Preface

When running agents in DeepSeek Harness (dsh) Web, checking for uncommitted changes in the repository, which MCP services are currently connected, or how many session tokens have been used often requires switching to the terminal or searching through logs. dsh-hud consolidates this information into a floating panel next to the input bar, which can be accessed by clicking a dashboard icon without leaving the conversation interface.

Below is an introduction to this client-side plugin developed by community maintainer a903067276-rgb: what it is, what it shows, how to install and use it, and what to note before installation.

What Is This

dsh-hud is a HUD status panel plugin for the DeepSeek Harness Web interface. It adds a dashboard button to the input toolbar, and clicking it opens a draggable-width floating panel on the right side, centrally displaying Git status, MCP services, Skills, official usage metrics, and session statistics. The button also shows a live badge with the number of uncommitted files.

The project is hosted on GitHub (a903067276-rgb/dsh-hud) and is categorized under “Client” in the SkillHub community directory. The current package.json version is 1.2.16, licensed under MIT. This is an independent community project, not an official DeepSeek product.

Core Features

The data within the panel is roughly divided into the following sections, all sourced from the locally running dsh instance (except for the balance, as noted below).

Git

  • Branch name, ahead/behind status, unstaged / staged / untracked files (collapsible groups)
  • Each file shows a +N/-N summary, and clicking expands the full diff
  • The latest 5 commits

MCP

  • List of connected MCP services derived from tool names in the format mcp__<server>__<tool>

Skills

  • List of skills available to the current agent

Official Usage and Session

  • Current model and reasoning effort, plan mode status
  • Token usage (input / output / cache-hit rate)
  • Session statistics: turns, steps, LLM and tool duration, decode tok/s, context usage percentage
  • Token buckets split by model (requests, input, cache, output), allowing simultaneous viewing when switching between flash/pro

Balance

  • Fetches the official DeepSeek account balance via the host-side GET /user/balance endpoint using the DEEPSEEK_API_KEY credential; the key never leaves the host, and -- is displayed when unavailable.

The toolbar button continues lightweight polling of Git even when the panel is closed, and the badge number represents the count of uncommitted files.

Installation and Enabling

This repository is an official bundle plugin (the root package.json contains dsh.bundle and dsh.client), installed via the profile manager:

dsh plugin --profile web add "github:a903067276-rgb/dsh-hud#main"

After installation, you need to restart dsh web (the bundle layer is assembled at startup, and HMR does not apply). The dsh plugin command forwards to pnpm, so pnpm must be in your PATH.

For alternative manual mounting paths, see the repository docs/install.md. Official bundle installation and manual mounting are mutually exclusive—do not use both simultaneously.

Version Compatibility

Your DSH Version Installation Branch/Tag Notes
0.1.1-rc.1 and newer main (v1.2.15+) Full functionality
0.1.0-rc.7 – 0.1.0-rc.8 v1.2.11 See command below
0.1.0-rc.6 and older rc6-compat Frozen maintenance; upgrade DSH recommended

Installation examples for older versions:

dsh plugin add github:a903067276-rgb/dsh-hud#v1.2.11

dsh plugin add github:a903067276-rgb/dsh-hud#rc6-compat

Requirements

  • DSH Web >= 0.1.1-rc.1 (e.g., npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web)
  • git CLI in PATH
  • DSH’s shell service executes commands via bash -c on all platforms (Git Bash on Windows), with no additional shell required.

Platform Support: macOS has been fully tested in development environments; Linux and Windows are not yet fully tested but are expected to work. Details are available in docs/install.md#platform-support.

Typical Usage

  1. Install using the command above and restart dsh web.
  2. Locate the dashboard (gauge) icon in the input toolbar (it follows DSH official design tokens and switches with the dark/light theme).
  3. Click to open the floating panel on the right (default width 240px); drag the left edge to adjust between 200–480px, with the width saved in localStorage.
  4. Section titles with quantity badges can be clicked to collapse/expand; data auto-refreshes every 30 seconds (when the panel is closed, only the Git badge continues lightweight polling).

Optional environment variable: On machines with extremely large directory trees or unreliable file watching, you can set DSH_HUD_NO_WATCH=1 to disable file watching and instead rely on 30-second polling and manual/focus refreshes for updates. The default watch depth limit is 128.

Architecture Overview

The host (Node, lib/index.js) registers the /api/dsh-hud route via webServer and executes Git commands in a single bash -c session. The browser side (lib/client.js) mounts the button in the input.left slot and the panel in the shell.overlay slot, sharing state through a module-level store (useSyncExternalStore). The client is a hand-written window.__ModuleLoader__.load(...) bundle with no build steps and zero runtime dependencies. Maintenance details are available in docs/architecture.md.

The design philosophy is read-only and minimalistic: it does not perform git write operations or set up a standalone configuration page. For commit/push UI or file tree features, you should use other SCM-type plugins; dsh-hud serves as a glanceable status HUD that can coexist with them.

Use Cases and Considerations

It is suitable for agent developers who spend long sessions in DSH Web and need to quickly verify repository dirty files, MCP connections, token, and session metrics.

Before installation, note:

  • The plugin runs with the permissions of the current dsh process, executing local git commands and reading MCP/skills projections; it makes no outbound requests other than the official balance API.
  • The balance functionality depends on the host-configured DEEPSEEK_API_KEY.
  • The community directory SkillHub is not officially affiliated with DeepSeek or High-Flyer; it is recommended to review the source code and MIT license before installation.

If you want to quickly glance at project and session status within the Web conversation interface without opening a terminal or additional tools, dsh-hud provides a lightweight, read-only HUD with low installation cost, aligning with DSH’s “everything is a plugin” ecosystem.