Introduction

The native search capability of DeepSeek Harness is useful during information discovery, but research workflows often require stable tool contracts and inspectable source trails. This plugin packages source-traceable real-time web search and URL extraction using Brave + Tavily as a native DeepSeek Harness plugin. It provides a transparent search experience by returning the provider, domain, rank, access time, source logs, extraction hash, and visible degradation notices, instead of hiding provider routing.

Core Features

The plugin installs a native Harness bundle in the web profile and provides the following tools:

  • web_search: routes real-time search to Brave/Tavily.
  • web_extract: performs clean URL extraction using Tavily.
  • provider_status: performs a local, key-safe configuration check (does not make provider requests).
  • health_check: explicitly probes auth, quota, rate limits, and timeouts.
  • MCP bundle: bundles mcp-cctb-search.
  • TaroCub: optional integration.

Installation and Configuration

  1. Ensure DeepSeek Harness dsh is installed and the web profile is enabled.
  2. Install the plugin:
    dsh plugin --profile web add github:cloveric/deepseek-harness-web-search-plugin
  1. Restart Harness.
  2. Set the API keys in the environment variables when starting Harness:
    export BRAVE_API_KEY="..."
    export TAVILY_API_KEY="..."

Note: `BRAVE_SEARCH_API_KEY` can also be used as an alias for `BRAVE_API_KEY`. The plugin does not write keys into the Harness profile.

Usage Examples

  1. Start the web profile:
    dsh web
  1. In a Harness session, call the status check (does not consume quota):
    mcp__cctb_search__provider_status
  1. Run the health check (explicit probe):
    mcp__cctb_search__health_check

Available MCP tools include:
*   `mcp__cctb_search__web_search`
*   `mcp__cctb_search__web_extract`
*   `mcp__cctb_search__provider_status`
*   `mcp__cctb_search__health_check`

Security and Limitations

  • Keys are only read from environment variables, never written to the Harness profile, and never returned by provider_status.
  • web_extract accepts only HTTP(S) URLs.
  • The project is licensed under the MIT License.

Conclusion

This plugin supports research workflows that require reliable and traceable information by integrating real-time search capabilities into the DSH ecosystem. Source code and documentation are available on GitHub.