Introduction

In DeepSeek Harness (DSH), the plugin settings page usually only shows whether an MCP server is mounted. However, the underlying client does not interrupt the process by default when a startup error occurs, causing mounted servers that are not actually connected to appear as “active” in the UI. This issue is usually discovered only when an agent tries to call a tool. The dsh-mcp-live-status plugin solves this problem by displaying real-time server connection status directly in the chat toolbar.

What Is dsh-mcp-live-status

dsh-mcp-live-status is a DeepSeek Harness plugin maintained by felix-lj-ct. It mainly addresses the “mounted but not connected” pseudo-healthy status issue, helping developers quickly identify the actual running state of MCP servers.

Core Features

The plugin provides the following capabilities:

  • Chat toolbar status display: Shows a real-time connection status pill in the tool row of the chat input box.
  • Detects false-healthy states: Able to identify servers that were mounted but never successfully connected.
  • Click to view details: Clicking the status pill shows each server’s transport method, number of tools, and failure reason.
  • Zero configuration and read-only: Requires no additional configuration; the plugin runs with read-only permissions and is used only for status monitoring.

Installation and Enablement

Installing this plugin requires the web profile, and the DeepSeek Harness version must be 0.1.0-rc.7 or higher.

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-mcp-live-status

After installation, restart the web profile instance to make it take effect.

Typical Usage

Using this plugin requires the following conditions to be met:

  1. Environment requirement: The web profile must be configured.
  2. Basic dependency: At least one MCP server must be configured.
  3. Session trigger: The status pill is displayed only when a session exists.
  4. Host status check: You can check the host-side status with the following command:
    curl 127.0.0.1:3080/dsh-mcp-live-status/status

Notes and Limitations

During use, please pay attention to the following limitations:

  • Display mechanism: Status display depends on an active session; the pill is invisible when no session exists.
  • Polling mechanism: Status is obtained through polling rather than a push mechanism.
  • Distinction between tools and connection: The plugin cannot distinguish between “server not connected” and “server connected but has zero tools”.
  • Permission scope: The plugin operates in read-only mode and only reads the loader, tool registry, and webServer routes.
  • Security handling: Secrets in MCP server command lines are desensitized to prevent leakage.

Ecosystem Links

The plugin follows the MIT License. For more details and source code, visit:
* GitHub repository
* Community plugin directory