Introduction

The core idea of DeepSeek Harness (DSH) is “everything is a plugin,” which provides a foundation for building domain-specific expert tools. Thesis writing and defense is a complex task that relies heavily on process control and fact-checking. Traditional generative tools often overlook formatting standards, plagiarism similarity rates, and the authenticity of experimental data, making their outputs unusable as-is.

dsh-thesis is a single DSH plugin designed to solve the problems of “cluttered materials, broken workflows, and rampant fake references and fake data” through structured workflows and human gates. It does not provide generic writing assistance; instead, it offers a complete thesis engineering solution.

Plugin Overview

Name: dsh-thesis
Maintainer: Paloma966
License: MIT
Core value: Turn a pile of materials into a thesis that can withstand plagiarism checks and the defense, and help you become someone who can clearly explain your own system.

The plugin breaks thesis writing down into nine stages: topic selection → proposal → literature → design → implementation → testing → thesis writing → compliance → defense. It enforces the “zero fake references” and “zero fake data” principles throughout the entire process and requires users to manually confirm key checkpoints (G1–G4).

Core Features

The plugin covers a toolchain across the full thesis lifecycle and includes the following capabilities:

  • Materials and intent processing: material ingestion (supports docx/xlsx/pptx/pdf/md/csv files), targeted follow-up questions (thesis_intake), and workspace initialization.
  • Progress and gate management: progress ledger, G1–G4 human gates (cannot be skipped), and decision logging.
  • Authentic references and compliance: authentic reference search (Semantic Scholar/DBLP/arXiv/Crossref), reference management (GB/T 7714), section and full-text checks, and originality self-checking (local estimation).
  • Artifact generation: Word document generation (built-in generator or pandoc), defense slide generation (Marp-compatible), and code rehearsal (defense_code_*).
  • Cross-session memory: uses a SQLite fact store to remember school rules, advisor requirements, and writing preferences.

Workflow

The plugin adopts an “ask first, act later” strategy to avoid directional mistakes.

  1. Material ingestion (thesis_ingest): reads thesis materials provided by the user, school templates, experimental data, and code, then generates a material list and text summary.
  2. Targeted follow-up (thesis_intake): asks only one question at a time, ensuring the intent spec (00-管理/意图规格.md) is clear and falsifiable. Information already readable from the materials is not asked again.
  3. Workspace initialization (thesis_init): establishes a thesis workspace based on the intent spec, including the nine-stage directory structure, ledgers, and skill packs.
  4. Nine-stage pipeline: advances thesis writing sequentially, generating trace records for every step.
  5. Final outputs: generates the Word thesis, defense slides, originality self-check report, and code rehearsal scripts.

Installation and Enablement

Installing this plugin requires pnpm in the environment.

# Install the plugin
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-thesis

# Restart the DSH process
# ...

After installation, restart DSH. The plugin registers three namespaces:

  • thesis_*: thesis workspace operations
  • fact_*: cross-session fact memory
  • defense_code_*: defense code rehearsal

Typical Usage

In a DSH conversation, trigger the workflow through natural language:

Here is my thesis material. Help me complete my graduation design.

The tool then automatically performs the following steps:

  1. Read the materials.
  2. Enter thesis_intake mode and ask for missing information one question at a time (e.g., word count requirements, plagiarism similarity threshold, timeline).
  3. Generate 00-管理/意图规格.md.
  4. Initialize the thesis workspace.

Workspace discovery: Most tools discover the workspace by walking upward until they find 00-管理/进度台账.md. It is recommended to set the session directory as the thesis root directory, or explicitly specify it in the configuration.

Commands and Tools

The plugin provides 21 tools and 9 slash commands. The main tools are as follows:

Thesis Workspace (thesis_*)

  • thesis_progress: manages the progress ledger and G1–G4 gates.
  • thesis_check: full-text checks (citation consistency, word count, figure and table numbering).
  • thesis_build: generates Word documents and supports a built-in zero-dependency generator.
  • thesis_originality: local originality self-checking and rewriting suggestions.
  • thesis_defense / thesis_slides: prepares defense materials and slides.

Cross-Session Facts (fact_*)

  • fact_remember / fact_context: stores school rules and advisor requirements in the SQLite fact store and automatically injects context into related conversations.

Code Rehearsal (defense_code_*)

  • Provides a series of commands (status, next, update) to decompose the system into modules and walk through real validation gates one by one, ensuring that implementation details can be clearly explained during the defense.

Hard Constraints and Limitations

To ensure the quality of the output, the plugin includes several hard constraints:

  1. Zero fake references: in-text citations may only come from the verified search cache produced by thesis_lit_search; thesis_lit_save rejects IDs outside the cache.
  2. Zero fake data: experimental data and run results must come from actual runs; fabrication is not supported.
  3. Mandatory human gates: the G1–G4 stage gates must be passed and cannot be skipped, ensuring users are accountable for each step.
  4. Format compatibility: PDF extraction is best-effort; scanned or encrypted PDFs may not be readable; legacy formats (.doc/.xls/.ppt) are not supported and must be saved as newer formats.
  5. Originality self-checking scope: this is a local estimation only. It does not integrate with paid plagiarism-checking systems (CNKI/VIP); the results are for reference only, and you need to submit the work for official checking yourself.

Conclusion

dsh-thesis is not a simple text generator, but a thesis engineering plugin that enforces standards and rejects hallucinations. It transforms thesis writing from “assembly” into “construction” through structured processes and strict fact-checking. If you need thesis output that is logically rigorous, contains authentic data, and complies with standards, this plugin provides the necessary constraints and tools.