🖥️ dsh-web-terminal

Give your AI coding workbench a real terminal — right inside DeepSeek Harness.

An interactive PTY terminal powered by xterm.js + node-pty, mounted as a third tab (Chat · Trajectory · Terminal) at the top of the web UI. After the model writes code, stay in the conversation and open a shell of your own right next to it — build, commit, test, debug in one click.

Why you'll love it

In one line: put “writing code” and “running code” in the same place — without them interfering.

✨ Highlights

• 🗂️ A dedicated Terminal tab next to Chat & Trajectory — one click to switch.
• 🧯 A real PTY, not a toy:
  • Windows uses ConPTY; POSIX uses an interactive shell;
  • full Ctrl+C / Ctrl+D control keys, resize auto-fit, color + cursor blink;
  • persistent session (process stays resident, so you can chain commands without restarting).
• 🔄 Session survival + scrollback replay: tab away and back, even reload the page — it auto-reconnects and replays recent output (the pool lives plugin-side).
• 🚪 Zero conversation pollution: fully independent of the agent stream — no context tokens, no chat-log noise.
• ⚡ Zero config: PowerShell on Windows and bash on POSIX are auto-detected; run multiple terminals side by side and switch each one's shell type (bash / zsh / pwsh / powershell / cmd / python, …) from a dropdown right in the Terminal tab.
• 🗂️ Multi-terminal: open several terminals in one tab, switch with the tab cards, each with its own process.
• ⌨️ Type /terminal in the composer to jump straight to the terminal (a single-step command, same source as the official /plan) — works even in an empty new session.
• 🧩 A pure DSH bundle plugin: install, run, natively integrated with the official UI slots.

🚀 Quick Start

Requires: DeepSeek Harness 0.1.0-rc.6 (next channel) web profile.

Install

# Option 1 — GitHub (recommended, reproducible)
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-web-terminal@github:helays/dsh-web-terminal#main -w

# Option 2 — from a local dev checkout
cd dsh-web-terminal && dsh plugin --profile web add . -w

⚠️ -w is required: the current dsh profile template is a pnpm workspace root (pnpm-workspace.yaml contains packages: [.]); omitting it triggers ERR_PNPM_ADDING_TO_ROOT. dsh plugin forwards its remaining args to pnpm verbatim.

After installing, restart dsh web (a changed plugin set / host needs a restart), then refresh the browser.

Usage

1. Open any session (once you're inside, you'll see Chat · Trajectory · Terminal at the top).
2. Click the Terminal tab, or type /terminal in the input box.
3. Run commands directly, for example:

npm run build   # build right after the model edits code
git status      # see what changed
pytest          # run tests

4. The tab bar shows connection status; switch back to Chat whenever you like — your terminal and session are still there.

🧩 Tech Stack

Why a “real” terminal — and how it differs from the built-in dsh-terminal

The built-in ctx.terminals is agent-owned, model-facing, line-oriented, with no browser transport and unavailable on Windows. Here we instead spawn a shell that belongs entirely to you via node-pty, fully decoupled from the agent session — it is your own terminal.

🔧 Local Development

pnpm install     # install deps (types included)
pnpm build       # outputs lib/index.js + lib/client.js + lib/client.css
pnpm typecheck   # tsc --noEmit type check

• Changing the host half (src/) requires a dsh web restart;
• Changing the client half (src/client/) just needs a reinstall + page refresh.

❓ FAQ

Q: Does this terminal consume my conversation context? No. It is fully decoupled from the model/agent conversation — nothing is written to context and nothing mixes into the chat log.

Q: Will my session survive a restart/refresh? Yes. The session pool lives plugin-side and survives across sessions and reloads; on reconnect it replays the latest output.

Q: I only want to run a single command — must I open a terminal? Once open the process stays resident, so you can keep operating inside it; switching away and back returns to the same shell.

Q: Can I swap shells? Yes — per terminal. In the Terminal tab, use the “Terminal type” dropdown (top-right) to pick bash / zsh / pwsh / powershell / cmd / python (from the shells detected on your system); switching restarts that terminal with the new shell. It auto-detects PowerShell on Windows and bash on POSIX by default.

Q: Where do terminals open by default? In the current conversation's workspace directory (falling back to the dsh web startup directory if unavailable). No configuration needed.

📝 License

MIT © helays