What Is dsh-dafeiyu? Real DSH Status as a Desktop Pet

dsh-dafeiyu (DSH Dafeiyu) is an agent companion that lives on your desktop and is driven by real DeepSeek Harness (DSH) status: enabled as a DSH plugin, it starts and exits together with the harness in a transparent, frameless, always-on-top window, so you know whether DSH is thinking, editing, testing, or waiting even while you work in another app. This article covers what dsh-dafeiyu is, its core features, install/update/uninstall commands, and typical usage.

What Is dsh-dafeiyu?

dsh-dafeiyu solves the problem of losing sight of Agent progress once you leave the DSH page: it shows real harness status on top of your desktop, fed by genuine Agent events rather than screen reading, so it never mistakes what you do in other software for DSH work. The following positioning and facts come from the official README (source):

dsh-dafeiyu (GitHub repository QCYTSN/dsh-dafeiyu) is maintained by qcytsn and open-sourced under the MIT license; it is a UI plugin in the DSH Plugin ecosystem, currently supporting Windows, WSL2, and Linux x64, with macOS as experimental. Its entry belongs to DSH, its lifecycle belongs to DSH, and its display layer belongs to the desktop: ordinary users need no Python, PySide6, separate Helper, or extra port, because the Helpers for Windows, Linux x64, and macOS ship inside the release package. When DSH provides the reasoning effort actually used, the status detail shows it continuously instead of guessing from model names; and when DSH offers no todo list, dsh-dafeiyu shows only reliable stages such as analysis or implementation rather than inventing a completion percentage.

What Are the Core Features of dsh-dafeiyu?

Its core capabilities revolve around real status feedback, reasoning effort display, multi-session priority, honest information, and native desktop windows: reliable signals with minimal interruption so you always know what DSH is doing. These features come from the official README (source):

• Real status feedback: driven by DSH Agent events, not screen reading; it never monitors VS Code, browsers, or other apps, and never takes screenshots.
• Reasoning effort display: shows the actual reasoning effort value when DSH provides it, without guessing from model names.
• Multi-session priority: with multiple sessions running, it highlights the most attention-worthy top-level task first (waiting > error > working > thinking > idle).
• Honest information: without real todo data it shows only reliable stages and never fabricates a completion percentage.
• Native desktop window: transparent, frameless, always on top, with distinct actions and copy for thinking, searching, editing, running, verifying, waiting, completion, and errors.
• Clear privacy boundaries: it never reads or saves API keys, takes screenshots, sends telemetry, listens to the keyboard, or opens a network port.

How to Install and Enable dsh-dafeiyu?

Before installing dsh-dafeiyu, fully quit the DSH Host, then add it to the web profile with the dsh plugin command; after that, start the DSH WebUI as usual and the pet is launched automatically — never start the Helper by hand. Commands and platform requirements come from the official README (source):

1. Fully quit DSH — close the DSH Host, not just the browser tab, so the old plugin is not still running during install or update.

2. Install the plugin (Windows / WSL2 / Linux / macOS) — run this in your DSH install directory to add the stable version from npm:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-dafeiyu

If dsh is not registered as a global command, run the same command with the pnpm prefix from your DSH install directory:

pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-dafeiyu

Wait for the install to finish; the plugin is enabled by default with no extra manual step.

3. Start DSH and confirm it is enabled — launch the DSH WebUI as usual and the plugin brings up the desktop window automatically; visit Settings → Plugins → Plugin Config → BigFish desktop companion to check or adjust the toggle.

4. Start using it — begin a project task in DSH, switch to another window, and the pet keeps showing the latest status on top of the desktop.

5. Update the plugin — fully quit DSH, then run the update command (or re-run the install command so it resolves the newest npm version):

dsh plugin --profile web update dsh-dafeiyu

6. Uninstall the plugin — fully quit DSH, run the remove command, then restart DSH:

dsh plugin remove dsh-dafeiyu

Typical dsh-dafeiyu Usage

dsh-dafeiyu needs no extra operations after install: start DSH, open a task, and the pet switches its actions and status card along with real events; drag, right-click, and the settings panel fine-tune the experience. The steps come from the official README (source):

1. Start DSH and begin a task — launch the DSH WebUI after installing, start a project task in DSH, and the pet switches actions and status cards according to real DSH events.

2. Switch windows and keep working — move to VS Code, a browser, or the file manager while the pet stays on top; the status card shows the project directory name, the current stage (for example implementation), the current todo, and real progress (for example 3/5 steps done):

Project directory: dsh-dafeiyu
Current stage: implementation
Current todo: refine project docs
Real progress: 3/5 steps done

3. Interact with the pet — drag it to move and save its position; click or double-click for short interactions such as a head pat; use the right-click menu to resize the character or bubble, reduce motion, open the WebUI, or hide/close it for this run.

4. Adjust display settings — in the DSH WebUI, open the settings path below to change the character size (55%–140%), bubble size (80%–120%), bubble visibility, activeness, notification sounds, and whether sub-agents respond:

Settings → Plugins → Plugin Config → BigFish desktop companion

5. Wrap up and exit — the pet exits automatically when the DSH Host truly quits; closing the DSH web page while the host still runs keeps the pet visible.

dsh-dafeiyu Troubleshooting

The most common dsh-dafeiyu problems are not seeing the pet after install, the pet staying after closing the page, missing numeric progress, and the pet not returning after Close Once; check the enable toggle, the Host lifecycle, real todo data, and the suppression rule respectively. Guidance comes from the official README (source):

1. No pet visible after install — symptom: nothing appears on the desktop after installing. Cause: the plugin was not added to the web profile, the DSH Host was not fully restarted, or the enable toggle is off. Fix: confirm the profile is web, fully quit and restart the DSH Host, then tick Enable BigFish under Settings → Plugins → Plugin Config:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-dafeiyu

2. The pet stays after closing the DSH page — symptom: the pet does not disappear when you close the browser tab. Cause: it is bound to the DSH Host lifecycle, not the browser tab. Fix: as long as the DSH host keeps running the pet stays; it closes automatically once the host truly exits.

3. No numeric progress is shown — symptom: the status card never shows progress such as 3/5 steps done. Cause: the plugin can only compute progress when DSH writes structured todos. Fix: without real todo data it shows only the current stage and never invents a percentage — this is expected.

4. The pet does not come back after Close Once — symptom: choosing Close Once keeps the pet away. Cause: this is intended — Close Once suppresses auto-restart for the current DSH run. Fix: fully quit and restart DSH to bring it back; to disable permanently, turn off Enable BigFish in settings.

Use Cases and Notes

dsh-dafeiyu suits people who run long DSH tasks while working in other windows: glance at the pet to know whether the agent is thinking, waiting, or failing, and with multiple sessions follow the most urgent one first. Use cases and limits come from the official README (source):

Typical scenarios include: parallel multi-window development — let DSH run a task while you use an editor or browser for other work; long-task supervision — track builds, tests, or batch jobs without staring at the DSH page; multi-session management — when several sessions run, focus on the one waiting for confirmation or failing; and WSL2 development — install from the WSL terminal and let visual mode drive the Windows Helper automatically. Limits worth noting: it needs Windows 10/11 x64, WSL2, or a Linux x64 desktop (glibc 2.35 or newer; Debian/Ubuntu usually need libxcb-cursor0), and macOS 12.0+ is experimental with an ad-hoc-signed build only; ARM, headless remote SSH, containers, and pure server environments are not display targets; by default it follows only the most recently active top-level DSH session, and sub-agent participation in priority needs to be enabled in settings; the character visual assets are not covered by the MIT code license — see ASSET_LICENSE in the repository.

Project Links

dsh-dafeiyu is an MIT-licensed open-source project maintained by qcytsn (QCYTSN), evolving continuously as a desktop companion plugin that serves DSH status alone. For the full feature list, screenshots, and plugin details, visit the dsh-dafeiyu plugin page on this site: dsh-dafeiyu.

This page is an independent guide rewritten from the plugin's official README — for the authoritative documentation and the latest changes, defer to the source: QCYTSN/dsh-dafeiyu. A plugin is third-party code that runs on your machine once installed; inclusion is not an endorsement — review the source before installing.