Preface

When executing a main task in DeepSeek Harness (DSH), you often encounter a contextual dilemma: the main Agent is still working, but you temporarily need to confirm a detail that has already appeared in the current context. Sending a regular message would inject the question into the main session, potentially affecting subsequent tasks; opening a separate session would lack the background just discussed.

dsh-btw is an unofficial community plugin maintained by iyllyt under the MIT license. It provides a /btw bypass question feature for DSH: submit a quick question related to the current context while the main Agent is busy, with the answer displayed in a temporary panel, not entering the main session history.

What Is This

One-line positioning: dsh-btw is a one-time bypass Q&A plugin for DSH.

It reuses the currently shareable context of the parent session to generate a single answer; the main task continues executing, and the BTW question and answer are not written into the regular session history.

Core Features

  • Main task parallelism: You can submit /btw even while the main Agent is busy, without pausing the main task.
  • Shared context: Reuses the parent session’s current model configuration, system prompt, tool schema, and security message prefix.
  • One-time answer: Performs only one round of model generation, without executing tools or continuing follow-up questions.
  • Session isolation: Does not write user messages, answers, or hidden sessions to the main SessionStore.
  • Temporary interface: Markdown answers are displayed above the composer, without obscuring the input box.
  • Privacy archiving: Offers three sidechain modes—private JSONL, memory-only, or none.
  • Cache protection: Anthropic/pi-ai routes shift the cache boundary back to the shared prefix; other routes are managed by the provider.
  • Cancellable: Closing the panel aborts the request, with support for independent timeout control.

Installation

The following is the web profile installation command from the verified facts:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:iyllyt/dsh-btw

This plugin is an unofficial community plugin, not affiliated with Anthropic, Claude Code, or DeepSeek AI. It is licensed under MIT. Before installation, it is recommended to review the source code and license, and confirm that it will run under the current DSH process permissions.

Typical Usage

First, send at least one message in the main session, then enter in the input box:

/btw What was the configuration file name mentioned earlier?

It can also be used to confirm design choices or error relationships in the current context:

/btw Why was a queue chosen here instead of direct execution?
/btw Which caching strategy did we finally decide to use?
/btw Is this error related to the code we just modified?

Interaction methods:

  • ↑ / ↓: Scroll long answers
  • Enter / Space / Esc: Close the answer
  • Clicking Cancel while a request is pending: Aborts this BTW

Use Cases and Limitations

Suitable for quick questions about known details in the current context, such as confirming a configuration file mentioned earlier, a previously discussed approach, or a choice in code already read.

Not suitable for the following needs:

  • Reading files not yet viewed
  • Executing commands
  • Web searches
  • Continuous follow-up questions
  • Actually modifying files or executing operations

The reason is that BTW has no tool permissions and no follow-up rounds; it is an additional model request, not equivalent to a regular message or a subtask with tools.

Privacy and Archiving

  • Offers three sidechain modes: private-jsonl, memory, or none.
  • Default sidechain mode is private-jsonl, written to $DSH_HOME/btw-sidechains/v1.
  • The private-jsonl directory has permissions 0700, files have permissions 0600, and cleanup is automatic based on days and maximum count.
  • In terms of session isolation, BTW does not write user messages, answers, or hidden sessions to the main SessionStore.
  • Uninstalling the plugin does not automatically delete private audit records already written to $DSH_HOME/btw-sidechains/v1.

Configuration and Compatibility

  • Current version: 0.2.0
  • Target DSH: 0.1.0-rc.6
  • Node.js: >=22
  • Configuration overrides replace the entire config for the same plugin line, not recursively merging; when overriding, you must write out all fields you wish to retain.
  • Anthropic/pi-ai routes shift the cache boundary back to the shared prefix; other routes are managed by the provider.
  • The pi-ai cache bridge will fail closed if the expected rc.6 adapter internals change.

Related Links

Repository address: https://github.com/iyllyt/dsh-btw