In DeepSeek Harness (DSH), the default @ file reference completion is usually limited to the current workspace. To access files anywhere on the machine, or to leverage the Everything search engine for millisecond-level response, an additional tool is required. The dsh-file-reference-everything plugin provides a full-disk implementation of ctx.fileReferences.

Plugin Overview

dsh-file-reference-everything is a DSH plugin maintained by lumose0. It upgrades the agent’s file reference capability from “the current workspace” to “any file on the machine”. When Everything is running, it provides native millisecond-level search through the es.exe command-line client; if Everything is not running, the plugin falls back to its built-in, cross-platform limited index.

Core Features

  • Full-disk file reference implementation: Fully implements the ctx.fileReferences interface.
  • Everything instant search: Responds to queries through the es.exe command-line client with extremely fast speed.
  • Cross-platform fallback index: On macOS and Linux, when Everything is not available, it uses a built-in limited disk index.
  • Query support: Supports fuzzy search and regular expressions.
  • Workspace priority: Workspace results are always merged and ranked before full-disk search results.
  • Text reference guidance: Provides file path text references; actual content reading depends on the read tool.

Installation and Enablement

It is recommended to install it into the web profile, because the @ file completion UI exists only under that profile.

dsh plugin --profile web add github:lumose0/dsh-file-reference-everything

Installation notes:
* This package includes a prepare script that builds lib/ from source during installation. If you use pnpm >= 10, the first add may fail; you need to add the following to pnpm-workspace.yaml:

    allowBuilds:
      dsh-file-reference-everything: true

Then run the install command again. This only allows executing code during installation; it is recommended to review the source code before allowing it.
  • If you install it into a non-web profile, you may see a harmless warning: patch: entry "file-reference-local" not found.

Typical Usage

The query syntax goes after @ (use @" if the path contains spaces).

  1. Fuzzy search: Search in the merged workspace and full-disk indexes.
    • Example: @config
  2. Regex matching: Use a regular expression.
    • Example: @re:pattern or @regex:pattern
  3. Absolute path browsing: Specify an absolute path.
    • Examples: @D:/..., @//server/share/..., @~/...
  4. Relative path browsing: Relative to the agent’s current working directory.
    • Example: @src/comp

Note: The plugin only provides text path references. When the model needs to read file content, it must call the read tool. The plugin provides the model with a system prompt instructing it to use the read tool and not to claim that it has viewed a file before reading it.

Notes and Limitations

  • Text references only: The selected path is a text reference; reading still requires the read tool and is subject to file system permissions of the deployment environment.
  • Fallback index limitations: The full-disk fallback index is limited (bounded by globalMaxEntries) and lazy (rebuilt only when the query interval exceeds refreshSeconds). It does not support .gitignore semantics and only skips directories listed in excludedDirectories.
  • es.exe conflicts: If a query starts with -, it may be parsed by es.exe as a command-line option rather than a search term.
  • Duplicate entries: The same file may appear both in workspace relative-path results and full-disk absolute-path results.
  • Fixed scoring: For specific syntax that the plugin cannot match, such as certain wildcards, scoring is fixed and may be less accurate than ranking for exact matches.

Use Cases

Suitable for scenarios where you need to quickly locate system configuration files, third-party library code, or any disk file within a DSH agent. Before use, make sure to review the plugin source code and verify that its license (MIT) meets your project requirements.

Summary

dsh-file-reference-everything expands file search scope to the entire machine by replacing DSH’s default file reference provider. It leverages Everything for peak performance, provides a cross-platform fallback mechanism, and ensures that workspace files always have the highest priority.