Introduction

In the “everything is a plugin” system of DSH (DeepSeek Harness), web_search is one of the most commonly used tools for agents to access the web. However, the completeness of search results depends on the underlying search provider: if only a string of links is obtained, the model has to fetch and organize the web pages again, costing extra time and context.

dsh-tavily-web-search focuses on a specific task: connecting DSH’s search provider to Tavily’s REST API, allowing web_search to directly return a list of links, summary answers, and structured citation sources. Below is an introduction to its features, installation, and configuration methods.

What is this

dsh-tavily-web-search is a DSH plugin (bundle) maintained by paul-yangmy, currently version 0.1.0, with an MIT license. It registers a ctx.web search provider via the Tavily REST API. Once loaded, the plugin automatically sets the search provider for web_search to tavily, eliminating the need for manual configuration changes.

The returned results consist of two parts:

  • Summary content: The answer summary generated by Tavily;
  • Structured citation sources: Each containing title / snippet / publishedAt.

Installation and Activation

It is recommended to install it directly into DSH’s web profile:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:paul-yangmy/dsh-tavily-web-search

After installation, run the following command to confirm the plugin has been applied to the final configuration:

dsh --profile web --dump-config

If your DSH profile is not web, simply replace web with the corresponding profile name in the two commands above.

Configuring the API Key

The plugin itself does not contain the key. First, create an API Key in the Tavily console, then write it to the DSH credential service:

# $DSH_HOME/.credentials.yaml
TAVILY_API_KEY: tvly-<your-key>

The resolution order for the key is: the apiKey literal for each search (not recommended) → DSH credential service → startup environment variable. The API Key is not embedded in the plugin package or written into the code. It is recommended to use the credential service: keys support hot reload, so no restart is needed after changes.

Optional Configuration

The plugin provides two configuration items; default values generally do not need to be changed:

# settings.yaml
web-search-tavily:
  baseURL: https://api.tavily.com
  apiKeyEnv: TAVILY_API_KEY
  • baseURL: Tavily API address, default https://api.tavily.com;
  • apiKeyEnv: Environment variable name, default TAVILY_API_KEY.

Local Development

When modifying the source code, clone the repository first, then install the local path as a plugin within the repository directory:

dsh plugin --profile web add .

The source code is pure JS and requires no additional build steps.

Limitations and Notes

  • Currently, it uses Tavily’s search_depth: "basic" fixedly; the advanced depth option is not exposed.
  • max_results is constrained by the tool layer with a hard cap of 20 (Tavily documentation limit).
  • Actual availability depends on the Tavily service and network conditions.
  • If multiple search provider plugins are installed simultaneously, the plugin layer installed last wins; to switch back to another provider, override web.searchProvider in the profile’s cordis.patch.yml.
  • Runtime environment requires Node >= 22.

Additionally, a reminder: the plugin runs with the permissions of the current dsh process. Before installing any third-party plugins, it is recommended to review the source code and license first—this repository is MIT, the source code is pure JS, so you can read it through before installing.

Summary

dsh-tavily-web-search solves a specific, concrete problem: allowing DSH’s web_search to obtain both a summary and citation sources in one go, rather than just a string of links. Installation, writing the key, and verifying configuration—three steps are all it takes to get started.

Plugin directory page: https://www.skillhub.cn/plugins/paul-yangmy/dsh-tavily-web-search

GitHub repository: https://github.com/paul-yangmy/dsh-tavily-web-search