contract.
• Configured Skills compatibility — discovers DSH, .agents, .codex, environment-provided, and bundled skill roots; private skill files stay on the user's machine and are not copied into the public repository.
• Task-aware routing (dsh-routing-suite) — a selectable Smart routing mode that chooses inspect-first or direct execution from the first durable user task, without extra model calls or tool restrictions.
• Curated plugin stack — modlens (vision), better-sidebar (workbench), task-board, git-graph, aionui right-panel, describe-image, skin-center, and Smart routing.

Built-in modes and operating contract

Minimal grayscale mode

The default visual profile is the minimal grayscale workbench. The bundled skin desaturates DSH design tokens using perceptual luminance, gives the editor and terminal a deep grayscale treatment, and also covers background layers that are outside the official UI root. The glass layer remains enabled, so hierarchy, translucency, blur, and contrast are preserved without brand-blue accents.

Smart routing mode

dsh-routing-suite contributes a selectable Agent preset named routing-suite. When that preset is selected, it reads the first durable user task and chooses one of three modes:

• inspect-first for maintenance, debugging, audit, and investigation work;
• direct for creation and implementation work;
• neutral when the task is ambiguous or empty.

It appends only its own short routing-suite-guidance section to the public system-prompt/assemble boundary. It preserves the persona, contexts, tools, and other DSH assembly fields. It does not execute files or processes, filter tools, add another LLM request, or change the DeepSeek model configuration.

Skills requirements

Skills are a first-class part of the workbench rather than a README-only claim. Each skill is a directory containing SKILL.md, with optional references/, scripts/, and assets/. The host exposes a structured inventory through the list_skills model tool and GET /see-skills/skills; the better-sidebar plugin renders the same inventory in the Skills tab.

The runtime discovers $DSH_HOME/skills, ~/.agents/skills, ~/.codex/skills, the optional DSH_BUNDLED_SKILL_DIR, and the bundled modlens skill. See the Skills contract for the frontmatter, discovery, safety, and contribution requirements. Private skill contents and credentials remain local and must never be committed.

Bundled plugins

Package	Purpose	Origin
@liustack/modlens	vision bridge: modlens_read_image tool + (modlens vision) variants	forked
dsh-better-sidebar	sidebar workbench: files / editor / terminal / git / jobs	forked
@linxin666/dsh-client-ui-task-board	task board	forked
@linxin666/dsh-client-ui-git-graph	git graph	forked
@linxin666/dsh-client-ui-aionui-panel	right panel (preview / file tree / SCM)	forked
@linxin666/dsh-tool-describe-image	describe_image vision tool	forked
@linxin666/dsh-client-ui-skin-center	skin center	forked
dsh-skin-grayscale	minimal grayscale skin + default minimal-gray agent preset	built in this repo
dsh-see-skills	skills viewer	built in this repo
dsh-routing-suite	Smart routing mode: inspect-first / direct execution / automatic classification	forked from dragonbaba/dsh-routing-suite
dsh-ux-enhance	UX enhancements: font zoom / ↑↓ history / cost badge (CNY, customizable)	built in this repo
@liustack/modsearch	web search provider (backing web_search / web_fetch)	forked

The official @linxin666/dsh-web-ui-all aggregate is intentionally avoided: its bundled dsh-liangshen crashes DSH rc.6, and it pulls pet/remote-web-ui/ssh that we don't need. We seat the curated sub-packages directly.

Choose your delivery path

Download speed and package strategy

The v0.1.4 package is the first lean Release: runtime-unused source maps and PDB debug symbols are excluded while standard installer compression is kept. The DSH runtime, official Web UI, Smart routing, grayscale/glass surface, Skills viewer, and curated plugins remain inside the package, so the first launch is offline-capable and does not depend on a background download completing.

We intentionally do not split the stable package into “start now, copy plugin files later”. DSH plugin bundles are loaded through a profile manifest and a dependency closure; a partial copy can leave a profile in a state where the runtime starts but the UI fails. A future online bootstrap may download an optional plugin pack atomically into the user data directory, with checksum, resume, rollback, and an offline full package fallback. Until that protocol is implemented and tested, the complete compressed package is the reliable open-box path.

Download a Release (recommended)

Open the GitHub Releases page and download the asset for your operating system. The installer is the complete product: Electron, @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.1.0-rc.6, the grayscale/glass workbench, Smart routing, curated plugins, and the Skills viewer are included. Node.js, pnpm, and a separate dsh installation are not required.

On first launch the app starts the bundled local DSH web runtime, creates or updates the web profile, seats the built-in plugins, and may restart the runtime once. This is expected. Configure a provider, model, and credentials in DSH before sending a task; this repository cannot provide a user's API key. The desktop package is self-contained, but model requests still require the provider network and valid credentials.

First-run checklist:

1. Install the package for your platform and launch DSH Desktop.
2. Complete DSH provider/model setup, or reuse the existing ~/.dsh profile.
3. Keep the default minimal grayscale workbench, or choose Smart routing (routing-suite) from the Agent preset/mode selector.
4. Open the Skills tab to confirm $DSH_HOME/skills, ~/.agents/skills, ~/.codex/skills, and bundled skills are discoverable.

Public packages are unsigned. Windows SmartScreen and macOS Gatekeeper may require explicit confirmation on first launch. Linux AppImage may need execute permission (chmod +x dsh-desktop-*.AppImage).

Build from source

Quick start (development)

Requirements: Node.js ≥ 22.19, pnpm ≥ 11.

cd app
pnpm install          # first run downloads Electron + the DSH runtime closure
pnpm prepare:runtime  # materialize the offline runtime closure (.runtime/)
pnpm dev              # build the shell and launch Electron

pnpm dev will:

1. spawn the bundled dsh web --port 0 (data dir ~/.dsh, shared with the CLI);
2. materialize the routing-suite Agent preset and seat the curated plugins into the web profile;
3. activate the minimal grayscale + glass workbench surface;
4. open a frameless window loading the official Web UI, with configured Skills discoverable from the user skill roots.

Build and verify an installer

For maintainers, run the following from app/:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm typecheck
pnpm verify:runtime
pnpm build
pnpm dist

pnpm dist is the release build. It first materializes and verifies the runtime closure, then invokes electron-builder. A partial runtime fails the build instead of becoming a misleading installer. Build on the target OS; electron-builder does not turn a Windows build into a valid macOS/Linux package.

The native targets are:

Platform	Package
Windows x64	NSIS .exe installer
macOS x64 / arm64	.dmg installer or .zip archive
Linux x64	.AppImage or .deb package

Every release asset must contain Electron, the locked DSH runtime, the curated plugins, the default grayscale/glass workbench, Smart routing, and the Skills viewer. See the release checklist before publishing.

Notes:

• Native modules ship with platform prebuilds; node-pty uses N-API (ABI-stable), no Electron ABI rebuild is required.
• Signing is intentionally disabled until platform-specific signing credentials are configured in CI.

Pushing a semantic-version tag matching app/package.json (for example, v0.1.4 for version 0.1.4) runs the cross-platform release workflow and uploads Windows, macOS Intel/Apple Silicon, and Linux x64 packages to GitHub Releases. Do not create a tag whose version differs from app/package.json.

Troubleshooting

• The window starts but no model response arrives: configure a provider, model, and credential in DSH; this repository never ships user credentials.
• A new plugin or preset is not visible after an upgrade: quit all DSH Desktop/DSH web processes and launch again. The first launch may perform one automatic runtime restart to load the profile bundles.
• Skills are missing: verify that each skill directory contains SKILL.md and that it is under one of the documented roots. Private skill files must remain on the local machine.
• A source checkout cannot build: use Node.js ≥ 22.19 and pnpm ≥ 11, run commands from app/, and use pnpm install --frozen-lockfile to reproduce CI.

Project structure

dsh-desktop/
├─ app/
│  ├─ src/main/            Electron main process (dsh web shell + plugin pre-seating + frameless window)
│  ├─ plugins/
│  │  ├─ dsh-skin-grayscale/    minimal grayscale skin (built here)
│  │  ├─ see-skills/            skills viewer plugin (built here)
│  │  └─ fork/                  forked third-party plugins (vendored, marked `forkedFrom`)
│  ├─ runtime/             bundled DSH runtime closure (package.json pins deps)
│  ├─ scripts/             build / deploy / rebuild-native / generator tooling
│  └─ electron-builder.yml
├─ docs/                  architecture, design, and Skills contract docs
└─ .github/               CI & issue/PR templates

How it works

The desktop never imports DSH internals. It:

1. resolves the DSH CLI (bundled closure first);
2. spawns dsh web --port 0 and parses the readiness line;
3. materializes the selectable routing-suite preset, seats the forked plugins, and appends package names to dsh.profile.bundles;
4. loads the official Web UI in a frameless BrowserWindow, where the grayscale/glass surface and Skills viewer are provided by client plugins.

See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md. Please follow the Code of Conduct.

Security

Found a vulnerability? See SECURITY.md.

License

MIT © 2026 DSH Desktop contributors.

The forked plugins in app/plugins/fork/ retain their respective upstream licenses (MIT / Apache-2.0); see each package for details.