Introduction

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) follows the “everything is a plugin” philosophy. New users often fail to start smoothly during first launch due to environment configuration issues, such as missing Node.js, unset API Key, or workspace permissions. Existing diagnostic tools mostly focus on plugin health or networking, but lack a user-facing “beginner onboarding” checklist. dsh-firstrun aims to solve this gap.

What It Is

This is the first-run health check tool for DeepSeek Harness (dsh). It is a single command that tells new users what is currently missing and what they should run next. It is maintained by user zoahdev and is licensed under MIT.

Core Features

The core features include:
* Toolchain validation: Checks whether Node.js, pnpm, and the dsh CLI are in the PATH.
* Configuration validation: Checks the Home directory, dsh Profile, API Key (name only, without printing its value), workspace writability, and npm registry configuration.
* Onboarding output: Outputs actionable next-step recommendations.
* Runtime mode: Has zero runtime dependencies, runs in read-only mode, and does not output any sensitive API Key values.
* Interface support: Provides a command-line tool and an agent-callable interface, and returns a structured report in the dsh-firstrun/v1 format.

Installation and Enablement

Install the plugin:

dsh plugin add dsh-firstrun

It can also run directly as a standalone command:

npx dsh-firstrun

Typical Usage

In the command line, run it directly:

dsh-firstrun
# 或输出 JSON 格式
dsh-firstrun --json

In the DSH agent, you can simply ask:

Run an environment check and see what is still missing.

This triggers the quickstart tool and returns a dsh-firstrun/v1 report.

Use Cases and Notes

It is suitable for new users who have just installed DeepSeek Harness and are unsure whether their environment is configured correctly.

  • Prerequisites: Ensure Node.js version >= 18.
  • Permissions: When the plugin runs, it operates with the permissions of the current dsh process.
  • Security: It has zero runtime dependencies, runs in read-only mode, and does not output any sensitive API Key values.
  • Source review: The source code is hosted on GitHub, is licensed under MIT, and can be audited by yourself.

Conclusion

dsh-firstrun closes the loop of environment configuration troubleshooting in a single command, helping beginners avoid wasting time on environment issues. The full configuration and source code can be reviewed in its GitHub repository.