dsh-skill-manage · Skill Management Plugin

English | 中文

A skill management plugin for DeepSeek Harness (dsh): manage skills from the settings panel (list / enable / disable / delete / add a .zip), and via an agent-callable skill_manage tool that creates, modifies, and deletes skill files programmatically. Works on both the dsh web app and the official desktop app.

Features

Feature	Description
Skill List	Display all skills grouped by scope (global / workspace), with search
Enable / Disable	Toggle switch for hot enable/disable, no restart required
Delete Skill	Permanently remove skill files with a custom confirmation dialog
Add Skill	Pick a .zip archive and auto-extract it into the global skills directory (~/.dsh/skills)
Skill Details	Render skill content as Markdown, display frontmatter metadata table
Agent Tool skill_manage	LLM-callable tool to create / modify / delete skills via tool calls, in global or workspace scope

Background

dsh officially has no skill enable/disable control — no CLI command, no settings UI, no slash command, no config file field, no API method. The only official "control" is via frontmatter fields disable-model-invocation and user-invocable, which require manual file editing and don't truly disable the skill (it's still discovered and loaded, just hidden from certain interfaces).

This plugin implements true toggle control via a .disabled file rename mechanism: renaming SKILL.md to SKILL.md.disabled causes dsh's official provider to ignore the file (it only recognizes .md extensions), effectively "disabling" the skill.

Breaking Changes in 0.2.0

This release contains breaking changes for downstream consumers:

• typert RPC contract aligned to the official create factory. The host/client codec now uses create: () => schema (required since dsh 0.1.6-alpha.1). It is no longer compatible with the old schema-only contract (e.g. dsh-desktop 0.5.0).
• Dependencies moved to peerDependencies with open ranges. All @deepseek-ai/* packages (including cordis and every dsh-*) are now peerDependencies with ^ ranges, so the plugin binds to the host's dsh version at runtime instead of pinning an exact build. Exact versions are kept in devDependencies for local builds. This also satisfies the desktop plugin-graph validator, which rejects shared packages declared in dependencies.
• Cross-platform by design. The same bundle runs in both the dsh web profile and the official desktop profile — no per-platform rewrite. (Note: plugins are installed per profile; installing into the web profile does not make them appear in the desktop profile, and vice versa — that is profile isolation, not incompatibility.)

Installation

Prerequisites

• DeepSeek Harness (dsh) web app or official desktop app, dsh >= 0.1.6-alpha.1
• Node.js >= 18 (local development only)

Install via dsh

dsh plugin --profile web add @lijian-ui/dsh-skill-manage

--profile is required and selects the target profile (web or desktop). Plugins are isolated per profile: installing into web will not make it appear in desktop, and vice versa. Restart the app after installation.

Local Development

# Enter the plugin directory
cd extensions/dsh-skill-manage

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Watch mode
npm run watch

# Type check
npm run typecheck

Build output goes to lib/ and is automatically synced to node_modules/@lijian-ui/dsh-skill-manage via junction. Restart the app after each build to load the new bundle.

Usage

1. Open dsh (web or desktop)
2. Navigate to Settings → Skill Manage
3. In the skill list:
   • Click the toggle switch to enable/disable a skill
   • Click the delete button to permanently remove a skill
   • Click a skill card to view details
   • Use the search box to filter skills
   • Click "Add skill" and pick a .zip archive to import into the global skills directory

Agent Tool skill_manage

The plugin also registers an agent-callable tool named skill_manage, so the LLM can create, modify, or delete skills during a session.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
action	create | modify | delete	yes	Operation to perform
name	string	yes	Skill name (lowercase letters, digits, hyphens; e.g. my-skill)
description	string	create only	Skill description
when_to_use	string	no	When the skill should trigger
content	string	create only	Skill body (Markdown)
scope	global | workspace	no (default global)	Where to write: global → ~/.dsh/skills; workspace → <project>/.dsh/skills

• delete reuses the same file logic as the GUI delete.
• workspace scope resolves the project root by walking up from the session cwd to the nearest directory containing .git.
• All writes land in the dsh-main skills directory (~/.dsh/skills or <project>/.dsh/skills), which is exactly what dsh scans, so a newly created skill is immediately discoverable.

Skill File Convention

State	Directory Bundle	Flat File
Enabled	<name>/SKILL.md	<name>.md
Disabled	<name>/SKILL.md.disabled	<name>.md.disabled

Skill Scopes

Scope	Path	Description
Global dsh	~/.dsh/skills/	User global skills
Global agents	~/.agents/skills/	Agents global skills
Workspace	<workspace>/.dsh/skills/	Project-level skills
Bundled	DSH_BUNDLED_SKILL_DIR	Deployment-bundled, read-only

Technical Architecture

Directory Structure

extensions/dsh-skill-manage/
├── src/
│   ├── index.ts                    # Host entry (inject: typert, settings, skills, sessions, agents, tools)
│   ├── remote.ts                   # Host RPC methods (list/setEnabled/deleteSkill/importZip) + skill_manage tool registration
│   ├── skill-files.ts              # File conventions (DISABLED_SUFFIX, collectSkillEntries, frontmatter validation)
│   └── client/
│       ├── index.ts                # Client entry (SECTION_ID, RPC registration, inject)
│       ├── SkillManageSection.tsx  # Main settings component (card list + toggle + detail dialog)
│       └── client-i18n.ts         # Client i18n (zh/en)
├── lib/                            # Build output
├── docs/
│   └── troubleshooting-and-bugs.md # Troubleshooting & official bug analysis
├── package.json
└── tsdown.config.ts

Host Side (src/remote.ts)

Provides the following RPC methods:

Method	Function
list(sessionId)	List all skills with enabled status
content(name, sessionId)	Get full skill content
setEnabled(name, sessionId, enabled)	Enable/disable skill (file rename)
deleteSkill(name, sessionId)	Delete skill
importZip(sessionId, payload)	Extract a .zip archive and install the skill into the global skills dir (<DSH_HOME>/skills, default ~/.dsh/skills)
workspaces()	List available workspaces
skill_manage (agent tool)	LLM-callable: create / modify / delete a skill via tool calls (scope: global → ~/.dsh/skills, workspace → <project>/.dsh/skills)

Client Side (src/client/)

• index.ts: Registers the settings section via ctx.slots.inject
• SkillManageSection.tsx: React component rendering skill cards, toggle switches, detail dialog, delete confirmation, and migration dialog
• client-i18n.ts: Chinese/English translations

Toggle Mechanism

User clicks toggle
  → Client optimistically updates UI (immediate switch state change)
  → RPC call to host setEnabled
  → Host: rename(SKILL.md ↔ SKILL.md.disabled)
  → dsh chokidar watcher detects file change
  → Registry cache invalidated (revision++)
  → After 800ms delay, ctx.emit('connection/reset')
  → Client fetches Map cleared
  → Next / completion re-queries → gets latest skill list

Known Issues & Solutions

Slash command completion not refreshing after enabling a skill

Issue: After enabling a skill, the / slash command completion menu in the chat doesn't show the newly enabled skill.

Root Cause: dsh's official dsh-client-ui-skill package is missing a subscription to the skills/change event, causing the client-side skill list cache to never be invalidated when skill files change.

Our Solution: In reloadAfterHot, after an 800ms delay, call ctx.emit('connection/reset') to silently refresh all module caches. Since the user is in the settings panel, they won't perceive the cache refresh in the chat interface.

See Troubleshooting & Bug Analysis for details.

Internationalization

Supports Chinese and English. Translation files are in src/client/client-i18n.ts. Language follows the dsh desktop language setting.

Tech Stack

• Language: TypeScript
• Build: tsdown (rolldown)
• Frontend: React 18
• Markdown Rendering: MarkdownText component from @deepseek-ai/dsh-client-ui-primitives
• YAML Parsing: yaml (frontmatter parsing)
• File Watching: dsh's official chokidar watcher (auto-detects skill file changes)
• Runtime dependencies: fflate, yaml, zod
• Host dependencies (peer): all @deepseek-ai/* — cordis ^4.0.0, every dsh-* ^0.1.0, dsh-tools ^0.1.0 — open ranges, resolved to the host dsh version at runtime

License

MIT

Related Links

• Troubleshooting & Bug Analysis
• DeepSeek Harness (dsh)