dsh-desktop 🖥️🐋

The "I just want to double-click it" desktop client for DeepSeek Harness.

No terminal. No dsh web. No "wait, why isn't Node.js installed?!" — dsh-desktop bundles everything, boots the server for you, and politely cleans up after itself when you close the window.

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Why? 🤔

DeepSeek Harness ships as a CLI. Its UI lives behind dsh web, which means you need a terminal, a browser tab, and a few seconds of existential dread about whether the server is still running somewhere.

If you'd rather double-click a thing than type a command — with a taskbar entry, and a server that disappears when you close the window — this is the missing piece you've been looking for.

Features ✨

• One-click launch — starts dsh web automatically when it's not running
• Reuses existing servers — if dsh web is already up, it just connects. It never murders servers it didn't start (it's polite like that)
• Zero dependencies — Node.js, the dsh CLI and pnpm are bundled inside the installer. Your machine can stay pristine
• Clean lifecycle — the server's process tree is terminated on exit. No zombies, no orphans, no "what's eating my RAM"
• Single-instance guard — launching twice just focuses the existing window. No duplicate servers fighting over a port
• Configurable port — set DSH_PORT (default 3080) and it does what you say
• Port settings UI — change the server port and scan for occupied ports right from the dsh settings page (the "Web UI Plugins" section); on startup, if the port is taken by another program, the app offers a free one
• Cross-platform — Windows / macOS / Linux, take your pick

Requirements 📦

The packaged installers need NOTHING. Node.js, dsh, pnpm — all bundled. Install, double-click, done. That's it. Go make a coffee.

Only if you're a source-runner (we see you, tinkerers):

• Node.js >= 22.12
• The dsh CLI installed globally:

npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh

Getting started 🚀

git clone https://github.com/linuxlemon256/dsh-desktop.git
cd dsh-desktop
npm install
npm start

Configuration 🎛️

Environment variable	Default	Description
DSH_PORT	3080	TCP port of the dsh web server (passed to dsh web --port when set)
DSH_SKIP_PLUGIN_INSTALL	unset	Set to 1 to skip the automatic IDE workbench installation

Extending the UI (community plugins) 🧩

The dsh web profile supports third-party plugins that add IDE-like features to the harness UI. The app auto-installs the IDE workbench on first launch (when the web profile lacks it) — clone, start, done. Set DSH_SKIP_PLUGIN_INSTALL=1 if you'd rather keep things vanilla. First launch takes a bit longer while the plugin is installed; that's it spending your patience budget, spend it well.

1. IDE workbench: dsh-better-sidebar (recommended, auto-installed) 🛠️

A full workbench inside the harness — no separate IDE needed. Yes, really:

• File explorer (lazy-loading directory tree) + CodeMirror editor
• Real terminal (xterm.js + node-pty)
• Git panel with VSCode-style diffs (stage / commit / revert)
• Embedded browser, background task view, split-pane layout

Manual install (equivalent to what the app does, if you enjoy typing):

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-better-sidebar

See dsh-better-sidebar (MIT).

2. Explorer + Preview panels: @linxin666/dsh-web-ui-all

A one-command install (Apache-2.0) that adds:

• Explorer panel: file tree, filename search, git changes (stage/unstage/discard)
• Preview panel: multi-tab preview of 10+ formats (markdown, code, pdf, office, images…)
• Task board, git graph, skin center, live stats, and more

npm install -g pnpm
dsh plugin --profile web add @linxin666/dsh-web-ui-all

pnpm ≥ 11 is a bit paranoid: it may report ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS (native deps like ssh2 / node-pty are blocked by default). If that happens, open ~/.dsh/profiles/web/pnpm-workspace.yaml, set every allowBuilds entry to true, and run the dsh plugin ... add command again — it must succeed once (exit code 0) for the plugin to register.

After installing, restart the app and open a project session (a session with a working directory). The panels are shy — they only show up when there's a project to look at.

Building installers 🔨

npm run prepare:resources  # bundle node + dsh + pnpm into resources/ (needed before building)
npm run build:win          # NSIS installer (Windows)
npm run build:mac          # DMG (macOS — requires a macOS machine)
npm run build:linux        # AppImage (Linux — requires a Linux machine)

Output goes to dist/. For official multi-platform release assets, push a v* tag and the release workflow builds all three platforms on GitHub Actions and attaches the files (plus SHA256SUMS.txt) to the release. CI does the heavy lifting; you do the tagging.

How it works 🧠

1. On startup, the app probes http://127.0.0.1:3080 for a running dsh web server.
2. If nothing responds within 1.5s, it spawns dsh web using its bundled runtime (or your PATH as a fallback), passing --port <DSH_PORT> when configured.
3. It polls the port until the server is healthy (60s timeout) and loads the UI in an Electron window. If the server crashes during startup, the app retries (up to 3 times) and shows one clear error dialog instead of a hung window.
4. When the window is closed, the child process tree is terminated — only if this app started it. An externally running server is left untouched.

See docs/deepseek-harness-integration.md for the full architecture and how this project is derived from DeepSeek Harness.

Project structure 🗂️

dsh-desktop/
├── .github/               # Issue & PR templates
├── docs/                  # DeepSeek Harness integration docs (二次开发说明)
├── scripts/               # prepare-resources.mjs — bundles the runtime
├── src/main.js            # Electron main process (the whole app)
├── package.json
├── LICENSE                # MIT
└── THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md # Upstream license attribution

Roadmap 🗺️

• Auto-restart dsh web when it crashes while the window is open — done in 2.0.3
• Settings UI (port) — done in 2.0.3: the dsh settings page's "Web UI Plugins" section hosts a port card (change port, scan occupancy)
• Settings UI (auto-start)
• Faster installer — done in 2.0.x: bundled runtime is pruned (.d.ts / .map / sources / docs / tests stripped), NSIS uses useZip (direct extraction, no temp staging) — install time cut ~3.5x

Contributing 🤝

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md first, and check SECURITY.md before reporting a vulnerability.

License 📄

MIT — see LICENSE.

This project is a secondary development of DeepSeek Harness (MIT, © 2026 DeepSeek). Attribution details in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.