Foreword

When running agents in DeepSeek Harness, archived sessions tend to vanish from the sidebar. To review a specific tool output, retrieve a historical message, restore an old version, or safely free up local space, you typically need additional tools.

dsh-archived-chats transforms “post-archive session management” into a local-first DSH plugin, offering browsing, search, preview, history versions, backup & restore, recycle bin, and retention policies.

What Is This

dsh-archived-chats is a local-first archived-chat center for DeepSeek Harness, maintained by Ultronen and licensed under MIT.

It doesn’t address real-time conversation issues but rather what happens after a session leaves the main interface: finding archived sessions by workspace, inspecting messages, tool results, and stored content, managing local history versions, exporting or importing backups, and retaining recoverable paths when deleting.

Core Features

  • Browse archived sessions by workspace with full-text search on messages and tool results.
  • Native read-only preview for Markdown, reasoning, tool activity, JSON, code, and stored images.
  • Local History for viewing validated versions created post-archive, with support for “Restore as copy.”
  • JSON + Markdown ZIP export with conflict-safe import.
  • Recycle Bin with undo, two-level recovery, and confirmed permanent purge.
  • Storage statistics and retention policies; policies and execution are separated, with a short preview and explicit selection before cleanup.
  • Origins & Branches for viewing read-only relationships in fork and subagent trees.

Installation and Enabling

  1. New installation:
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-archived-chats@latest
  1. Enable the plugin:

Restart DSH once, then open Settings → Session Archive.

  1. Update existing installation:
dsh plugin --profile web update dsh-archived-chats

Plugin data is stored locally:

$DSH_HOME/plugin-data/archived-chats/

Plugin metadata, recycle bin records, policies, and validated snapshots are all in this directory—no uploads or cloud sync.

Typical Usage

  • View archived sessions: Browse by workspace in Session Archive, then use full-text search to locate messages or tool results.
  • Restore old versions: Preview validated snapshots in History and choose “Restore as copy.” Import and restore create or select non-conflicting IDs without replacing existing sessions.
  • Backup and migration: Export JSON + Markdown ZIP. Exports include complete session JSON and readable Markdown but exclude attachment bytes or descendant sessions.
  • Delete sessions: Normal deletion goes to the Recycle Bin with snapshot protection; for permanent deletion, execute a separate permanent purge.
  • Backup before downgrade: If downgrading to a version that doesn’t show History or understand recycle snapshots, back up first:
$DSH_HOME/plugin-data/archived-chats/

Use Cases and Notes

Ideal for those who frequently archive DSH sessions, need to locally find historical messages, tool results, code, JSON, or images, and want deletions to be recoverable with verifiable export scopes.

Notes:

  • The plugin runs with the current dsh process permissions; file access boundaries depend on the local DSH environment and host capabilities.
  • If the host lacks write permissions, related operations return restore-unsupported without writing or overwriting data.
  • Before installation, it’s recommended to check the source code, license, and data paths; this plugin is declared MIT licensed.
  • Export ZIPs exclude attachment bytes and descendant sessions; important attachments should be preserved separately.
  • The community directory is an independent plugin repository, not equivalent to an official app store.

Links

  • Community Directory: https://awesome-dsh-plugin.com/p/Ultronen/dsh-archived-chats/
  • GitHub: https://github.com/Ultronen/dsh-archived-chats