dsh-web-search-toggle

A DeepSeek Harness (DSH) plugin that adds a "Web Search" toggle button to the chat composer tool row. When it is turned on, the agent is instructed that it must search the web before answering — mirroring the "Web Search" toggle in the DeepSeek Web Chat UI. The toggle is per-session (per conversation), like DeepSeek's own per-conversation toggle.

Features

• Adds a compact, pill-shaped "Web Search" button in the composer tool row. Inactive = neutral outline; active = DeepSeek brand blue with a small green "on" dot.
• When ON, injects a mandatory system-prompt directive telling the agent to call web_search before answering, on every turn of that session.
• Per-session state, persisted across reloads and host restarts.
• Follows DSH's plugin conventions (dsh.bundle.patch + dsh.client), so it installs like any other DSH web-profile plugin.

How it works

• Client half (lib/client.js): registers the toggle into the composer's tool row (conversation.input.left, the seat beside the resident access-mode / plan / attach chrome). On toggle it calls the host through the client↔host RPC channel.
• Host half (index.js):
  • Serves an RPC channel (/dsh-web-search) with websearch.get-state / websearch.set-state, storing the flag per session and persisting it to ~/.dsh/dsh-web-search-toggle.json.
  • Registers a system-prompt section (dsh-web-search:force) whose text is evaluated on every prompt assembly. When the current session's flag is ON, it injects a mandatory "you MUST call web_search first" directive into the system prompt; when OFF it renders empty (empty sections disappear).

The web_search tool itself is registered by DSH's own dsh-tool-web package (via the auto-selected DeepSeek search-provider seam); this plugin only forces its use.

Why "force" is a directive, not a hard block

DSH has no primitive for "the model MUST call tool X on every turn." So the enforcement is a strong, always-present system-prompt instruction — the authoritative, reliable way to steer the model in this harness. The model follows it, but compliance is probabilistic rather than guaranteed (as in the DeepSeek web chat UI itself).

Requirements

• DeepSeek Harness with the web profile (dsh --profile web).
• A configured web search provider (the built-in DeepSeek search provider, or any web_search-providing provider). The plugin forces the tool; it does not install one.

Installation

The plugin is published to npm. From the DSH web profile:

# via the dsh plugin command (recommended — reconciles the bundle list)
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-web-search-toggle

or with pnpm directly (skips bundle-list reconcile):

cd <your-profile-dir>
npx pnpm add dsh-web-search-toggle
# then add "dsh-web-search-toggle" to dsh.profile.bundles in package.json

Then restart DSH so the bundle patch composes at boot:

dsh --profile web restart          # or your normal restart path

Usage

1. Open a conversation in the DSH web UI.
2. Click the Web Search pill in the composer tool row to toggle it on.
3. Ask a question — the agent calls web_search first and cites sources.
4. Toggle it off to restore normal behavior.

The on/off state is remembered per session.

Files

License

MIT