DeepSeek Harness is DeepSeek's agentic coding harness — agent chat, tool approvals, goals & plans, subagents, workflows and Cordis tooling. This plugin embeds the complete harness in the IDE tool window: install, configure the API key once, chat.

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Installation

From disk (zip)

1. Download deepseek-harness-jetbrains-<version>.zip from Releases (or build it yourself — see Building from source).
2. Open your IDE and go to Settings → Plugins (Ctrl+Alt+S, or File → Settings).
3. Click the ⚙ gear icon next to "Marketplace" and choose Install Plugin from Disk….
4. Select the downloaded zip and click OK.
5. Restart the IDE when prompted.
6. Open any project — the Deepseek Harness For IDE tool window appears on the right and the local service starts automatically.

Upgrading: install the newer zip the same way — it replaces the previous version while keeping your per-project conversations and settings.

From the JetBrains Marketplace

Search for Deepseek Harness For IDE under Settings → Plugins → Marketplace and install it. Marketplace releases follow the same version numbers.

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Key Features

The whole harness, embedded

• Full DeepSeek Harness web UI — agent chat, session management, tool approvals, file diffs, goals & plans, subagents, workflows and the Cordis tool panels, in a JCEF browser inside the tool window. DSH upgrades automatically bring new UI features.
• No dsh install required — the plugin ships the complete DSH runtime (its whole node_modules closure). Only Node.js 18+ is required, and when it is missing the plugin detects it and pops a one-click link to nodejs.org.

IDE integration

• Workspace = IDE project — the project directory is adopted as a workspace and moved to the top before the page loads; reopening deterministically lands on the workspace with the most conversations.
• Open files in the IDE — host.openPath is routed into the IDE via a DSH composition patch (native gateway) with an automatic fallback to a TCP proxy.
• Native IDE diff — when a file has VCS changes, opening it shows the IDE's side-by-side diff against the VCS baseline instead of the plain editor.
• Send selection to DSH — editor context-menu action that starts the service if needed, locates the session, and queues the selected text (or current line) as a message.

Data safety & isolation

• Per-project isolated data — every IDE project gets its own DSH home; credentials and settings are inherited one-way from ~/.dsh at startup. An externally running dsh web is never touched (multi-instance sharing of one home is unsafe in DSH).
• Startup checks — API-key preflight (warns before the first dead turn), Node.js detection with download guidance, and a once-per-version update notice with the build date and what changed.

Developer experience

• "For IDE" settings section inside the DeepSeek Harness settings page — plugin info and feedback links, injected through the composition (a real DSH client package).
• Feedback built in — a feedback button in the tool-window toolbar, plus a plugin-info section with one-click diagnostics copy on the IDE settings page.
• Logs & statistics — start/crash counters, uptime, and the captured dsh web log in the tool window. Fully bilingual (English / 简体中文).

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Requirements

• JetBrains IDE 2024.3+ (since 243 / until 261.*) — IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, Rider, and other platform-based IDEs.
• Node.js 18+ — the DSH runtime is bundled; Node is not. The plugin prompts you to download it when missing.
• A DeepSeek API key — run npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web once in a terminal, save DEEPSEEK_API_KEY on the Models page; the plugin inherits it automatically.

Platform note: the bundled DSH runtime contains native modules (node-pty, sharp, …) and is currently built for Windows x64. On other platforms a system-installed dsh on PATH is used instead (see the settings table below).

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Usage

Action	How
Chat / approve tools / manage sessions	Everything happens inside the embedded Harness UI
Open a file changed by the agent	Click the file in the chat → opens in the IDE editor, or the IDE native diff when it has VCS changes
Send code to DSH	Select code → right-click → Send Selection to DeepSeek Harness
Start / stop / restart the service	Toolbar buttons in the tool window
Logs & statistics	Toolbar Show Details → Log / Statistics tabs
Report a problem	Toolbar Feedback button, or Settings → Deepseek Harness For IDE → Report a problem / Copy diagnostics

Settings

Settings → Tools → Deepseek Harness For IDE

Setting	Default	Description
dsh command	dsh	The bundled runtime is used automatically; a dsh found on PATH wins. A full path (e.g. C:\nodejs\node.exe C:\...\dsh\lib\bin.js) is also accepted
Bind address	127.0.0.1	Passed to dsh web --host (DSH rejects 0.0.0.0)
Port	0 (auto)	0 = let the OS pick a free port (recommended)
File jump	auto	How "open file" resolves: auto = DSH composition-native gateway with TCP-proxy fallback; proxy = TCP proxy only; off = disabled
File open mode	auto	How the file lands: auto = IDE native diff (VCS baseline) when modified, else the editor; file = always the editor
DSH_HOME override	blank (isolated)	Blank = per-project isolated directory under %LOCALAPPDATA%\deepseek-harness-jetbrains\dsh-home\<project>-<hash> (recommended; credentials are inherited one-way from ~/.dsh); default = inherit the IDE environment (shares ~/.dsh with an external dsh web — not multi-instance safe); an absolute path uses that directory
Auto start on project open	✅	One DSH instance per project
Auto restart on unexpected exit	❌	Re-spawns the service when it crashes

⚠️ Sharing one DSH home between several dsh web instances is not safe in the current DSH version. The isolated default keeps the plugin and any external dsh web fully independent.

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Project Status

The project is under active development. For version history and iteration progress, read CHANGELOG.md.

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Building from source

Prerequisites: JDK 17+ (21/22 recommended). First build downloads the IntelliJ Platform dependencies and bundles the DSH runtime from the local npx cache — run npx @deepseek-ai/dsh once so a fresh DSH installation exists.

.\gradlew.bat buildPlugin      # → build/distributions/deepseek-harness-jetbrains-0.1.5.zip
.\gradlew.bat runIde           # run a sandbox IDE with the plugin
.\gradlew.bat verifyPlugin     # platform verification before publishing

Build options:

Property	Effect
-PdshRuntimePath=<dir>	Use a specific dsh installation (dir containing node_modules) for bundling
-PskipDshRuntime=true	Build a lightweight plugin without the bundled DSH runtime
-PskipNodeRuntime=false	Opt back into bundling a Node.js executable (-PnodeRuntimePath=<dir> points at the install)

Architecture

Plugin = process host (Kotlin) + embedded browser (JCEF) + the official DSH web frontend. See docs/architecture.md for the full write-up, including the composition-patch reverse-engineering notes (gateway rebuild, ctx.provide check-predicate pitfall, the h2c upgrade trap, the client-module injection for the "For IDE" section) and the per-project data-home design.

Roadmap

• Multi-project sharing of one DSH instance (optional mode)
• Native IDE directory picker for the UI's directory-selection seam
• One-shot tasks via dsh --profile headless
• Publish to the JetBrains Marketplace

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Feedback

• Tool window → Feedback (or Settings → Deepseek Harness For IDE → Report a problem).
• The feedback URL lives in DshFeedback.kt (FEEDBACK_URL).
• Copy diagnostics on the settings page snapshots version, build date, bundled DSH version, data directory, IDE and OS — paste it into your bug report.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE. This plugin bundles the DeepSeek Harness runtime (MIT); the harness and its trademarks belong to their respective owners.