Introduction¶

When developing agents, Zhihu is often an unavoidable data source: you need to check the hot list for topic selection, follow answers to specific questions, and monitor updates from certain authors. The existing method is to switch to a browser, read, and then paste the link and summary back into the agent chat, breaking the information flow between two copy-pastes.

DSH’s philosophy is “Everything is a plugin”. The dsh-zhihu-dashboard introduced below brings this into DeepSeek Harness (DSH): a Zhihu panel in the UI sidebar for viewing and tracking; simultaneously, it registers seven native tools in the chat, allowing the agent to directly check the hot list and search for content.

What is this¶

dsh-zhihu-dashboard is a DSH plugin maintained by kexuejin, under the MIT license, version 0.1.0. One-sentence positioning: A Zhihu dashboard – featuring trending hot lists, follow feeds, post tracking, and app-idea extraction; usable both within the DSH UI and as native agent tools.

It is built upon the official zhihu-cli (Zhihu Open Platform) and requires a free Zhihu Open Platform Access Secret.

Core Features¶

Hot list and Follow feeds¶

• Hot list (Hot list): Today’s popular questions/articles, with trend arrows (New / ↑ / ↓) calculated based on adjacent snapshot diffs.
• Follow feed (Feed): Recent collections, your own creations (sorted by newest or most likes), and followed users.

Post tracking¶

You can track three types of objects:

1. Questions – all their answers.
2. Keywords – similar new content.
3. People – their new content, filtered by author.

New content is marked NEW and displayed inline below the corresponding tracking item, so you don’t have to dig through them yourself. Optional auto-brief to extract new findings into app-idea briefs via ZhiDa; or optional system notifications with sidebar unread badges – the background checker runs with the DSH top-level window, so you get reminders while using DSH without opening the panel.

Unread aggregation and Smart brief¶

Unread aggregates all new content found in tracked items into a single feed, with source, author, time, and summary; the sidebar badge links directly, and supports “Mark all as read”.

Smart brief routes automatically to corresponding templates based on tracked object/source, generated using the current DSH provider/model, retains recent brief history, and can open the panel via global alerts.

Opportunity report¶

The Opportunity report aggregates candidates like hot list/feed cache, tracked NEW items, unread items, and workspace/research projects, scores them locally first, then generates an opportunity report using the current provider/model, and supports prompt copying as a fallback.

Favorites, Workspace and Reading mode¶

• Favorites: Favorites content is displayed inline, supporting local search and favorites-specific sorting; new items are marked NEW and can be exported as research-packs.
• Content Workspace: Send any card to Later / Analyze / Done queues; create research projects; and copy project-level Agent analysis prompts.
• Reading Mode: Opens a clean reading view within the panel, including source info, original links, and one-click Markdown copy.

Search, Sort, Filter and Export¶

• Tracking search controls: Each track can be configured with result count, content type, and time window; recent tracking queries will auto-suggest in the input box.
• Local sort/scoring: Platform order, Newest first, Most likes first, Newest time first, or weighted local scores based on preferred keywords.
• Local filtering: Keywords, authors, and regex block rules apply to hot list/feed/favorites/unread/tracking checks; cards have quick block buttons, and block history can be unblocked with one click.
• Export: Hot list/feed/favorites/unread/tracked new content lists can be copied as Markdown or CSV.

Data source and Login¶

Access Secret (Open Platform) remains the primary path. Additionally, Settings supports Zhihu scan-to-login: sessions are persisted locally and read-only by the host, and can be cleared with one click; when encountering risk control responses, a local verification page for shared temporary cookies is displayed.

Seven Agent Tools¶

The plugin registers seven tools via ctx.tools.register, which can be called directly in the chat:

Installation and Pre-configuration¶

Installation command:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-zhihu-dashboard

You can also add it to the cordis.patch.yml bundle layer of a profile and then restart dsh web.

There are three prerequisites:

1. Install zhihu-cli skill (dsh skill install zhihu, or follow your harness’s skill flow) to get the CLI binary in place. The plugin auto-detects in the order: cliPath config → ZHIHU_CLI_HOME → PATH → platform default location.
2. Get a free Access Secret from developer.zhihu.com/profile.
3. Provide the secret to the CLI:

printf '%s' 'zh-…' | zhihu-cli auth set --secret-stdin

You can also set the ZHIHU_ACCESS_SECRET environment variable for the agent tools, or simply fill it in within the panel (stored locally in the browser).

On first startup if the secret is not configured, the panel will display a three-step guide: Open platform → Create Access Secret → Paste and verify; after verification, data loads automatically.

Configuration Items¶

Host-side configuration:

Panel-specific items are stored in browser localStorage: Access Secret, tracking check interval, auto-brief toggle, system notification toggle, and keyword/author/regex local block rules.

Quota¶

Zhihu Open Platform trial quota (shared across all secrets): 100 Hot list / day, 100 ZhiDa / day, 5,000 Search / day. Auto-brief and question title parsing each consume one ZhiDa call; tracking checks use Search. The current day’s quota is displayed at the top of the panel.

Architecture and Security¶

The plugin is split into two halves:

• Host half (lib/): Serves /zhihu-dashboard route within the same trust boundary as the DSH API gateway, drives the zhihu-cli binary, and registers seven agent tools.
• Client half (src/client/, bundled as client/client.js): Mounts the “Zhihu Panel” button at the bottom of the official sidebar, opening the right-side drawer that holds the panel; also mounts the background tracker checker (track-checker.ts), running with the DSH top-level window, checking tracked items periodically, and triggering system notifications or sidebar unread badges when new content is found.

Regarding security:

• Access Secret is only stored in browser localStorage and does not leave the browser except to be sent as an origin request header to the host; when injecting into CLI, it goes via ZHIHU_ACCESS_SECRET, not argv, and is not written to the keychain by the plugin.
• Routes share trusted Host/Origin restrictions with the DSH /api gateway.
• No telemetry; aside from the Zhihu Open Platform API, there are no external requests.

Applicability and Notes¶

Suitable users: Those who need to continuously monitor Zhihu dynamics within DSH—such as topic selection, following questions, and tracking authors—and want the agent to directly retrieve Zhihu content and integrate results into subsequent analysis.

Two notes:

1. The plugin runs with the permissions of the current dsh process. Before installing, it is recommended to review the source code and license (MIT) to confirm its operation matches expectations.
2. The quota is a trial quota; auto-brief and others consume ZhiDa calls. Before intensive tracking, check the daily quota at the top of the panel.

Conclusion¶

The value of dsh-zhihu-dashboard lies in connecting both the Zhihu data source and tracking to two entry points in DSH: the panel handles viewing and management, while the agent tools handle searching and usage, both utilizing the same trial quota from zhihu-cli and the Open Platform.

• GitHub: https://github.com/kexuejin/dsh-zhihu-dashboard
• Community directory page: https://www.skillhub.cn/plugins/kexuejin/dsh-zhihu-dashboard