Introduction

When developing agents in DeepSeek Harness (DSH), connecting external knowledge bases to an agent is a common requirement. Knowz provides a solution for connecting to hosted vaults via the MCP protocol.

What Is This

Knowz is a plugin that provides DSH with hosted MCP connectors and lightweight vault skills. It is maintained by knowz-io and focuses on knowledge retrieval and management.

Core Features

  • MCP Connection: Connect agents to hosted Knowz vaults via the MCP protocol.
  • Knowledge Access: Provides vault access.
  • Knowledge Only: This plugin focuses on knowledge-base functionality and does not include code execution or testing-related capabilities.

Installation and Enablement

To install the plugin, perform the following steps:

  1. Install the plugin:
    dsh plugin --profile web add github:knowz-io/deepseek-knowz-plugin
  1. Configure the API key:
    • Create an API key starting with ukz_ in app.knowz.io/settings/api-keys.
    • Set KNOWZ_API_KEY in an environment variable or $DSH_HOME/.credentials.yaml.
        export KNOWZ_API_KEY=ukz_…

*   After setting the key, restart `dsh web`.
  1. Map vaults:
    After the key is configured, issue a command to the agent to run the knowz-setup skill and map vaults.

Skill List

The plugin provides the following skills:
* knowz-ask
* knowz-save
* knowz-search
* knowz-browse
* knowz-amend
* knowz-setup
* knowz-status
* knowz-flush
* knowz-auto

Notes

  • Security: Do not paste API keys into chat.
  • Registration trap: Do not run /knowz register on an existing Knowz account; this command creates a new account and is not the login path for existing users.
  • Authentication: No OAuth in this slice.
  • Dependency: Requires @deepseek-ai/dsh-mcp-client.
  • Package security: This package does not contain secrets, CLIENT_ID, a literal bearer token, or x-api-key; all authentication is injected via environment variables.

Brief Closing

The Knowz plugin gives DSH the ability to connect to hosted knowledge bases. By configuring environment variables and running knowz-setup, external vaults can be mapped to the agent. For more details, refer to the project homepage or GitHub repository.