The full-screen terminal app: a Cordis plugin that composes @deepseek-ai/dsh-agent-spine-demo, persisted same-session goals, the human-command registry and /goal producer, JSONL persistence, keyboard-backed user interaction, a pre-created main agent, and @deepseek-ai/dsh-tui. Its bin boots a leaf cordis.yml.

Use @deepseek-ai/dsh-cli-demo for pipes, scripts, and other non-interactive runs. This package requires a TTY pair and has no line-oriented fallback.

What it bakes in

Plugin	Why it is here
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-agent-spine-demo`	Shared services, model-facing tools, and one configured `main` agent
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-commands`	Human-only discovery and dispatch consumed by the TUI and command plugins
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-command-goal`	Direct `/goal` status and mutation over the spine's persisted-goal stack
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-session-persistence-jsonl`	Durable session log under `persistenceRoot`
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-session-checkpoint-policy`	Semantic durability barriers before model requests and top-level tool effects, plus completed-step checkpoints
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-session-query-sqlite` + `@deepseek-ai/dsh-session-reference`	Combined exact/FTS session queries and bounded `@session` snapshots consumed by the TUI
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-user-interaction`	Provider-neutral human question service
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-tui`	Full-screen transcript, editor, tool cards, plan, and question overlays
`@deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-ask-user`	Model-facing `ask_user_question` tool

Swappable LLM, bash, filesystem, and other capability providers remain in the leaf config. @cordisjs/plugin-hmr also remains a leaf-only development entry because it requires Loader internals.

Config

Key	Default	Routed to
`provider`	required	Configured `main` agent provider
`model`	required	Configured `main` agent model
`maxParallelToolCalls`	agent-loop default	Bundled loop concurrency cap
`persona`	—	System-prompt persona template
`toolOrder`	lexicographic	Explicit model-facing tool order
`tools`	owner default	Tool presentation mode
`dshHome`	owner default	Harness home used by bash and skills
`sessionTitle`	spine example limits	Fallback title word/byte limits
`skills`	owner defaults	Skill registry, local provider, and tool config
`toolBash`	owner defaults	Model-facing bash tool config
`toolTasks`	owner defaults	Background-task control-tool config, or `false`
`goals`	owner defaults	Persisted goal-domain and model-tool config; `false` removes the goal stack and `/goal` producer
`workspaceContext`	required	Workspace-instruction config, or `false`
`persistenceRoot`	`./.sessions`	JSONL persistence root and parent of the derived `session-query.db` index
`persistenceCompression`	`'zstd'`	JSONL artifact encoding (`'zstd'` or raw `'none'`)
`sessionReferences`	service defaults	Cross-session candidate and snapshot limits routed to `dsh-session-reference`
`welcome`	`ready.`	TUI subtitle
`ui`	owner defaults	TUI presentation settings such as reasoning, color, and card height
`resumeSessionId`	—	Exact persisted session to resume

Fresh runs mint a main-session-<uuid> session id and pass it to both the TUI and configured agent. Resumed runs bind both components to resumeSessionId. The TUI mounts before the spine so it can render a matching config-start failure instead of leaving a blank terminal.

The bin

dsh-tui-demo [path-to-cordis.yml] defaults to ./cordis.yml, loads the optional cwd .env, boots the Cordis Loader, and waits for the full plugin tree. The repository installs Loader's optional native helper, so bare package specifiers resolve under plain Node.

Example leaf

- id: llm-deepseek
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-llm-deepseek'
  config:
    apiKey: !!js process.env.DEEPSEEK_API_KEY
- id: bash
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-bash-local'
- id: tui-agent
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-tui-demo'
  config:
    provider: deepseek
    model: deepseek-v4-flash
    workspaceContext:
      maxBytes: 65536
    welcome: 'Coding agent ready.'
    ui:
      showReasoning: true

Model Experience

Interactive terminal turn

What the model sees

Each non-empty non-command editor submission becomes a user message; a submission during a running turn becomes steering. Slash-command input and output remain human-only, while accepted /goal mutations append domain-owned model-visible state. The shared spine contributes the configured persona, workspace instructions, skill catalog, goal controls, and visible tool schemas. TUI rendering itself is not model-visible.

Token effect

User, assistant, and tool history grows under the normal session and compaction rules. Headers, cards, plans, Markdown styling, and keybindings add no tokens.

KV Cache effect

Append-only while the composed prompt, schemas, route, and retained history prefix remain stable. Composition changes and compaction can invalidate reuse from the first changed token.

Human-question answer

What the model sees

ask_user_question retains the tool call and the compact answer or stable interruption error defined by dsh-tool-ask-user. The question overlay is terminal-only.

Token effect

Only the completed or failed tool result adds retained tokens.

KV Cache effect

Append-only; the answer follows the reusable request prefix.

Known Limitations and Deferred Work

TTY-only — stdin and stdout must both be terminals; automation uses dsh-cli-demo.
One configured terminal session — the transcript and editor bind to one exact session id.
The app cluster is fixed — JSONL persistence and ask-user tooling are baked in; different policy requires another composition.
Approval is separate — this app answers ctx.userInteraction, not ctx.approval; permission prompts require an approval service and answerer.