DeepSeek Harness, shortened to DSH on this site, is a coding agent environment. A plugin extends that environment: a different chat surface, a way to show the model an image, a memory store, a marketplace, a check that runs beside the agent's edits. The plugin directory lists public GitHub repositories that advertise themselves as DSH plugins. An agent skill is a different object. A skill is a prompt you paste. A plugin is code you install into Harness.

If you do not run DeepSeek Harness, you do not need this directory. Installing a plugin repository into an unrelated editor will not make that editor grow a Harness sidebar. Read the repository README before you follow an install command from the card.

What you are actually adding

Look at the category before the star count. Client plugins change the surface you type into: a richer sidebar, a terminal UI, a balance widget, a marketplace. Model Inference plugins change which model answers, or give a text-only model a way to see an image. Workflow plugins wrap the agent's edits in checks. Memory plugins keep notes across sessions. Web Tools fetch pages. Security and admin-security claim to test or harden the agent. Fun & Dress-up is cosmetic. The category essays spell out the failure mode of each group. Stars do not.

The card's install command and install prompt are convenience copies of what the publisher wrote. The GitHub link in the sidebar is the source of truth for the license, the default branch, and the files the plugin will put on disk.

A safe first install

  1. Read the README on GitHub far enough to find the install command and the uninstall command. If you cannot find an uninstall, do not install it on a machine you need tomorrow.
  2. Note the permissions. A sidebar that can run shell commands is not a theme. A vision plugin that uploads screenshots is not a local filter until the README shows the request staying on your machine.
  3. Install in a spare Harness profile or a spare project, not in the session where you are mid-refactor.
  4. Ask the agent to do one boring task you already know the answer to, such as printing a file tree or describing a screenshot of a single button. Compare the answer to the truth.
  5. Only then open your real project.

The editor's notes on a few plugins, including the routing suite, ModLens, and the better sidebar, walk through that first task for those specific repositories. A plugin without a note is still just a repository card.

How plugins fail in practice

The common failure is not a dramatic exploit. It is a plugin that was built against an older Harness build and now fails on startup, taking the UI with it. When that happens, remove the plugin with the command from the README, or remove the folder it created, and restart Harness. Do not install a second plugin "to fix the UI" while the first one is still loaded. You will not know which one is drawing the window.

The second common failure is overlapping features. Two memory plugins, or a marketplace plus a hand-installed copy of the same plugin, will fight over the same slot. Keep one of each kind until you have a reason to switch. The category guide is the map of those kinds.

The third failure is a model plugin that silently routes hard prompts to a different endpoint. That can be what you want, and it can also send code to a host you did not mean to pay. Read the routing configuration before you point it at a private repository.

Stars, forks, and licenses

Stars are a sort key because they are public and comparable. They measure attention, not review. A young plugin with a clear README and a small scope is often a better first install than a famous one whose README is a changelog. Forks tell you someone cared enough to copy the repo. They do not tell you those forks are maintained.

Prefer a license you recognize. If the repository has no license, you may still read it, but you should not assume you can vendor the code into a product you ship. Our terms say the same thing about the directory itself: the listing is an index, the repository is the work.

When a plugin is the wrong tool

Use a skill when you only need the agent to follow a format. Use a model from the model directory when the problem is capability, context length, or price. Use a plugin when Harness is missing a capability you want on every turn: seeing a screenshot, remembering a decision, or checking a diff against a contract. If you are not sure which shelf you are on, you are probably about to install the heavier option. Start with the lighter one.

Keep the GitHub URL of anything you install. When the card on this site drifts from the repository, the repository wins, and you can send us the card URL from the contact page so we can correct the listing.

An afternoon that stays small

You want Harness to show git status without leaving the chat, and you want a text model to describe one screenshot. Those are two plugins, and the first week plan would still tell you to add only one today. Add the client plugin first, because you can see whether it worked without spending model tokens. Follow the safe install steps above. Ask for git status. Compare it with a terminal. If it matches, stop for the day. Tomorrow, add the vision plugin in a fresh session, hand it a screenshot of a button whose label you can read, and see whether it names the label. If it names a different button, the adapter is not ready for a production UI review.

Notice you never opened the marketplace, the memory plugin, or the security stress tool. They are real categories and they answer jobs you did not have this afternoon. The category guide exists so you can recognize them and leave them closed. Stars on the marketplace card are not a hint that you are behind.

Write the two GitHub URLs into the same note where you keep the pinned model name. When Harness updates and the sidebar fails to draw, you will want those URLs and the uninstall commands, not a memory of which card looked popular. If a plugin's README disappears, the copy you cloned is the copy you are running. Do not replace it with a same-named fork until you have read the diff. Send us the dead card if our listing still points at the missing repository. A plugin you cannot uninstall is not finished installing. If the README's removal steps fail, stop using that Harness profile for real work until the UI draws without the plugin. Copy the profile aside only after you know which folder the plugin added. Guessing and deleting directories inside an agent install is how people remove the agent itself. The checklist puts the uninstall command before the install command for this reason. Stars do not shorten that recovery.