Introduction

Developers who use the DSH (DeepSeek Harness) Web interface for daily conversations spend most of their time staring at that chat input box. The native cursor blinks at a fixed frequency, making it easy to lose the visual anchor of “where the cursor is” when typing long text or using an input method for Chinese. It’s not a big deal, but something you have to face every day.

DSH’s philosophy is “everything is a plugin,” so the presentation of the input box can also be handled by a plugin. Below, I introduce smooth-cursor, which does only one thing: replace the native blinking cursor with a glowing comet that slides smoothly as you type.

What is this

smooth-cursor (package name dsh-smooth-cursor) is maintained by Lacquervii. It is categorized as a UI enhancement plugin, currently at version 0.1.6, and uses the MIT license. It targets the DSH Web chat input box, rendering the cursor as a smoothly moving glowing comet, and provides configuration options such as a trail, accent color, and thickness.

The inspiration for the cursor smooth effect comes from VSCode’s smooth cursor concept and references the animated-cursor plugin from the Obsidian community (MIT, original author Kotaindah55 / Sheva Ihza); the rendering and integration for this project have been independently rewritten for DSH Web.

Key Features

  • Breathing Cursor: Smooth easing; the cursor slides toward the text position while typing instead of blinking.
  • Comet Trail: A fading and thinning trail follows the cursor when it moves.
  • Configurable: Toggle effects, toggle trails, accent color (preset palette or custom picker), thickness (thin / medium / thick).
  • IME Adapted: Measurements respect the input method composition state, remaining accurate for Chinese and Japanese input.
  • Browser Local Persistence: Settings are stored in localStorage, requiring no restart of the host or repeated requests.

Version Requirements

The plugin relies on the official @deepseek-ai/dsh-client-ui-renderer package, which is provided starting from DSH 0.1.0-rc.8. Confirm the version before installing:

dsh --version   # Confirm version >= 0.1.0-rc.8

Early versions (such as 0.1.0-rc.7) do not include this package, so the plugin will fail to load.

Installation and Usage

The recommended way is to install it directly as a DSH plugin:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-smooth-cursor

You can also install via GitHub:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:Lacquervii/smooth-cursor

After installation, restart dsh web and find the settings under Settings → General → Input Cursor.

If you want to develop locally and install manually, clone the repository and build first:

git clone https://github.com/Lacquervii/smooth-cursor.git
cd smooth-cursor
pnpm install --ignore-scripts
pnpm build

Then register it in your profile’s cordis.patch.yml:

- insert:
    - id: smooth-cursor
      name: dsh-smooth-cursor

A note: The lib/ artifacts have been committed to the repository, so it can run directly after installation from git, even if the package manager blocks the prepare build step.

Typical Usage

The effect takes effect as soon as the input box gains focus, requiring no extra action. Open Settings → General → Input Cursor to:

  1. Toggle the whole effect or just the comet trail.
  2. Select an accent color from the palette or use a custom color picker.
  3. Select the cursor thickness.

All settings are stored in localStorage and take effect immediately upon change without restarting the host.

If you want to modify the code, pnpm watch provides incremental rebuilding; pnpm build completes tsc type checking and tsdown packaging (node side + client side).

Suitable Scenarios and Notes

It is best suited for two types of people: first, users who input for long periods on the DSH Web interface and are sensitive to cursor experience—just install and use; second, developers who want to reference “how to inject into the DSH Web client, integrate a settings panel, and adapt IME,” as its rendering and settings integration is a complete DSH plugin implementation.

Notes before installation:

  • The plugin runs with the permissions of the current dsh process; you should check the source code and license before installing. This project is under the MIT license (consistent with README and package.json).
  • Confirm the DSH version is not lower than 0.1.0-rc.8, otherwise the plugin will fail to load.

Conclusion

smooth-cursor involves minimal changes, replacing only the cursor rendering method, but it is a complete implementation of the “everything is a plugin” philosophy in a detail: independent installation, configurable, and locally persistent. If you also find the native blinking cursor annoying, it is worth a try.

The directory page is a community site and has no official affiliation with DeepSeek / Hypothesis.