dashi

dashi is a terminal UI for DeepSeek Harness. Linux and macOS are supported.

Install

Use Node 22.19 or newer on the Node 22 line, or Node 24+. The minimum supported DSH is 0.2.1-alpha.3; dashi 0.2 uses DSH's 0.2 integration. DSH's profile manager needs pnpm on PATH even when DSH is installed with npm or run by npx.

Global or on-demand DSH

Make your package manager's global binaries available on PATH, following its own documentation (npm, pnpm).

With npm:

npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3
npm install -g @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
dashi

With pnpm 10 or pnpm 12:

pnpm add -g @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3
pnpm add -g @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1

For pnpm 11, apply the global-store remedy below before starting DSH. Then:

dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
dashi

With npx, without a permanent CLI installation:

npx --yes @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
npx --yes --package=@deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 --package=@antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1 dashi --version
npx --yes --package=@deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 --package=@antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1 dashi

To start the installed profile directly, first check the CLI installation:

npx --yes @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 --version

Then start the profile:

npx --yes @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 --profile dashi

DSH installed globally with pnpm 11

The default pnpm 11 global virtual store can prevent DSH's native loader from finding its installed platform binding. The error includes:

No usable native binding found for node-addon-require-builtin-darwin-arm64

The suffix identifies your platform. This DSH/pnpm layout issue is tracked in Discussion 9432. Disable the global virtual store and reinstall DSH:

pnpm config set --global --json enableGlobalVirtualStore false
pnpm remove -g @deepseek-ai/dsh && pnpm add -g @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3

The setting affects subsequent installations; it does not migrate existing installations by itself.

Project DSH

From your project directory, with npm:

npm install --save-exact @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
npm exec -- dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
npm exec -- dashi

With pnpm 10, install as written:

pnpm add --save-exact @deepseek-ai/dsh@0.2.1-alpha.3 @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
pnpm exec dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
pnpm exec dashi

pnpm 11 and 12 stop at the first command until you decide about dependency build scripts. The error includes:

ERR_PNPM_IGNORED_BUILDS

dashi's installation checks start DSH and run a shell tool call with these builds not run. To decline them, run this command, then repeat the installation above:

pnpm approve-builds '!@deepseek-ai/dsh-subprocess-local' '!@google/genai' '!koffi' '!node-pty' '!protobufjs'

pnpm approve-builds without arguments lets you choose interactively. Handle any additional package pnpm lists the same way; !name declines its build.

pnpm 10.x and pnpm 11 before 11.28.3 can rarely fail an install or upgrade on macOS with EINVAL: invalid argument, open '.../package.json' (report); the manifest read/removal race described there is absent from pnpm 11.28.3 onward (change).

pnpm 11 before 11.23.0 can leave a finished add running, making dsh plugin add appear to hang (report); this worker-pool defect was fixed in 11.23.0.

Global and project installations together

dashi starts the dsh on PATH: run it the way you run DSH, through your global bin directory or npm exec / pnpm exec in a project. Those project commands put the project's binaries first; a bare global invocation uses your normal PATH. Inspect the global selection:

command -v dsh
dashi --version

Or check the project selection with its manager:

npm exec -- dashi --version

pnpm exec dashi --version

--version reports DSH; dashi --help reports both dashi and DSH.

Unless you set DSH_HOME, both installations use DSH's same ~/.dsh profiles, settings and session history. A profile therefore needs to be compatible with whichever DSH you start; a second installation is not a second profile or an automatic migration.

Upgrading an existing profile

Exit dashi and preserve your profile's manifest, lockfile, patches and provider configuration before upgrading. Update the launcher with the manager and location you used to install it, then update the shared profile.

For global npm:

npm install -g @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
dashi

For global pnpm:

pnpm add -g @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
dashi

For a project using npm:

npm install --save-exact @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
npm exec -- dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
npm exec -- dashi

For a project using pnpm:

pnpm add --save-exact @antst/dashi-launcher@0.2.1
pnpm exec dsh plugin --profile dashi add @antst/dashi-app@0.2.1
pnpm exec dashi

With npx, repeat the on-demand commands with the new exact versions. To update DSH itself, repeat your chosen DSH installation command with the supported version before updating the profile.

Historical caveat: upgrading a 0.1.x profile to 0.2.0-alpha.1 could leave the Sessionbus plugin's older upload-provider dependency shadowing the app's pin; pnpm dedupe did not repair that path. Alpha.2 changed the plugin to pre.20, which consumes the provider as a peer.

Third-party plugins on DSH 0.2.1

dsh-codex@0.3.2 pins @deepseek-ai/dsh-session-format-catalog to 0.2.0-rc.1. On DSH 0.2.1-alpha.3, it needs this override in the profile's pnpm-workspace.yaml, which DSH creates when it initialises the profile. Merge the entry into its top-level overrides, preserving all other settings and existing overrides:

overrides:
  '@deepseek-ai/dsh-session-format-catalog': 0.2.1-alpha.3

If you followed the earlier package.json instruction, move all entries from its pnpm.overrides into the workspace file and remove that old block: pnpm 10 reads only that block when it exists, while pnpm 11 and 12 ignore it.

dsh-plugin-subscriptions 0.9.9 and earlier declare DSH peers ending at 0.2.0-rc.2; no dsh-plugin-subscriptions release declares a DSH 0.2.1 peer. DSH 0.2.1 refuses it at startup; remove it from a 0.2.1 profile unless a release with a 0.2.1 peer exists.

Without the launcher package, run dsh --profile dashi directly or use the shell alias documented below.

Create the sessionbus lane profile with the plugin's installer, sessionbus-dsh-install (see the @sessionbus/dsh README); the dashi profile's Sessionbus row ships in dashi-app. When SESSIONBUS_LAUNCH_TOKEN is present, the launcher selects that sessionbus profile; repeatable -g/--group options export group names as SESSIONBUS_GROUPS. Interactive roots use defaults from the plugin's profile configuration (groups) or SESSIONBUS_GROUPS. The native human command /sessionbus-groups shows the root's declared groups, /sessionbus-groups a,b replaces them, and /sessionbus-groups - restores the profile defaults. It is not a model tool or skill; lane groups remain daemon-owned. Sessionbus names follow DSH's native session title, not a group name. With no Sessionbus daemon running, Sessionbus has no effect.

Running dashi

Use /model to add a provider or enter its key in a masked question, then select a model and send a new prompt. Providers are configured per DSH profile, while credentials use DSH's shared store.

dashi renders in the terminal's main screen by default. Use dashi --fullscreen for an application-owned viewport in the alternate screen.

Start with a prompt, assign a native session title, or return to an existing root:

dashi 'inspect this repository'
dashi -n 'Parser cleanup' --agent standard
dashi --session-id session-00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
dashi --resume
dashi --resume session-00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
dashi --resume session-00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 --fork-session
dashi --continue
dashi --model deepseek-flash --effort high
dashi --permission read-only
dashi --verbose
dashi --tools read,bash
dashi --disallowedTools bash
dashi --system-prompt 'You are a careful reviewer.'
dashi --append-system-prompt-file ./project-guidance.md
dashi --yolo
dashi --image screenshot.png 'inspect this image'

--model ID, --provider ID, and --effort ID apply the same DSH selection as /model; DSH also updates its default, because it does not yet expose a session-only selection. --permission PRESET applies /permission before the first prompt. --yolo and --dangerously-skip-permissions explicitly select danger-full-access without a launch confirmation. --verbose starts tool and context cards expanded for this launch; Ctrl+O continues to cycle expanded, hidden, and collapsed presentation. --tools NAMES allows only the comma-separated registered tool names, while --disallowedTools NAMES denies them; DSH supports whole names, not command patterns or path rules. --system-prompt TEXT replaces the root agent's system prompt, while --append-system-prompt TEXT adds a final section. Their -file PATH variants read the text once when dashi launches. All four also apply to resumed, continued, and forked roots without changing session state. --version is DSH's own root flag, so dashi --version prints the active DSH release; dashi --help starts with both dashi and DSH versions.

/btw TEXT asks a side question in a titled fork at the latest completed turn, and /recap does the same with a fixed ten-line summary prompt. The answer opens over the main session, which receives no conversation events; the fork remains in /resume because DSH does not expose root release. Both commands require an idle root because DSH forks of a running source seed and immediately run pending input, with no option to exclude post-boundary inbox items. DSH's cold list cannot surface a large seeded fork's title after relaunch, so that picker row may be untitled; its UUID remains resumable.

Sessions

--name TITLE (or -n) assigns DSH's native session title at launch; /rename TITLE changes that same title. Bare --resume (or -r) opens the current directory's session picker. --resume VALUE accepts a complete DSH session UUID or a native title, matching the title exactly before a case-insensitive substring fallback. Names need not be unique: duplicate matches open the picker restricted to those sessions. Add --all to search every directory. A following prompt is submitted after resume. --continue (or -c) selects the most recently updated root in the current directory. --agent PRESET and --session-id UUID feed DSH's fresh-session creation; --fork-session branches the --resume or --continue target before binding it.

Daily-use walkthrough

After installation:

1. Start with dashi, or add -c/--continue, -r/--resume [NAME|UUID], launch model/permission flags, --name TITLE, an initial prompt, or repeatable --image PATH arguments.
2. Type a request and press Enter. Review streamed reasoning, tool cards, diffs, plans, todos, jobs, and subagents in the transcript; answer any decision in its numbered overlay.
3. Use /model, /permission, and /config to change native DSH settings, and /status to inspect the current root without creating another source of truth.
4. Add file mentions with @, attach images through @, --image, or Ctrl+V, and use Ctrl+G or Ctrl+S for longer drafts.
5. Use native scrollback in inline mode, or PageUp/PageDown in full-screen mode; search with Ctrl+F or Ctrl+R, and inspect /history or Ctrl+B details.
6. Run /rewind, choose a prompt, then restore its conversation, code, or both. The code rows appear only when the profile supplies roller-restore.

Keyboard and command details

Type / at line start to open live completion for native commands, dashi commands, and user-invocable skills; Enter accepts a complete command and Tab inserts the selection. dashi provides /help, /status, /usage, /new, /resume, /clear, /reset, /continue, /fork, /branch, /rewind, /rename, /model, /effort, /permission, /config, /login, /logout, /agents, /queue, /context, /init, /memory, /skills, /diff, /plugins, /plugin, /tasks, /bashes, /subtask, /loop, /history, /export, /copy, and /exit; every other slash submission is handled by DSH's command service or sent as ordinary prompt text when no command matches.

/reset, /continue, /branch, and /quit alias /clear, /resume, /fork, and /exit; /effort LEVEL changes only the current model's reasoning effort through DSH's model selection. Choose a model and provider shown by /model. If you use your own provider, configure it with /config or DSH's Models page before starting dashi with it. /clear [NAME] starts a fresh session, naming the previous one when NAME is supplied. /agents selects the current blank session's native DSH agent preset; after a conversation starts, choosing a preset starts a new session with it. DSH 0.2 presets are declared in profile patches; /agents no longer creates, copies or deletes them. The shipped standard preset supplies dashi's question, presentation, Ralph, time-context and scoped subagent tools. Custom presets can add tools but cannot remove DSH's host-level tools, and do not implicitly inherit those standard-only rows. /usage shows DSH's whole-session token buckets, turns, steps, and measured model/tool time; plan limits and cost, per-model breakdown, and tool-call count are DSH gaps. /context shows DSH's heuristic system, tool-schema, and message estimates for the next request. /init atomically creates a starter AGENTS.md without overwriting an existing file. DSH loads it when a new or resumed session forms its instruction baseline; it is not injected live because the instruction plugin has no file watcher. /memory lists the instruction files DSH loaded, with their scopes, and opens one in $EDITOR (falling back to vi); DSH applies edits according to its own instruction reload rules. /skills [TEXT] lists the session's resolved skills and filters their names and descriptions; choosing one inserts its human invocation into the composer. /diff shows the working tree against HEAD; /diff turn shows write/edit hunks recorded by DSH for the last completed turn. /tasks opens the job and subagent details view, Enter reads selected job output, and /tasks kill ID stops a job; /bashes aliases it. The job list includes unowned jobs; background subagents are native activations shown in the separate child catalog, not job rows. Reading job output does not consume the model's job result. /subtask TEXT starts a native child activation with TEXT as its prompt. /loop 5m TEXT or /loop 1h TEXT creates a DSH-owned fixed-rate reminder whose firing submits TEXT as a prompt; /loop lists active schedules and /loop stop ID cancels one. DSH sets the minimum interval to one minute on DSH 0.2.1-alpha.3. Child agents see the schedule tools but DSH refuses their use. Sessions requiring a format migration are labelled in /resume; a cold fork that requires migration is refused by DSH rather than silently rewritten. /plugins lists each running profile row's id, module, enabled state, and fiber phase; MCP client rows also show their configured server name. /config shows DSH's settings document path and profile entry IDs with their effective, base, and user layers; /config NAMESPACE KEY=VALUE writes through DSH's validated provider using one of those entry IDs. /login [KEY [METHOD]] lists or starts DSH authorization flows; /logout [KEY] lists stored record metadata or forgets one credential without reading its value. /plugin ARGS passes ARGS to dsh plugin --profile <running profile> and reports how a successful change loads. A package that ships a DSH bundle is appended to the profile's bundle list by dsh plugin add and loads on the next launch. A plain plugin package is installed but gets no loader row, so it needs an insert row in the profile's cordis.patch.yml; DSH's live patch reload then applies it without restart. Human ! commands receive the same resolved DSH_HOME as the running profile. /export [path] writes the complete current transcript as Markdown under the session working directory; its default filename is dashi-SESSION_UUID.md.

F1 opens help, Shift+Tab cycles permission presets, Ctrl+T switches a running root between steer and next-turn input, Ctrl+O cycles the global tool-card mode, and Ctrl+B opens job and subagent details. On an idle empty composer, Ctrl+C or Ctrl+D arms exit; press either key again within 1.5 seconds to exit. Any other key cancels the arm. On an idle nonempty composer, Escape twice clears the draft into prompt history, where Up recalls it. Up/Down recall follows durable input order, including slash commands and !command; commands with recordInput: false stay absent. Permission presets that disable approvals require confirmation when selected interactively; a danger flag is itself explicit launch consent. ? always remains ordinary prompt input.

Type @ to open live path completion for files under the session working directory; Enter or Tab accepts a selection. Choosing PNG, JPEG, WebP, or GIF attaches it as an image. --image PATH is repeatable, accepts relative or absolute readable paths, and preloads the same visible image chips. A literal Ctrl+V asks pngpaste then osascript on macOS, or wl-paste then xclip on Linux, for a PNG image; dashi installs none of these helpers. Terminal-native text paste remains ordinary bracketed text. An empty composer removes its last image with Backspace. Ctrl+S stashes or restores one text-and-image draft. Ctrl+G edits the text in $VISUAL, falling back to $EDITOR, while keeping its images. Ctrl+J inserts a newline; Shift+Enter and Alt+Enter do the same when the terminal reports those keys distinctly.

In full-screen mode, PageUp/PageDown scroll the transcript and Ctrl+Home/Ctrl+End jump to its loaded ends. In inline mode, PageUp and Ctrl+Home open /history; wheel scrolling and selection use the terminal's native scrollback. Older pages are requested from DSH in the history browser or the full-screen viewport. Ctrl+F searches loaded cells without changing the draft. /history opens a selectable cell browser; y copies its selected cell through OSC 52. /copy copies the latest completed assistant response. Copy payloads are limited to 64 KiB. /copy N selects the Nth latest completed response; /copy code opens a picker for the latest response's fenced code blocks.

On an idle root, !command runs the human's command through DSH's current sandbox policy without a tool approval. Stdin is closed; stdout and stderr are limited to 32 KiB each; the command is killed after 30 seconds. Suspend dashi with Ctrl+Z before starting an interactive program. Detached processes are unmanaged.

Outside accessible mode, dashi rings once for a decision that arrives during a turn and once when a turn takes at least 10 seconds.

Skills

DSH discovers skills from .dsh/skills and .agents/skills at the project root, configured custom directories, $DSH_HOME/skills, and ~/.agents/skills. A skill is either <name>/SKILL.md or a top-level <name>.md file with YAML frontmatter containing name and description; user-invocable and disable-model-invocation are optional.

Type a leading /name token to inject a user-invocable skill into that model turn; live completion lists the available names. Claude's .claude/commands/*.md prompt files are not a DSH mechanism and dashi does not read .claude/skills.

Terminals

The automated PTY matrix runs on Linux and macOS with xterm, tmux, GNU screen, the Linux console where available, and dumb-terminal capabilities. The macOS host gate requires Homebrew tmux and GNU screen 4.1 or newer:

brew install tmux screen

Ensure command -v screen resolves the Homebrew binary; macOS's /usr/bin/screen 4.0 is too old for the test harness.

Terminal modes

The default inline mode writes the loaded transcript into the main screen and leaves scrollback, wheel scrolling, and selection terminal-owned. PageUp and Ctrl+Home open the history browser for older pages. Search, pickers, decisions, details, and rewind remain available, but pi-tui's app-owned mouse selection and wheel routing do not. Ctrl+O changes historical tool-card layout and a terminal resize changes wrapping, so either action makes pi-tui replay the loaded document into scrollback.

Full-screen mode captures the mouse: each wheel notch scrolls three transcript lines, and plain drag selects through pi-tui. The modifier for terminal-native selection is terminal-specific: commonly Shift, but Option in iTerm2.

--accessible selects inline mode, uses stable text status instead of animation, announces overlay titles, counts, and selections in reading order, adds ASCII status markers, and suppresses the terminal bell.

Known DSH gaps

DSH does not currently enforce writer ownership across processes; do not resume the same root in two DSH processes.

Historical cold-resume measurements on the retired DSH 0.1 line were quadratic in event count: DSH 0.1.5-rc.2 (10k: 1.63 s; 50k: 11.88 s; 100k: 47.25 s; 200k: 183.09 s) and 0.1.6-alpha.2 (50k: 11.76 s; 200k: 183.22 s) because its token-meter fold cloned and scanned the retained surface per event (packages/llm/token-meter/src/breakdown-projection.ts:56-75, introduced by deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness commit 6525195953).

DSH conversation forks are per-turn, so a steered prompt rewinds to the start of its containing turn. DSH also exposes no operation to summarize a selected range. Installing roller may add workspace restore, but dashi does not duplicate it.

The Session Controller has no root-release operation, so roots left by /new, /resume, /fork, or /rewind remain idle until profile teardown. DSH's Session Controller also hard-requires its web-only file-upload service; the terminal profile provides a no-upload service and rejects file receipts as unstaged.

DSH's plugin CLI exposes no enable/disable verb, so dashi cannot toggle profile rows in-session. The MCP client exposes configured server names but no live connection-status API, so /plugins reports ordinary plugin fiber state, not connection health. Stdio MCP servers also inherit DSH's stderr, so server logs can overwrite an active terminal; dashi does not patch the DSH transport. Hooks, add-dir, and autocompact tuning also have no native dashi command surface.

An optional shell alias provides the shorter spelling:

alias dashi='dsh --profile dashi'

Development

Work branches open pull requests against the integration branch, develop; main contains releases. Pull requests and pushes to develop publish installable previews of all three packages through pkg.pr.new once its GitHub App is installed. Run pnpm gate:docker to execute the same containerized gate used by CI.

Maintainers: follow RELEASING.md to cut a release.

After pnpm install, build, install both local workspace packages into an isolated dashi-dev profile, and boot it with one command:

pnpm dev

The default profile home is temporary and removed after exit. Set DSH_HOME to an explicit development directory to retain and reuse the profile.