dsh-plugin-focus — Focus Board for DeepSeek Harness agents

A real, installable DSH plugin (DeepSeek Harness / Cordis profile bundle) that gives the agent a focus tool and a durable focus board — a small note file (default .dsh/focus.md) in the session workspace that pins the objective, hard constraints, and decisions across context compaction and across sessions on the same workspace. The todo list tracks what to do next; the focus board tracks why we are doing it and what must not drift.

Features

Feature	Status
focus tool — set / get / append / clear	✅ stable
Prompt guidance section (focus:instructions)	✅ stable
Automatic injection — board is re-injected into model context at every turn start and whenever it changes	✅ stable
Archive on clear — clear moves the old board to .dsh/focus.md.bak (accumulates)	✅ stable
focusBoard session projection for UIs	✅ stable
Read-only web panel (composer dock)	🧪 experimental (loader-format client bundle, not verified against a running web instance)

How it works

• The board is a plain, append-friendly text file. Entries are timestamped and ordered; get renders newest-first with a configurable character cap (the file is never trimmed by rendering).
• The plugin is a single Cordis plugin: the host face (lib/index.js) registers the tool, the projection, and the auto-injection; the browser face (lib/client.js) renders the panel. The same composition row covers both faces via the package's dsh.bundle + dsh.client manifest sections.
• All file access goes through the host ctx.fs service, and every resolved path is containment-checked against the agent's session workspace — the board can never escape it.
• Auto-injection mirrors the in-box dsh-time-context mechanism: an agent/pre-step waterfall listener appends a plugin snapshot message carrying the board text (step 1 of every turn, plus mid-turn whenever the text changes). Resumed sessions get the board back on their first step.

Install

The package declares "dsh": { "bundle": { "patch": "./cordis.patch.yml" } }, so it goes through DSH's official plugin management:

# from a local checkout (equivalent to pnpm add <path> + auto-reconcile of the bundles list)
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add /path/to/dsh-plugin-focus

# or after publishing to npm
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add dsh-plugin-focus

Restart DSH. The focus tool is registered host-wide; the read-only panel appears in the web UI on a web profile.

Alternative: mount on one agent preset only

1. Copy a built-in preset to $DSH_HOME/.agent-presets/<id>/ (never edit the deployment's own preset — an upgrade overwrites it).
2. Append to agent.cordis.yml:

- id: focus
  name: 'dsh-plugin-focus'
  config:
    file: '.dsh/focus.md'

3. Make sure dsh-plugin-focus resolves (installed in the profile's node_modules or the module fallback directory).

Usage (model side)

action	args	behavior
set	note (required)	append an entry pinning the current focus / constraints
append	note (required)	append a log entry (decision, discovery, reversal)
get	—	read the whole board (newest first, capped, omitted-count footer)
clear	—	empty the board; the old board is archived to the archive file

The plugin also injects a focus:instructions prompt section (disable with personaSection: false) and re-injects the board into context automatically (disable with autoInject: false).

Configuration

All optional, on the composition row's config:

key	default	meaning
file	.dsh/focus.md	board path, relative to the session workspace; cannot escape it (runtime-enforced)
archiveFile	.dsh/focus.md.bak	archive path for clear
archive	true	whether clear archives first
maxEntries	60	max entries kept on disk (oldest dropped)
maxChars	8000	render cap for get / auto-injection (view truncation only)
autoInject	true	inject the board into model context at turn start / on change
personaSection	true	register the prompt-guidance section
sectionOrder	5	prompt section order (persona is 0, ascending)

File format

# Focus Board

<!-- dsh-plugin-focus v1 -->

## [2026-08-14T23:12:00.000Z] set
<note, may span lines>

## [2026-08-14T23:13:00.000Z] append
<another note>

Clearing appends an archive block (stamped with the clear time) to the archive file, so history accumulates.

Design

• Pure logic separated from the runtime: lib/board.js has zero DSH/Cordis imports (parse / render / mutate / archive) and is unit-tested in isolation; lib/index.js is the Cordis plugin.
• Safety: every path resolves through ctx.fs and is containment-checked with ctx.fs.contains against the session workspace.
• Lifecycle: tool registration, projection, injection listener, and prompt section are all Cordis-scope-managed; stopping/removing the plugin cleans them up.
• Two faces, one row: the host loader imports ., the browser loader imports ./client (via the dsh.client manifest). The focusBoard session projection (event focus/write) is the data seam any future UI can read with useProjection('focusBoard').

Tests

node --test test/

Uninstall

dsh plugin --profile <profile> remove dsh-plugin-focus

Roadmap

• Verify the web panel against a live web instance and iterate on the slot UI.
• Expose board mutations from the panel (edit / clear buttons).
• Optional: attach the board to turn/start events for explicit snapshot semantics.

License

MIT

FAQ

• The board is empty in a fresh session — where did it go? The board is per-workspace, not per-session: focus set in a session whose workspace already has a .dsh/focus.md reads the existing entries. Each agent session resolves the board from its own session.header.cwd.
• Does the injection cost tokens? The board is injected once per turn start (plus mid-turn only when the text changes), capped at maxChars. An empty board injects nothing.
• Can the board escape my workspace? No. Every path is resolved through ctx.fs and containment-checked against the session workspace; a configured path outside it fails loud.
• The web panel is marked experimental — why? The client bundle is hand-written in the loader format without a bundler and has not been verified against a running web instance yet.
• How do I publish this to npm? npm publish (a prepublishOnly test run is wired in). Then dsh plugin add dsh-plugin-focus installs it without a build step.