# `@deepseek-ai/dsh`

English | [中文](README.zh.md)


Argv is parsed once through a [Commander](https://github.com/tj/commander.js) adapter ([`src/args.ts`](src/args.ts)): one program whose default (no subcommand) is the TUI/headless surface (`--config`, `-p`/`--prompt`, `--resume`), whose `meta` subcommand is the same TUI over this checkout, whose `upgrade` subcommand is an option-less guided-session entry, and whose `web` subcommand is the browser UI. `src/bin.ts` switches on the resolved mode and dynamic-imports only that mode's module. `dsh --help` lists every mode and `dsh web --help` renders the web usage, `dsh --version` prints this app's version, and an unknown option or a mistyped `--resume` fails loud (stderr, exit 1) instead of misrouting. Every subcommand that shares no option with the default surface — `upgrade`, `web`, `meta` — rejects a leaked `--config`/`-p`/`--resume` rather than running and dropping it. `dsh web`'s `--host`/`--port` are unvalidated pass-through overrides: the `dsh-host-webserver` schema is the single source of both the default (the shipped Web overlay value when a flag is absent) and validity, and rejects a bad value at boot. `--trusted-host` appends named authorities for the /api browser-trust fence; an all-interfaces bind additionally derives the machine's LAN IP literals itself ([`src/app-cli-entry.ts`](src/app-cli-entry.ts)), so the printed LAN URL works without flags.

The TUI surface:

- boots `base.cordis.yml` plus `tui.cordis.yml` through [`dsh-app-boot`](../../packages/ui/app-boot/README.md); `--config <path>` applies a patch-list overlay instead of the personal overlay, while `--config-replace <path>` boots that file as the complete tree;
- resumes a persisted session with `dsh --resume <session-id>` and, when the Node host exposes `process.execve`, supplies the TUI's in-place handoff host: after selector preflight and current-session flush, the host disposes the app and replaces the process with a normalized resume invocation; runtimes without process replacement leave the session running and say so. This CLI owns session identity and the exit line rather than the config: it mints or selects the `main` session id and provides it, plus the exact command that reproduces this invocation, on the boot context ([`MAIN_SESSION_ID_KEY`](../../packages/ui/tui/README.md) and `TUI_GOODBYE_MESSAGE_KEY`). No `cordis.yml` key can drop resume, and a missing or unreadable id fails loud instead of creating a fresh session;
- treats the **invoking directory** as the workspace — sessions, relative paths, and workspace instructions resolve from the cwd (`dsh meta` is the sole exception, below);
- tells the agent where its own source lives: after boot it adds a prompt section naming this harness checkout, resolved from the launcher's real path so it holds under a PATH symlink and an arbitrary cwd, so the self-referential `cordis` toolset can read and modify it;
- applies the personal overlay from `~/.dsh` (see [app-boot's Personal config](../../packages/ui/app-boot/README.md#personal-config)): `config.yaml` patches the booted tree, while `.env` there is the credential provider's own store (never hoisted into the environment, so keys stay rotatable). Environment precedence is ambient > project `.env`.

`dsh meta` is that same TUI with this harness checkout as the workspace, so working on dsh itself needs no `cd`. It chdirs to the checkout root — resolved from the launcher's real path, the same root the source-path prompt section names — after the environment is settled, so precedence is unchanged while the session cwd and HMR watch root move together. Meta always starts a fresh session and accepts no default-surface options; use ordinary `dsh --resume <id>` to resume a persisted session.

`dsh upgrade` is a guided fresh-session entry over the default TUI surface: it mints a fresh session in the invoking directory and seeds its first turn with the bundled `dsh-upgrade` skill, exactly as if the user typed `/skill:<name>`. The launcher passes the skill name on the boot context ([`INITIAL_SKILL_KEY`](../../packages/ui/tui/README.md)), which the TUI auto-invokes once the chat is live. Both take no options — `--config`, `-p`, and `--resume` fail loud — and seed only on this first launch, so a later `dsh --resume <id>` of the session is an ordinary TUI session with no re-injection.


The Web and headless surfaces boot `base.cordis.yml` plus `web.cordis.yml`, then apply `$DSH_HOME/config.yaml`; an explicit `--config <path>` replaces that personal overlay. Both surfaces otherwise share the same composition: both treat the invoking directory as the default project and Workspace root, create named Workspaces beneath that root unless `--workspace-root <path>` overrides it, load applicable `AGENTS.md`/`CLAUDE.md` instructions into each agent-loop request prefix with a 65,536-byte render budget, opt into first-message model titles, and mount a disposable in-memory SQLite content-index service. That service is ACTIVE at boot, while its `node:sqlite` module and database handle open only on the first content search. This keeps Node 22 startup output free of SQLite's experimental warning before search is used; the first actual search may still emit the runtime warning. Each service instance owns its database, so parallel invocations neither share unsupported SQLite state nor leave derived index files behind, and the first search lazily reconciles live and persisted logs. Headless differs only in listening on an OS-assigned port (parallel `dsh -p` runs never collide; the stderr-printed URL opens the live session in a browser). Both need the frontend dist and client bundles built (`pnpm run build && pnpm run build:web`).

The shipped TUI and Web compositions register the native DeepSeek adapter plus pi-ai OpenAI and Anthropic profiles. Credentials and endpoint overrides come from the provider-standard `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` / `DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL`, `OPENAI_API_KEY` / `OPENAI_BASE_URL`, and `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` / `ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL` pairs in the boot's layered environment.

`DSH_TOOLS_MODE` selects the tool presentation mode for the whole Web/headless process: `native` (the schema default when unset), `code` (the `run_code`-only Code Mode wire), or `both`; any other value fails loud at boot through the `dsh-tools` config schema. It is a TEMPORARY seam — process-wide because Loader composition is static — and is removed once the web UI owns per-session tool-mode selection; the TUI surface ignores it (its config tree pins its own mode).

## Install (developer machine)

Symlink the source-running launcher onto your PATH; it resolves the checkout through its own real path, so code changes apply on the next launch with no build step:

```sh
ln -sf "$(pwd)/bin/dsh" ~/.local/bin/dsh
```

Source launches run `apps/cli/src/bin.ts` through tsx's ESM-only hook (`node --import tsx/esm`), which transforms TypeScript and projects the root tsconfig `paths` map into module resolution. Node's native TypeScript modes are not used: Node 26 removed `--experimental-transform-types`, and strip-only mode rejects syntax the source graph relies on (vendored parameter properties, decorators, runtime enums/namespaces). The CJS hook stays off because the source graph is ESM-only and the CJS resolver adds ~0.4s of startup. `bin/dsh` pins `TSX_TSCONFIG_PATH` to the checkout's root tsconfig so resolution is cwd-independent, and the `dsh-source-launch-smoke` node-compat gate runs this exact launch vector on every supported Node line. tsx applies the `paths` map without checking dependency declarations, so declaration completeness rests on the static gates: the TUI configs resolve bare plugins through `examples/package.json`, the Web/headless `cordis.yml` through this package's `dependencies`, and `verify-cordis-config` requires every configured bare plugin to be declared, while allowing unrelated dependencies.

`pnpm run dsh` runs the same entry from the repo root and forwards arguments directly, for example `pnpm run dsh -p "task"`. The built form (`lib/bin.js`, via `pnpm run build`) boots the same config under plain Node.