Introduction

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) follows the “everything is a plugin” philosophy. When developing on the desktop, managing Skills and MCP Servers (Model Context Protocol servers) usually requires editing configuration files directly. This lacks a unified entry point and is easy to modify accidentally. The following introduces dsh-skill-mcp-manager, which provides a unified management interface inside the settings page for DSH Desktop.

Core Features

This plugin is loaded based on DSH’s dual-side plugin mechanism (Host + browser side) and the profile bundle approach, and it automatically persists as DSH is upgraded.

Skill Management

The plugin manages skill files located in ~/.dsh/skills:
* Listing and search: Lists all Skills and supports searching by name or description.
* Enable/disable and deletion: Enables or disables Skills by modifying frontmatter markers; deletion involves real files or symbolic links and is destructive, so confirmation is required first.
* Import: Supports uploading .md files; names are automatically normalized to kebab-case.
* Folder synchronization: Synchronizes a source folder into the target directory via symbolic links (ln -s), so changes in source files take effect in real time.

MCP Management

The plugin manages server configuration located in ~/.dsh/mcp.json:
* Supported protocols: Supports stdio (command/arguments/environment variables/working directory) and streamable-http (URL/headers).
* Progressive loading: Does not connect to servers at startup. After the model matches a description, it calls mcp_session(load) to load tools on demand, so different sessions do not affect each other.
* Configuration editing: Supports opening the configuration file in the system editor.

System Prompt Integration

Each session’s system prompt automatically appends a capability:mcp section, listing the names, descriptions, and load status of configured servers. Based on this, the model decides which tools to call.

Installation and Enablement

A DSH environment that supports profile bundle patch is required. Add the dependency and bundle configuration to the profile’s package.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "@kiligzzz/dsh-skill-mcp-manager": "^0.3.0"
  },
  "dsh": {
    "profile": {
      "bundles": ["@kiligzzz/dsh-skill-mcp-manager"]
    }
  }
}

After the configuration is complete, restart DSH. The new management entry will appear on the settings page.

Typical Usage

  1. Unified management: Create, read, update, and delete Skills and MCP Servers in the DSH settings page.
  2. Symbolic link synchronization: Run commands on the host to synchronize a skills folder into ~/.dsh/skills via symbolic links, enabling real-time updates to external files.

Notes and Cautions

  • Configuration format: When writing to ~/.dsh/mcp.json, the plugin uses map format ({ "name": { ... } }). The older { "servers": [...] } array format is automatically migrated on the first read.
  • Dependencies: The Host side depends on runtime resolution of @deepseek-ai/dsh-mcp-client, which is not published with the package; the browser side depends on the slots service.
  • Destructive operations: Deleting or toggling a Skill directly modifies the file system and is a destructive operation.
  • Development: The plugin has no build step and is implemented in pure JavaScript.

Summary

This plugin solves the cumbersome manual configuration of Skills and MCP Servers in DSH environments. It provides visual management through the settings page and enables progressive loading of tools on a per-session basis, making it suitable for developers who need to frequently adjust context protocol configurations.

  • GitHub repository: https://github.com/kiligzzz/dsh-skill-mcp-manager
  • Plugin catalog: https://www.skillhub.cn/plugins/kiligzzz/dsh-skill-mcp-manager