dsh-subagent-registry

Register locally-defined custom agents (~/.dsh/agents/*.md) as callable subagents in dsh: the main conversation can invoke any of them by name through the use_agent tool, and each runs as a real dsh subagent with its own persona (system prompt).

中文简介：把 ~/.dsh/agents/*.md 定义的自定义 agent（frontmatter 元数据 + markdown 正文作为 persona）注册成 dsh 可按名调用的 subagent。主对话通过 use_agent 工具点名调用；每个自定义 agent 以独立 subagent 运行，拥有自己 的 system prompt，跑在 dsh 自带的 spawn provider 上，不需要 patch dsh 本体。

How it works

• One file per agent: <agents-dir>/<name>.md — a loose key: value frontmatter block (name, description, model, deep, display_name, …) followed by a markdown body that is used verbatim as the child's persona (system prompt).
• One tool: at session startup the plugin registers use_agent (configurable toolName). The tool's static description carries the roster — every agent name plus its sanitized description — so the main model can pick an agent by name.
• At call time the target file is re-read and parsed; the body becomes the child's persona, the frontmatter model (provider/model route) is split into agentOptions, and the child is started through the already-assembled spawn subagent provider (the same single-instance realm dsh uses for its native subagent tool). The result is returned to the parent conversation.

Installation

Option A — add this checkout as a dsh plugin (tui profile):

dsh plugin --profile tui add ~/github/dsh-subagent-registry

Option B — npm dependency: npm i @aiwayds/dsh-subagent-registry, then load the plugin under the stable id dsh-subagent-registry in your profile's config, or mount it through a bundle patch (see cordis.patch.yml in this repo for the pattern).

Configuration

Config field	Default	Description
agentsDir	~/.dsh/agents	Directory holding <name>.md agent definitions.
provider	spawn	Subagent provider the child runs through (reuses dsh-base's spawn).
toolName	use_agent	Name of the registered tool.
leafDenyTools	[] (computed default)	Explicit tool-deny list installed on deep: 0 (leaf) children. Empty = computed default (every agent-spawning tool in the dsh base distribution plus toolName).

deep semantics

deep is the agent's spawn-depth budget, declared in the frontmatter:

deep	Meaning
0	Leaf: the agent runs normally but can never start a subagent.
>= 1	May start subagents. Default when the key is absent: 1.

Implementation, at use_agent execute time:

• deep: 0 — the start request carries toolFilter: { deny: [...] } and no maxDepth. The in-process spawn driver applies the filter as a scoped tools.restrict() in the child's creation window, so the named tools vanish from the child's tool prompt and refuse to execute — the child keeps its full non-spawn tool set but has zero spawn capability. Passing maxDepth: 0 (the old behavior) would have rejected the child's own start, since the child's absolute depth is always ≥ 1. Default deny list: subagent, subagent_fork, workflow, ralph, plus this plugin's own tool name (use_agent by default; a customized toolName is denied automatically). send_message / interrupt_agent / list_agents only address already-running children and cannot spawn, so they stay visible. Override with leafDenyTools when your deployment's tool set differs.
• deep >= 1 — no toolFilter; maxDepth is set to the child's absolute depth plus deep — a relative budget. Start can never be blocked by the depth check (childDepth ≤ childDepth + deep always holds), while the "deep = how many generations of subagents I may open" reading is preserved. Each subsequent delegation level enforces its own per-request caps (the native subagent tool defaults to maxDepth: 3), which acts as the outer recursion backstop.

Default agent roster

The author's personal ~/.dsh/agents/ ships with three agents: workhorse (牛马狗, the general workhorse), oldfox (老法师, the review/audit oracle), and rubber-duck (小黄鸭). rubber-duck is the multimodal visual agent: it reads screenshots / charts / OCR text and draws plotext / mermaid / matplotlib figures, running on an image-capable model. It now occupies the role formerly filled by the removed ArtyDuck (艺术鸭) in this setup.

Usage example

A multimodal example — ~/.dsh/agents/rubber-duck.md:

---
name: rubber-duck
display_name: 小黄鸭
description: "小黄鸭：多模态视觉 agent，看图识别、OCR、画 plotext/mermaid 图……"
model: digitalvolvo/kimi-k2.7-code
thinking: max
extensions: ["*"]
---
你是「小黄鸭」——多模态视觉 agent。……（这里写完整的 system prompt）

Then ask in a conversation:

用 rubber-duck 看一下这个浏览器截图，描述页面状态并提取文字

The main model calls use_agent(agent: "rubber-duck", prompt: "…"), the child runs with the file body as its persona and an image-capable model, reads the screenshot, and its result comes back into the conversation.

A text-only example — ~/.dsh/agents/workhorse.md:

---
name: workhorse
display_name: 牛马狗
description: "牛马狗：干活的主力……"
model: opencode-go/deepseek-v4-flash
deep: 0
---
You are 牛马狗，干活的主力。……（这里写完整的 system prompt）

Then ask in a conversation:

用 workhorse 把今天的发布清单整理成表格

The main model calls use_agent(agent: "workhorse", prompt: "…"), the child runs with the file body as its persona, and its result comes back into the conversation.

Known limitations

• deep is a per-agent relative budget enforced at each use_agent call; it does not re-arm deeper descendants. Real recursion is additionally bounded by every spawning tool's own maxDepth (native subagent tools default to maxDepth: 3) as the outer backstop.
• Continuable / background follow-up conversations with a custom agent (send_message-style resumption) are v2; today every use_agent run is one-shot.
• tools.restrict() validates the deny list against globally registered tool names and throws on unknown names — the default list only names tools the stock dsh base distribution always registers; non-stock deployments should tune leafDenyTools.

Publishing note (read before npm publish)

This plugin is a dsh plugin: its @deepseek-ai/* imports must resolve to the single dsh closure instance the host provides. Never declare @deepseek-ai/* in dependencies — pnpm would install a second copy of the cordis/dsh-session closure, breaking module identity and surfacing as bizarre runtime errors like Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'prepare') in session-persistence. Keep them in peerDependencies (and devDependencies for local typecheck/build), matching @aiwayds/dsh-tui-pi's convention.

Development

npm run check    # tsc --noEmit -p tsconfig.json
npm run build    # tsc -p tsconfig.json -> lib/
npm test         # node test/deep-semantics.test.mjs (no LLM)

License

MIT