Introduction

When using DeepSeek Harness locally, terminal usage typically involves more than a single Q&A session: you need to start a session in the current directory, continue asking questions, view tool activities, approval questions, context window usage, and permission status, and then close the terminal but still be able to return to the same workspace. orriduck/dsh-tui caters to this type of single-user daily usage scenario, centralizing the terminal interaction of DeepSeek Harness within a compact TUI.

What is dsh-tui

dsh-tui is a small, session-aware terminal UI hosted at orriduck/dsh-tui, maintained by orriduck, and licensed under the MIT License. It provides initial startup guidance based on DSH’s profile usage patterns, creating a local tui profile and registering that bundle. Credentials, model settings, sessions, tools, sandboxing, and approvals remain the responsibility of DSH.

Core Features

  • Streaming text and reasoning.
  • Tool activities and results.
  • Interactive approvals and questions.
  • Persistent permission badges, supports /permission switching; switching is limited to the idle state; full access requires confirmation.
  • Context window usage and total tokens.
  • Installed DSH version and optional npm update hint.
  • Skill discovery, direct invocation visibility, and Tab completion.
  • Persistent sessions, current directory continuity, and list/new/resume commands within the TUI.
  • A single command to complete profile bootstrap.
  • Automatic reporting of Herdr lifecycle when available.

Installation and Enablement

First, ensure the environment meets the following requirements:

Node.js 22+
pnpm
Official DeepSeek Harness CLI

Install dsh-tui:

npm install -g github:orriduck/dsh-tui

Start after entering the target project directory:

cd /path/to/your/project
dsh-tui

The first launch creates a local tui profile and completes the registration.

Typical Usage

Start a new session in a project directory first:

dsh-tui

Then return to the same directory to resume the most recent session:

dsh-tui -c

You can also start with an initial prompt or resume a specific session:

dsh-tui "fix the failing test"
dsh-tui -r <session-id>

Common commands within the TUI are:

/sessions
/resume
/resume <session-id>
/new
/permission
/skills

/sessions lists the 10 most recent sessions saved in the current directory; /resume opens a numbered selector, /resume <session-id> directly switches to the specified session; /new starts a new session. /permission switches the current session permissions via the DSH official command, limited to the idle state; when choosing full access, you need to input FULL ACCESS to confirm. /skills lists the skills the user can call; inputting /skill-name allows direct loading; slash commands and skills support Tab completion.

To override the theme at once, you can run:

DSH_TUI_THEME=dark dsh-tui

Permissions and Sessions

The default DSH permission preset is workspace-write, which includes interactive approvals. dsh-tui does not read or store DeepSeek keys directly, but utilizes the standard DSH credential chain. Permission switching only affects the current session and must be performed while in the idle state; full access requires manual confirmation. DSH remains responsible for credentials, model settings, sessions, tools, sandboxing, and approvals.

Herdr Integration

When dsh-tui runs within Herdr, automatic Herdr lifecycle reporting is performed. Herdr 0.8.0 does not yet natively support the dsh agent kind, so native Herdr launch/control is outside the current scope; you can still launch and interact with it as a standard TUI.

Version and Updates

The status bar displays the installed DSH version and may offer an optional npm update hint. DeepSeek Harness is currently in developer preview; the related versions are locked to 0.1.0-rc.6 to avoid silently introducing upstream breaking changes.

Applicable Scenarios and Notes

dsh-tui is ideal for single-user daily terminal usage with DSH in a local project directory: starting sessions, resuming sessions, monitoring permissions and context, managing skill invocations, and reporting lifecycle to Herdr when available.

Notes before use:

  • It requires Node.js 22+, pnpm, and the official DeepSeek Harness CLI.
  • It runs with the permissions of the current DSH process and inherits DSH’s credential, sandboxing, and approval mechanisms.
  • Before installation, you should check the source code, dependencies, and MIT license.
  • Currently not included: split panes, remote persistence, graphical cross-workspace session browser, image attachments, native Herdr launch/control, and Web-client parity.

Conclusion

dsh-tui consolidates the terminal session, permissions, context, skills, and Herdr lifecycle information of DeepSeek Harness into a lightweight TUI, with the core philosophy being “start in the current directory, resume anytime, and maintain visibility of status.” Repository address:

https://github.com/orriduck/dsh-tui