DeepSeek Harness (DSH) adopts an “everything is a plugin” architecture. During multi-turn conversations or when reading long responses, the default input box often occupies the center of the screen, obstructing the view. dsh-composer-alcove is designed to solve this visual obstruction problem. It uses the plugin mechanism to reposition the official input box, collapsing it into a Home indicator bar and docking it into the margin areas on either side of the screen using rounded arcs.

Plugin Positioning

This is a Web client plugin maintained by developer Nixz0824. It does not modify the DeepSeek Harness source code; it only moves the official input box itself. By shrinking the input box and docking it to either side, it preserves the original input features—such as model switching, sending, and attachment upload—while freeing up more screen space for reading.

Core Features

This plugin mainly provides the following interaction capabilities:

  • Collapse into a Home indicator bar: In a long conversation, scrolling down collapses the input bar into a Home indicator bar at the bottom, approximately 134×5px in size, with a color that follows the dark/light theme.
  • Rounded-arc docking: Click the rounded arc in the top-left or top-right corner, and the original input box slides into the left or right margin. In its original position, a horizontal line with the same color and thickness as the stats text is displayed.
  • Preview and restore: Hover the mouse over the thin bar, and the input bar returns to its expanded height for preview; moving the mouse away collapses it again.
  • Pin the expanded state: Click the thin bar or the expanded input box to pin the expanded state; scrolling down again unpins it; scrolling up expands it and pins it.
  • Controls retained: The plus button, model switcher, send button, paste-image action, and attachment removal in the sidebar are all retained as their original controls and are unaffected by docking.

Installation and Enablement

The plugin is open source under the MIT license and can be installed using the official command-line tool.

  1. Run the following command to install the plugin:
    dsh plugin --profile web add https://github.com/Nixz0824/dsh-composer-alcove/releases/latest/download/dsh-composer-alcove-0.5.8.tgz
  1. After installation, refresh the browser page.
  2. If the Home indicator bar or arcs are not visible after refreshing, restart the DSH process: dsh --profile web.

Typical Usage

  1. Collapse: In a conversation window that has already started, scroll down, and the input box automatically collapses into a thin bar at the bottom.
  2. Preview: Hover the mouse over the thin bar to see the input box return to its original state.
  3. Dock: Click the rounded arc in the top-left or top-right corner to dock the input box into the left or right margin of the screen.
  4. Pin: Click the thin bar or the expanded input box to keep it expanded for continued input.
  5. Restore: Click the arc in the bottom-right or bottom-left of the sidebar, or simply press the Esc key, and the input box slides back to its original position at the bottom.

Notes

  • Not active on the welcome page: On the welcome page of a new conversation before the first message is sent, the plugin does not display the thin bar or arcs.
  • Permissions and restart: The plugin runs with the permissions of the current dsh process. If it has no effect after installation, be sure to restart dsh --profile web.
  • Content restriction: If there is unsent text or attachments in the input box, it will not collapse into the thin bar.

Summary

dsh-composer-alcove is suitable for users who frequently need to read long text while retaining the ability to input at any time. Through refined interaction design, it optimizes the reading experience on the DSH Web client.