Introduction

During the development and debugging of DeepSeek Harness (DSH), session state changes are usually implicit in the text stream and terminal output. The dsh-pets plugin aims to bring the desktop pet concept of Codex Pets to the web interface. Through a transparent, draggable overlay, it projects the current session’s “thinking”, “working”, and “completed” states into visual animations, helping developers monitor the agent’s running rhythm more intuitively.

Plugin Overview

This is a client-side plugin maintained by eivmosn and released under the MIT open-source license. It does not involve model inference or prompt generation. It acts only as a front-end display component, responsible for rendering sprites from the local pets directory and driving animation playback based on DSH session state.

Core Features

  1. Transparent Overlay and Dragging: The pet is rendered with a transparent background and can be dragged to any position within the viewport. The position is automatically persisted.
  2. State Mapping: Using Codex Pets’ standard format (V1/V2 sprites), it maps the following states:
    • Thinking: Displays the waiting animation.
    • Working: Rotates through the running, review, and running-right animations.
    • Completed: Waving animation.
    • Blocked/Failed: Corresponding failure animation.
    • Idle: Rotates through small idle movements.
  3. Status Bubble and Chip: A white bubble appears above the pet (e.g., “Thinking”, “Working on {task}”), and the agent preset chip for the current session appears below it.
  4. Settings Section: Provides a dedicated settings page that allows selecting a pet image from the local pets directory and overriding the bubble text.

Typical Usage

  1. Obtain a Pet Image: Visit codex-pets.net to discover and download a pet package.
  2. Install a Pet: Run the following command in the terminal to add the pet to the local directory.
    npx codex-pets add <pet-id>
  1. Restart the Service: After installation, restart the DSH service so the plugin can load the new pet resources.
  2. Enable and Configure: In the DSH web interface, find the “Pets” settings section in the navigation bar and select an installed pet to apply it.

Technical Implementation and Limitations

  • Non-Intrusive Mechanism: The plugin only projects a session snapshot into an overlay. It does not generate prompt content or write any session events, and it does not affect the AI model’s reasoning process.
  • Performance Impact: No KV Cache impact.
  • Resource Dependencies: Fully compatible with codex-pets’ V1/V2 sprite format and can render offline without additional configuration.

Notes

  • This plugin is a client-side component that runs in the browser.
  • It is recommended to review the source code (GitHub) and the license before use to make sure it fits your use case.

Summary

dsh-pets provides DSH with a visual status feedback mechanism. If you need to observe the agent’s workflow through intuitive animations, or you want to customize a dedicated desktop pet, this plugin is a lightweight and non-intrusive option.