Introduction

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) uses a plugin-based architecture, and managing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers typically requires editing configuration files directly. dsh-mcp-ui provides a visual Web settings card, allowing users to manage MCP server configurations within the DSH interface instead of manually editing settings.yaml.

Plugin Role

dsh-mcp-ui is a client plugin for DeepSeek Harness, maintained by quan-v. It provides the settings card UI, stores configuration information, and listens for configuration changes to automatically mount or unmount dsh-mcp-client instances without requiring users to restart the DSH process.

Core Capabilities

  • Settings card UI: Provides an MCP server configuration card in the DSH Web settings, keeping consistent styling with other DSH plugins.
  • Dual transport support: Supports both stdio (local process) and streamable-http (remote URL) transports.
  • Full field coverage: Supports complete configuration options, including serverName, command/args/env/cwd, url/headers, tool-call timeout, startup-failure policy, and auto-reconnect (enabled/delay/limit/attempt count).
  • Hot sync: When saving configuration, the host side automatically mounts or unmounts the corresponding dsh-mcp-client instances without restarting DSH.
  • Safe: The server list is stored in ~/.dsh/settings.yaml, and sensitive information is referenced through environment variables.

Installation and Activation

Add the plugin using the official installation command:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:quan-v/dsh-mcp-ui

After installation, restart dsh web. The settings card can be found under Settings > Plugins > Plugin Config > MCP Servers.

Usage

  1. Open the settings card and click + Add Server.
  2. Enter a unique serverName (the naming format for tools invoked by the model is mcp__<serverName>__<tool>).
  3. Select the transport method (stdio or streamable-http) and fill in the corresponding fields.
  4. Click Save. The host automatically establishes the connection, making the tools provided by the server available for model invocation.

Notes

  • This plugin does not implement the MCP protocol itself; it only provides the settings card and configuration storage functions.
  • It listens for configuration changes and uses ctx.plugin() to mount or unmount official dsh-mcp-client instances on the host side. The actual connection establishment, tool discovery, and naming are handled by the official client.
  • DSH versions 0.1.1 and later require keyed slots. The plugin has been adapted to this requirement (the issue of missing options.key was fixed in version 1.0.1).
  • The configuration is stored under the mcp-ui: key in ~/.dsh/settings.yaml.

Conclusion

dsh-mcp-ui simplifies the MCP server configuration process through a visual interface, making it suitable for developers who need to quickly adjust server parameters in the DSH Web interface. For more details, visit the GitHub repository.