Introduction

In the multi-agent development scenario of DeepSeek Harness (DSH), when a main agent invokes multiple sub-agents to work in parallel, their real-time status is often hard to perceive quickly in the main conversation flow. Checking chat history or logs is inefficient. dsh-subagent-progress aims to solve this problem by collapsing sub-agent session events into progress states and rendering a real-time dashboard above the input box.

What It Is

dsh-subagent-progress is a DSH client plugin maintained by edgeseeker7. Its core purpose is to display the status of running sub-agents, including progress, elapsed time, suspension, or failure, so you can get an overview without entering each sub-agent session.

Core Features

The plugin provides the following capabilities:

  • One card per sub-agent: Each card displays the label, current turn/step, task completion (e.g., 1/3), the specific action being executed (not just the tool name), and the elapsed time.
  • Self-reported by sub-agents: Sub-agents report progress, estimated remaining time, or key findings in a single sentence via the notify_user tool. Status colors (blue/amber/green) adapt to DS theme variables.
  • Suspension and failure handling:
    • Suspension alert: If a sub-agent is silent for more than 5 minutes, its status dot turns amber.
    • Failure actions: If a sub-agent crashes, its card is retained, showing a red dot and an error summary (hover to view the full text). Action buttons are provided: Retry (queue a new turn directly from the card), Open (jump to the session), and Pause (interrupt the current turn).
  • Layout and non-intrusion: Cards are aligned in an equal-width grid and retain structure regardless of how many there are. After a sub-agent completes, its card remains for 30 seconds and then disappears automatically; important findings remain for 3 minutes; cards can be dismissed individually or all at once.
  • Interactive inspection: Clicking a card opens the full session of the corresponding sub-agent. Hovering over the update area shows a frosted-glass pop-up containing the full update rendered in Markdown.

Installation and Activation

Installing the plugin does not require modifying configuration files. Run the following command in the terminal:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-subagent-progress

After installation, restart the dsh web process to activate it. The plugin requires a DSH version of 0.1.2-rc.1 or higher.

Typical Usage

  1. View overview: View all running sub-agent cards above the input box.
  2. View details: Hover over a card to view the detailed report content rendered in Markdown.
  3. Intervene in the session: If a sub-agent is stuck on an error (e.g., 429 overload), click the Retry or Pause button on the card to intervene.

Applicable Scenarios and Notes

  • Applicable scenarios: DSH developers who need to monitor the running status of multiple sub-agents simultaneously.
  • No configuration: No additional configuration is required after installation; it works out of the box.
  • Version compatibility: Official plugins declare dependencies through peerDependencies. Because npm semver cannot express “any prerelease version starting from version X,” the plugin explicitly states in its documentation that the minimum requirement is dsh >= 0.1.2-rc.1.
  • Runtime environment: The plugin does not modify DSH source code. Its host-side logic can work in any deployment, but UI rendering only takes effect under dsh web.

Brief Conclusion

dsh-subagent-progress centralizes real-time sub-agent status, reducing the cost for developers to switch views to check logs. Its non-intrusive design ensures the panel automatically cleans up after completing its mission, keeping the interface tidy. Project address: GitHub.