Introduction

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) uses a pluggable architecture. When developing or debugging agents on the web, you often need to view multiple Sessions or chat windows at the same time. The native tab management approach may not meet the needs of parallel multi-tasking. The dsh-docking-layout plugin aims to solve this layout problem by organizing chat tabs into a docking structure similar to a code editor, providing more flexible window management capabilities.

What Is This

This is a web client plugin maintained by ai-eks. Its core value is to organize an unlimited number of chat tabs in DeepSeek Harness Web into editor-style groups that can be split by dragging, allowing developers to freely adjust the workspace layout.

Core Features

The plugin provides the following capabilities:

  1. Unlimited organization: Supports an unlimited number of tabs and groups with no fixed size limit, so you can freely expand your workspace.
  2. Dragging and splitting: Drag a tab to another group to move it, or drag it to an edge to split the window; toolbar buttons also provide shortcuts for splitting to the right or bottom.
  3. Responsive layout: When the window width reaches 760 pixels, the system automatically switches to a single-group full-width display mode and switches views through the group switcher.
  4. Session persistence: Closing a tab only changes the browser layout and never deletes its DSH Session. Even if you close the last tab, the plugin opens a blank Session (it reuses an existing blank Session when DSH selects one).
  5. Mode switching: When you switch to single-column mode or another main panel, the docking pane is hidden; when you return, the group layout is automatically restored.

Installation and Enabling

Before installing, verify the environment dependencies.

  • Dependency versions: DeepSeek Harness ^0.1.7-rc.2 and Cordis ^4.0.4 are required. If you are using DSH 0.1.2, use plugin 0.1.2-rc.1.
  • Installation command:
dsh plugin --profile web add github:ai-eks/dsh-docking-layout
  • How to enable: After installation, find and enable “Docking Layout” at the bottom of the DSH sidebar.

Typical Usage

After enabling the plugin, you can organize the interface in the following ways:

  1. Open multiple Sessions, either through the group menu or the DSH sidebar.
  2. Use the mouse to drag tabs into different groups, or drag them to the window edge to split.
  3. Use the toolbar buttons to quickly split a new tab to the right or bottom.

Use Cases and Notes

  • Touch devices: In the touch layout, the interaction model is different; the system uses split buttons and the group switcher instead of tab dragging.
  • Ecosystem integration: If the dsh-better-sidebar plugin is installed, it provides a shared bottom workbench that spans the chat area below all groups.
  • Data safety: The plugin stores only layout preferences, and all embedded pages are same-origin. It does not copy Session logs, prompts, approvals, or files, nor does it add any additional information visible to the model.
  • Local storage: All layout settings are stored locally.

Conclusion

The Docking Layout plugin solves the pain point of multi-window management in DSH Web by introducing an editor-style docking mechanism. If you need to view or switch between multiple chats side by side in one interface, this is a practical solution.

For more details or feedback, refer to the plugin directory page or the GitHub repository: https://github.com/ai-eks/dsh-docking-layout