DSH Lite — DeepSeek Harness for VS Code

Chat with the DeepSeek Harness agent inside VS Code: sessions, streaming replies, tool-call cards, permission prompts, model/effort/preset pickers, change review, and @-mentions — built on the standard Agent Client Protocol (ACP), like the Claude Code and Codex extensions.

Features

• Chat view with markdown rendering, thought folds, tool cards (structured key/value args), and a sessions sidebar
• Session management — list / resume / rename / delete (rename & delete need the bridge plugin), local transcript cache
• Model, reasoning-effort, agent-preset, and permission-mode pickers in the composer rail
• Change review — files the agent touches are tracked live; open a native diff against HEAD per file
• @ file mentions and editor-context attachment; image attachments (paste or picker, when the route supports them)
• @dsh chat participant in the native Chat view, and DSH: Explain Selection for one-shot code explanations
• Todo cards / plan-mode banner streamed from the agent (bridge plugin)
• Cross-environment: run dsh on Windows, in WSL, or inside a Remote-WSL window (see Topologies)

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 20 on the side where dsh runs (nvm/volta/mise are picked up automatically)
• DeepSeek Harness ≥ 0.1.5-rc.2 — either installed (npm i -g @deepseek-ai/dsh) or used via npx, or from a repository checkout
• Optional: dsh-vscode-bridge ≥ 0.1.1 dsh plugin for native titles, delete, presets, permission modes, workspace grouping, and todo/plan push

Quick start

1. Install this extension (.vsix or build from source — see Development).
2. On first run, the DSH Lite Setup page opens: pick where dsh runs and how to launch it. Reopen anytime with DSH: Setup.
3. Open the DSH view in the activity bar — the agent boots automatically, and a session is created for you.
4. Optional but recommended: run DSH: Install/Repair Bridge Plugin to unlock the full feature set (creates the acp-vscode dsh profile, wires services, installs the plugin, and points dsh.profile at it).

Settings

Topologies

Path translation between the VS Code side and the dsh side is automatic (wslpath probing + drvfs prefix mapping).

Commands

Troubleshooting

Everything the agent process prints lands in the DSH output channel; bridge connection state is logged there too.

• Chat stuck on “Initializing…” → run DSH: Doctor. Common causes: nvm-managed node not on the non-interactive PATH (the extension sources nvm/volta/mise/asdf quietly; otherwise use an absolute node path in dsh.command), wrong distro, or a non-ACP profile (web/tui/desktop are rejected with a warning).
• First npx run times out → it downloads the package; install once (npm i -g @deepseek-ai/dsh) or point dsh.command at a checkout.
• “no API key for provider route” → configure the key once in the dsh Web UI Models page (shared via $DSH_HOME), or set dsh.env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY.
• Bridge features missing (titles/delete/presets/permissions) → the extension needs dsh.profile: acp-vscode and the bridge plugin; run DSH: Install/Repair Bridge Plugin.

Development

npm install
npm run build       # bundle extension + webview into dist/
npm run watch       # incremental
npm test            # unit tests (node:test, esbuild-bundled)
npm run typecheck   # strict tsc
npm run smoke       # headless ACP contract test against a real dsh (DSH_COMMAND=… to override)
npm run package     # produce a .vsix

# publishing (needs a publisher PAT):
VSCE_PAT=<azure-devops-pat> npm run publish:marketplace   # VS Code Marketplace
OVSX_PAT=<open-vsx-pat>     npm run publish:ovsx          # Open VSX

Tag pushes (v*) run the full pipeline in ci.yml: the ubuntu+windows matrix (typecheck, unit tests, ACP contract smoke against the published dsh) must pass before the .vsix is built and released to GitHub; marketplace publishing turns on via the VSCE_PUBLISH/OVSX_PUBLISH repo variables once the PAT secrets exist.

Press F5 for an Extension Development Host with this project opened.

src/launcher/   topology detection, process launch specs, WSL↔Windows path mapping
src/acp/        typed ACP client + shared service (vscode-free core)
src/bridge/     dsh-vscode-bridge client + centralized discovery (>=0.1.1)
src/chat/       chat view host: sessions, permissions, context, transcripts, changes
src/webview/    React chat UI (RailSelect, sessions sidebar, todo/plan, welcome)
src/setup/      first-run setup webview panel
src/shared/     host↔webview protocol + pure helpers
tests/          node:test suites (launcher matrix, session ordering, bridge protocol, …)
scripts/        smoke test + icon generator

License

MIT