Introduction

The minimal preset in DeepSeek Harness usually provides more stable model behavior. However, when the complex tool sets of modes such as standard, code, or cordis are needed, the model can become unstable because the schema is too large. dsh-ark resolves this trade-off by adopting a “freeze the wire surface, extend via side channels” approach. It uniformly freezes the Ark preset family on the minimal wire surface (bash + str_replace_editor), and changes the complex tools, instructions, and skills that would otherwise need to be injected into the model into on-demand proxied execution through the dsh-ark CLI side channel.

What Is It

dsh-ark is an Ark mode plugin for DeepSeek Harness, maintained by user leike0813 and released under the MIT license.

Its core value is providing three frozen minimal wire presets while exposing extended capabilities through a CLI side channel. This allows developers to retain the stability of the minimal preset while accessing the full capability directories under standard, code, or cordis through the side channel.

Core Features

  • Three frozen presets: Provides ark (corresponding to standard), ark-code (corresponding to code), and ark-cordis (corresponding to cordis). Model requests for these presets only include the bash and str_replace_editor tools, avoiding interference from large and messy schemas.
  • Side-channel extensions: Encapsulates instructions, skills, tools, MCP, host bridge, and other capabilities through the dsh-ark CLI. The model triggers them with a single bash command, and the CLI proxies execution.
  • Dynamic dependency resolution: Dependencies are resolved dynamically at runtime, without relying on fixed @deepseek-ai/dsh-* registry versions.
  • Host bridge: Phase 2 introduces an authenticated Unix socket bridging mechanism for interacting with the host plugin.

Installation and Activation

  1. Install the plugin:
    dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-ark
  1. Start Harness:
    dsh web

After installation, the host plugin generates the corresponding $DSH_HOME/.agent-presets/<mode>/shellrc.sh for each preset at startup, and exports DSH_ARK_MODE (standard, code, or cordis) and DSH_ARK_WORKSPACE. Ensure the configuration output includes agent-presets.default: ark and the ark, ark-code, and ark-cordis presets.

Typical Usage

After selecting the corresponding Ark preset in the client (such as Ark, Ark-Code, or Ark-Cordis), you can directly run the dsh-ark command in the terminal.

  • View the session guide:
    dsh-ark guide
  • List available tools:
    dsh-ark tools list
  • Call a tool (JSON-formatted arguments are required):
    dsh-ark tools call read '{"file_path":"/tmp/x"}'
  • View MCP configuration:
    dsh-ark mcp list
  • View bridge status:
    dsh-ark bridge status

Runtime and Exit Codes

  • Dependency management: The runtime never imports fixed @deepseek-ai/dsh-* registry versions. Instead, it resolves the dependency graph from DSH_ARK_DSH_PACKAGES_DIR or $DSH_HOME/profiles/node_modules.
  • Bridge communication: Phase 2 uses a Unix socket ($DSH_HOME/ark/bridge.sock) for bridging, with file permissions set to 0600.
  • Exit codes:
    • 0: Success
    • 2: Usage error
    • 3: Not found
    • 4: Unavailable
    • 5: Upstream/IO/execution failure
    • 124: Timeout

Local Testing

To verify the build locally, you can run:

pnpm run test:publish

This command performs packaging, rewrites profile dependencies, and reinstalls the plugin.

Use Cases

It is suitable for developers who need to use standard/code/cordis capabilities in DSH while maintaining model stability. The plugin runs with the permissions of the current DSH process; it is recommended to review the source code and license before use.

For more details, refer to the project repository: https://github.com/leike0813/dsh-ark