dsh-web-search-diy

A web search provider plugin for the DeepSeek Harness (DSH) that backs the built-in web_search tool with multiple search backends, returning structured citation sources. A single mode switch selects the protocol:

In responses mode, endpoint, model, and key reference are yours to swap — the only requirement is a model that actually exposes the web_search tool on its gateway.

• Default model: deepseek-v4-flash-0731
• Default endpoint: https://token-plan.cn-beijing.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1
• Default key reference: QWEN_TOKEN_PLAN_CN_API_KEY

In zhipu-* modes: default endpoint https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4, default key reference ZHIPU_API_KEY, and zhipu-chat-search defaults its model to glm-5.3-flash (with thinking effort low, ~3.5s live-verified — the free-tier glm-4.7-flash is frequently rate-limited with HTTP 429 and is not the default). See the Zhipu web search docs.

Why

The shipped DSH search provider (deepseek-official) calls DeepSeek's own Anthropic-compatible endpoint — it cannot be pointed at other gateways, and switching per deployment is hard. This plugin is a first-class DSH plugin: it registers a ctx.web search provider and overrides the shared searchProvider to it, exactly like the ecosystem's other provider plugins. Search and conversation models stay fully decoupled — use it with any chat LLM.

Why Responses API? Many OpenAI-compatible gateways only trigger their built-in web search through the Responses API (/responses) with an explicit tools: [{type: "web_search"}] declaration — Chat Completions search flags are silently ignored there. This plugin speaks the Responses protocol and parses the structured web_search_call blocks' action.sources into seam-standard citation sources.

Install

Published on npm:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-web-search-diy

The bundle patch then (no manual cordis.patch.yml edits needed):

• inserts the web-search-diy loader entry
• overrides the shared web row's searchProvider to diy-search and restates fetchProvider: http (a patch replaces the whole row config)
• disables the shipped DeepSeek-official search (web-search-deepseek)

For local development, install the checkout as a linked package (the same way other local plugins are linked):

dsh plugin --profile web add link:./dsh-web-search-diy

(replace ./dsh-web-search-diy with the actual path to your local checkout)

Note for local linked installs: the plugin declares its @deepseek-ai/* hooks as peerDependencies (mirrored in devDependencies). A linked package resolves its own node_modules first, so run pnpm install inside the plugin directory once; the harness install supplies the runtime peers.

Configuration

The provider resolves options with precedence: UI-managed file ($DSH_HOME/dsh-web-search-diy.json, written by the configuration page) > settings section / entry config > package defaults.

apiKeyEnv / baseURL / model left empty inherit the current mode's default. Values fossilized into a section by the old schema defaults (the Qwen endpoint/model/reference) yield to the zhipu defaults when you switch to a zhipu mode; explicitly customized values are always honored.

Configuration page

The configuration page lives in the sidebar under Plugins → dsh-web-search-diy → the web-search-diy row's Configure (registered into the plugins.row.config slot introduced in dsh 0.1.6-alpha.2; the legacy Settings → Plugins → Plugin configuration page was removed in that release). The page matches the official plugin configuration pages: edits stage locally and only Save writes, while Discard reverts to the stored values. Saving takes effect immediately — no restart. Page copy follows Settings → Language (zh / en). The API key input is write-only: leave it blank to keep the stored key.

How it works

you ──> chat LLM
            │ decides it needs live info
            ▼
     web_search tool (model-agnostic)
            │ ctx.web seam ──> diy-search provider
            ▼
     ├─ responses:        POST {baseURL}/responses   tools: [{ type: "web_search" }]
     ├─ zhipu-web-search: POST {baseURL}/web_search  (raw retrieval, no model turn)
     └─ zhipu-chat-search:POST {baseURL}/chat/completions  tools: [{ type: "web_search", web_search: {...} }]
            │
            ▼
     chat LLM answers grounded in the results

• responses: each search is one Responses API call (a full model turn). Results return as deduped sources[] (url + optional title from url_citation annotations) plus the model's grounded content. A response without any web_search_call block fails loudly with WEB_PROVIDER_ERROR — never a prose-scraping fallback.
• zhipu-web-search: search_result[] maps directly into deduped sources[] (url + title), and a digest of the top title-plus-snippet entries becomes the content overview. An empty result set is a valid outcome and returns empty sources[] rather than an error.
• zhipu-chat-search: choices[0].message.content is the grounded answer (content); the tool's search_result: true declaration makes the endpoint attach source details, which are parsed defensively from the message-level or root-level web_search field into sources[]. A grounded answer without source details is still a usable result.
• Response decoding is dispatcher-proof: bodies are read as bytes and inflated by magic number when compressed, and requests send accept-encoding: identity. This survives dsh's cross-version global undici dispatcher (where response.json() would parse raw gzip bytes), with hard caps (8 MiB wire, 16 MiB decoded) against decompression bombs.

Credential

Store the key through the web Models page / credentials service (the default reference is per mode: QWEN_TOKEN_PLAN_CN_API_KEY in responses mode, ZHIPU_API_KEY in the zhipu modes), or export it in the launching environment. The provider resolves it per search; no key is retained on the provider.

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Copyright (c) 2026 aaronlei.