DeepSeek Harness (DSH) adopts a plugin-based architecture, but in terms of file management and interaction with local development environments, its default chat interface often cannot meet the needs of complex task workflows. Developers usually need to switch between multiple windows to view code, manage Git, or debug terminals.

dsh-workbench is a sidebar plugin designed for this purpose, bringing the classic VSCode workbench layout to DSH. The plugin is maintained by LingYuYue1, is available under the MIT License, and aims to provide DSH with a more self-contained, highly integrated development environment.

Installation and Enablement

Plugin installation can be completed with a single npx command. After installation, you need to restart DSH and hard-refresh the browser.

npx -p @deepseek-ai/dsh dsh plugin --profile web-desktop add github:LingYuYue1/dsh-workbench

After successful installation, a ◀ button appears on the right edge of the screen. Clicking the button toggles the sidebar between visible and hidden. The sidebar contains an activity icon bar, offering switching among six main views.

Core Features

The plugin uses the left-side explorer and top activity bar to integrate file operations, code preview, terminal, and Git panels within the same window.

Files and Preview

The explorer displays the file tree based on the current working directory of the session and supports lazy loading. Clicking a file opens a preview in a tab, with support for Markdown rendering, code highlighting, images, sandboxed HTML, and embedded PDFs.

Editing and Reloading

Preview tabs support edit mode with a built-in CodeMirror 6 editor, providing syntax highlighting, line numbers, and atomic save via Ctrl+S. Each tab header includes a refresh button that manually reloads the file. In addition, the plugin polls the modification time and size of open files, and external changes automatically trigger a page reload.

Change Review and Undo

This is a core feature for interacting with AI. After the AI modifies a file, a red/green diff review card is automatically inserted at the end of the chat stream. Developers can directly click the undo button inside the card to roll the file back to its pre-modification state.

The sidebar provides a Git panel supporting Status, Stage, Unstage, and Commit operations; clicking a file displays its diff. The integrated terminal is built on node-pty and xterm.js, supports multiple tabs and keep-alive replay, and maintains the connection when switching views. Additionally, the workspace-wide search feature can recursively traverse all text file contents in the workspace and jump grouped by file.

Layout and Browser

Panel width, sidebar width, and terminal height can all be adjusted by dragging. The embedded browser is implemented with a sandboxed iframe and provides a URL bar.

Usage Example

After opening the sidebar, use the top activity icon bar to switch views. In the chat, ask the AI to modify a code file. After the file modification is complete, a review card appears in the chat stream; clicking undo rolls back the change.

Notes

The plugin’s embedded browser is implemented with a sandboxed iframe. Due to security policies, many mainstream websites (such as Google, GitHub, and Zhihu) reject embedding via X-Frame-Options or Content-Security-Policy security headers, causing a blank page or blocking the page. Therefore, third-party websites cannot be logged into inside the iframe.

The embedded browser is better suited for viewing AI-generated HTML files or simple static web pages. If you encounter a site that cannot be embedded, click the ↗ button next to the address bar to open it in the system browser.

Conclusion

By providing resource management, code editing, a Git panel, and terminal integration, dsh-workbench transforms DSH’s workflow from “chat + external tools” into a “fully inline workbench.” Developers can complete code review, version control, and terminal operations within a single interface, without frequently switching windows.

GitHub repository: https://github.com/LingYuYue1/dsh-workbench
Ecosystem directory: https://www.skillhub.cn/plugins/LingYuYue1/dsh-workbench