How to install a DSH plugin: dsh plugin add for npm and GitHub

Installing a DSH plugin is a single command: dsh plugin --profile web add <package-or-github-ref>, which forwards the arguments to pnpm and installs the plugin into the current profile.

Before you start: get DSH running

You need DSH itself before you can install DSH plugins. If it's not installed yet, see How to install DeepSeek Harness and run npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web to start the Web UI. On first launch the web profile auto-initializes, giving dsh plugin somewhere to install into.

Note that dsh web is an alias for --profile web, so writing web targets the profile the Web UI actually uses (source). DSH ships two built-in profiles — web and headless — both auto-initialize from bundled templates on first use; a profile with any other name must be created through dsh plugin first. The directory you invoke dsh from is the default workspace root, and your sessions and workspaces revolve around it.

The core command: dsh plugin add

All plugin management goes through dsh plugin --profile <name> <pnpm args>; add installs. The full form:

dsh plugin --profile web add <package-name-or-github-ref>

• For an npm package, use the package name directly.
• For a GitHub-hosted plugin, use a github:user/repo reference (source).

dsh plugin is the single entry point for profile plugin management; add is just one action — install, update, and remove are the same syntax with a different word. DSH forwards everything after --profile <name> to pnpm in the profile directory, which is effectively pnpm add run inside ~/.dsh/profiles/web (source), so the action word goes last.

The plugin is installed as a dependency in the profile directory (~/.dsh/profiles/web by default) and loaded on the next DSH start. A plugin only affects the profile you installed it into — web and headless don't interfere with each other.

Real DSH plugin examples

Try two real DSH plugins. dsh-tui is a Claude Code-style terminal interface:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:ccch1mneyyy/dsh-tui

ModLens is the first vision DSH plugin, letting text-only models read images:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:liustack/modlens

Browse the dsh-plugin.org plugin hub for more; every detail page carries a copy-paste install command.

Verifying your DSH plugin install

Restart dsh web and check whether the plugin's capabilities show up. Interface plugins change the UI; tool plugins appear in the tool list. If nothing loads, check the plugin's declared DSH version and the notes below. To confirm whether a plugin actually loaded, run dsh --dump-config and inspect the composed config tree — registration shows up there. To see why a plugin is installed or who depends on it, run dsh plugin --profile web why <package> (source).

First-time git plugin notes

Git-hosted plugins may hit pnpm's allowBuilds guard on first add. pnpm blocks build scripts from git dependencies by default; when it errors, copy the allow key it prints into the profile's pnpm-workspace.yaml and run add again.

DSH is still in developer preview (currently 0.1.0-rc.6), so install commands and plugin interfaces may change. When something goes wrong, defer to the official docs or check DSH troubleshooting.

Source: dsh CLI README, official Quickstart