dsh-plugin vs dsh-plugin-hub: DSH naming & official channels

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) is the host, dsh is its command line, a DSH plugin runs inside it, DSH Plugin Hub is the community marketplace, and dsh-plugin.org is the website hub — each name points to a different role. This guide unpacks all five, lists the plugin channels, and gives a checklist for telling official from community.

Overview: one family of names, five roles

dsh, DSH plugin, dsh-plugin-hub and dsh-plugin.org are different layers: the host, the CLI, the plugin, the marketplace, and the website. Newcomers searching "dsh hub" or "dsh plugin" often blur them together, but the split is clear. Start with the table:

DeepSeek Harness is DeepSeek AI's open-source project (source); each role is unpacked below.

DeepSeek Harness and dsh: the host and its CLI

DeepSeek Harness is the host project and dsh is its CLI entry point — two names for the same product. Concretely:

1. DeepSeek Harness (DSH): an open-source project by DeepSeek AI, with the official website at deepseek.com/harness and docs at deepseek-harness.github.io.
2. dsh: its command-line tool — daily use runs through the CLI (source):
   • npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web launches the Web UI in one shot;
   • dsh plugin manages extensions;
   • dsh --version checks the version.

Note that dsh is the lowercase CLI name — the command entry of DeepSeek Harness, not a plugin.

DSH plugin and the dsh-plugin topic: extension and listing mark

A DSH plugin is an extension that runs inside DeepSeek Harness, and dsh-plugin doubles as the listing topic on GitHub. Two layers:

1. The extension itself: a DSH plugin is a TypeScript module exporting an apply function; the framework calls apply with a ctx on load, and the plugin registers models, tools, interfaces and skills through it (source).
2. The listing topic: on GitHub, tagging a repository with the dsh-plugin topic lets the dsh-plugin.org directory discover and list it automatically — so "dsh-plugin" is both a plugin category and a recognition mark for plugin repositories.

To build your own plugin, start with Developing DSH plugins.

dsh-plugin-hub and DSH Plugin Hub: the community marketplace

dsh-plugin-hub is DSH Plugin Hub, the community marketplace plugin built by the dsh-plugin.org team, with the npm package name dsh-plugin. Built to the official plugin spec, it embeds into Settings → Plugin Center after install, letting you browse, search and one-click install 4,805 community plugins — 4,401 of them human-curated and verified — without leaving the app (source). The marketplace home looks like this:

dsh-plugin-hub · Plugin Center

It is maintained by the dsh-plugin.org team as an independent community project with no affiliation to DeepSeek Harness — yet because it follows the official spec and lives inside the official host, many users assume it is official.

Plugin marketplaces and plugin centers available

There are four channels to find DSH plugins: the in-app plugin center, the website plugin center, GitHub, and npm. They are:

1. DSH Plugin Hub: embeds Settings → Plugin Center — browse by category, search and one-click install with the least effort, best for most users; see How to use DSH Plugin Hub.
2. The dsh-plugin.org website plugin center: browse by category in a browser, read details and copy install commands — nothing to install.
3. GitHub: repositories tagged dsh-plugin — great for reading source and following development.
4. npm: the packages themselves — install directly with dsh plugin --profile web add <package>.

All four channels expose the same DSH plugin ecosystem with shared data.

How to tell official from community

DeepSeek Harness officially ships only the host itself; almost every plugin is community-built, and the official domains make the split easy. The checklist:

1. There are exactly three official sources: the website deepseek.com/harness, the docs deepseek-harness.github.io, and the code github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness.
2. Everything else is community-contributed: all plugins and marketplaces, including DSH Plugin Hub, are community projects — which does not make them unusable: the Hub marks each plugin with verified / unconfirmed status, confirming compatibility by hand.
3. Mind the source when installing: prefer plugins with verified status; if a GitHub-sourced plugin does not load because build output is missing, switch to its npm version.

Apply this method to any plugin or marketplace — check the domain and repository ownership first, and you can tell whether it is official.

Sources: DeepSeek Harness official website, Official Quickstart, dshplugin/dsh-plugin-hub