Preface

The ecosystem philosophy of DeepSeek Harness (DSH) is “everything is a plugin.” In local development or deployment scenarios, developers often need to execute tasks on a schedule. Existing approaches often rely on OS-level cron or require separately maintaining child processes and credentials, while DSH’s built-in schedule_create is mainly used for in-session reminders and cannot satisfy unattended execution across sessions.

dsh-wb-cron is a plugin designed for this scenario. It integrates the scheduler into the web profile process and automatically launches a new root agent at the scheduled time to execute the instructions.

Features

  • Three scheduling modes: Supports Vixie-standard 5-field cron expressions (with step values, ranges, lists, names, and IANA time zones), fixed intervals (minimum interval ≥5 minutes), and one-time absolute times.
  • Conversational and GUI management: Provides tools such as cron_create / cron_list / cron_update / cron_delete / cron_run_now / cron_next / cron_history, and also offers a two-level GUI (sidebar quick overview and a settings page for full management).
  • In-process execution: Tasks launch a root agent inside the host process, without child processes, and naturally inherit the host profile’s model routing, memory injection (dsh-wb-memory), skills, and hooks.
  • Zero dependencies and zero telemetry: It has no npm runtime dependencies, sends no statistics or heartbeats to any external address, and network behavior during task instruction execution is determined solely by the Agent.
  • Agent preset management: Each task can independently pin a preset (such as standard / ptc / minimal). If the preset is unavailable, it executes according to the three-level fallback strategy and records an error.
  • Session persistence and continuation: Sessions generated by execution are persisted normally and can be continued via the Web sidebar or history records.

Installation and Enabling

Plugin installation requires two steps: first install it via the DSH CLI, then manually modify the configuration file.

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-wb-cron

After installation, edit the host configuration file ~/.dsh/profiles/web/package.json and append "dsh-wb-cron" to the dsh.profile.bundles array. Restart the host for the changes to take effect.

Core Mechanisms

  • Scheduler lifecycle: The scheduler runs inside the host process. If the host is not running or is in a headless profile, the scheduler does not start. After the host starts, the scheduler periodically checks trigger conditions in the background.
  • Missed-run handling: When a task’s trigger time has passed and the scheduler finds that nextFire is more than 2 minutes overdue, it chooses skip (default, recorded as skipped-missed) or runOnce (run it once immediately) according to the configuration. In either case, at most one catch-up run is performed; backlog is never replayed.
  • Stopping and timeout: When a user requests stopping a task, the scheduler sets a cancellation flag and attempts to call the agent’s stop / abort / dispose methods. Because the agent does not yet have a public stop interface, stopping may only release resources; the task may continue to completion in the background, but the session is still persisted normally.
  • Division of responsibilities with the built-in scheduler:
    | Feature | schedule_create (built-in) | cron_create (this plugin) |
    |—|—|—|
    | Trigger scenario | In-session reminder | Unattended execution across sessions |
    | After session closes | Reminders remain overdue until the session returns | Triggers as usual; the session is persisted and can be continued |

Agent Preset Fallback Strategy

Tasks are unattended, so execution should not be interrupted when a preset is unavailable. The plugin uses a three-level fallback chain and records the reason in the error field of the run history:

  1. Level 0: Try the task’s pinned preset. If this fails, record preset X is unavailable, falling back….
  2. Level 1: Try the built-in standard mode standard. If this fails, record standard is also unavailable, falling back to global default….
  3. Level 2: Try the global default preset (agentPresets.resolve(undefined)). If this fails, record no preset is available; running with bare context.
  4. Level 3: Use bare context (meta without agentPreset). Throw an error upward only if execution itself fails.

Configuration Options

The following parameters can be adjusted by modifying cordis.patch.yml or the configuration file:

{
  "maxConcurrentJobs": 1,        // 全局并发上限，默认串行
  "tickMs": 30000,               // 调度检查间隔（毫秒）
  "historyLimit": 500,           // history.jsonl 保留条数
  "defaultTimeoutMinutes": 30,   // 单次运行看门狗超时
  "appendMemoryLogDefault": true // 任务头默认是否带 wb-memory 收尾指引
}

Applicable Scenarios and Notes

  • Permission review: Installing any DSH plugin means running third-party code with your permissions. This plugin’s source code structure includes entry, scheduling and parsing, storage, execution, and front-end modules; please review it yourself.
  • Data storage: Task data and history are stored in the ~/.dsh/wb-cron/ directory (jobs.json and history.jsonl).
  • Ecosystem context: This plugin is listed in the community directory (SkillHub) and has no official affiliation with DeepSeek or High-Flyer.

Conclusion

dsh-wb-cron provides a practical solution for implementing unattended scheduled tasks within the DSH ecosystem. Through in-process execution and a robust fallback strategy, it ensures the stability and controllability of task triggering.

  • Repository: https://github.com/miseryrua/dsh-wb-cron
  • Directory: https://www.skillhub.cn/plugins/miseryrua/dsh-wb-cron