dsh-plugin-busy-workspace
Know which workspace is working, at a glance.
A DeepSeek Harness (dsh) Web GUI plugin that highlights running sessions and pins busy workspaces to the top of the sidebar.
The problem
If you run more than one agent at a time, the dsh sidebar becomes a wall of look-alike rows. Every workspace header renders identically, every session row renders identically, and the only signal that something is running is a ten-pixel dot you have to hunt for.
The result is a set of real, recurring failures:
| What happens | What it costs you |
|---|
| You cannot tell which workspace has an agent mid-task | You open workspaces one by one to check, or you interrupt a session that was already working |
| Busy workspaces drift down the list as you touch others | The thing you actually care about is the thing you have to scroll to find |
| A session finishes and nothing tells you | You wait on a task that already ended, or you miss the moment to review its output |
| The status dot is the only cue, and it is tiny, grey, and low-contrast | You cannot read the sidebar from a step back or on a small display |
Existing themes and skins restyle the whole interface but none of them answer the one question that matters during parallel work: which one is running right now?
What this plugin does
Three focused changes, all in the sidebar, all driven by the state the Harness already computes.
1. Busy workspaces rise to the top
A workspace containing a running session is lifted above the rest of the list. The move is presentational only — your manually dragged workspace order is never rewritten, so when the last session in a workspace finishes, the list quietly returns to the order you set.
2. Running sessions get a real visual identity
The running session row gets an accent frame, a tinted background, an accent-coloured bold title, and a slow breathing bar on its leading edge. You can identify it from across the room without reading a single word.
3. You see the moment a session finishes
When a session stops running, its row plays one short green settle pulse and then returns to normal. You learn that a task completed without watching it.
Theme-adaptive by design
Every colour is read from the active theme's own --dsw-alias-* tokens. Nothing is hardcoded, which means one stylesheet works across the built-in light and dark themes and across community theme packs (Catppuccin, Nord, Dracula, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox, and any other theme that defines the standard token set).
| Role | Token |
|---|
| Running accent | --dsw-alias-state-business-primary, falling back to --dsw-alias-brand-primary |
| Settle colour | --dsw-alias-state-success-primary |
| Row title | --dsw-alias-label-primary |
| Hover surface | --dsw-alias-interactive-bg-hover |
The plugin deliberately picks the semantic state tokens rather than brand tokens. A brand token turns orange when your theme's brand is orange, which would read as a warning rather than as activity. The state tokens keep their meaning across every theme.
Transparency is composed with color-mix() against the theme's own surface, so the tint always sits correctly on light and dark backgrounds alike.
Install
# From your dsh profile directory
cd ~/.dsh/profiles/web
pnpm add github:yangx/dsh-plugin-busy-workspace
Then register the bundle in that profile's package.json:
{
"dsh": {
"profile": {
"bundles": [
"...",
"dsh-plugin-busy-workspace"
]
}
}
}
Restart the Web GUI and reload the page. The sidebar picks it up with no further configuration.
Configuration
Settings persist at $DSH_HOME/busy-workspace/settings.json and are served over GET /busy-workspace/api/settings.
{
"pinBusyWorkspaces": true,
"highlightRunningSessions": true,
"highlightBusyWorkspaceHeaders": true,
"notifyOnCompletion": true,
"intensity": 0.6
}
| Field | Default | Effect |
|---|
pinBusyWorkspaces | true | Lift workspaces with a running session to the top of the list |
highlightRunningSessions | true | Draw the accent frame, tint, and breathing bar on a running row |
highlightBusyWorkspaceHeaders | true | Tint and accent-bar the header of a busy workspace |
notifyOnCompletion | true | Play the settle pulse when a session stops running |
intensity | 0.6 | Accent strength, 0–1. Scales alpha only; hue always comes from the theme |
The Host half is optional. A composition carrying only the client bundle keeps these defaults, which is a fully working configuration.
How it works
The plugin reads data-state from the status dot the Harness already renders on every session row — ongoing, warning, or done. That single attribute is the official contract, and reading it has three consequences worth stating:
- No second source of truth. The plugin never re-derives activity from the transport, so it cannot disagree with the dot you are looking at.
- No race with the renderer. Marks are applied as attributes plus CSS. React re-renders overwrite attributes freely and the observer simply re-applies them; DOM order is never touched, so reconciliation is never fought.
- No layout shift. The running frame is drawn with an inset
box-shadow ring rather than a border, because a border would change the row's box size and shift every row below it the moment a session starts.
Workspace lifting uses CSS order on the flex list column. Reordering nodes directly would fight React; an order value is a purely presentational hint the renderer never reads back.
Motion respects prefers-reduced-motion: users who ask for less motion keep every state indication and lose only the movement.
Compatibility
| |
|---|
| Harness | DeepSeek Harness 0.1.5-rc and later |
| Surface | Web GUI sidebar (sidebar.workspaces) |
| Themes | Any theme defining the standard --dsw-alias-* tokens |
| Conflicts | None known. The plugin owns one style element and one settings file, and reads no other plugin's state |
FAQ
Does it change my workspace order permanently?
No. Lifting is purely visual. Your persisted order is never written, so the list returns to your arrangement as soon as the work stops.
What counts as "running"?
Exactly what the status dot means by ongoing: the session's turn is in flight. A session waiting on your approval, plan review, or an answer shows the official warning dot and is left alone — that is your cue, not a busy cue.
Will it fight my theme?
No. It defines no palette. It consumes your theme's tokens, so it inherits whatever you installed and stays correct when you switch themes.
Does it slow the sidebar down?
Marks are recomputed once per animation frame from a batched mutation observer, and only written when a value actually changes. The observer cannot drive itself, because it writes attributes it does not itself observe into a loop.
Keywords
DeepSeek Harness · dsh plugin · dsh-plugin · cordis plugin · DeepSeek Web GUI · sidebar · workspace sidebar · session list · running session indicator · busy workspace · agent activity indicator · parallel agent monitoring · session status dot · pin active workspace · workspace sorting · theme adaptive · --dsw-alias tokens · Catppuccin · Nord · Dracula · Tokyo Night · Gruvbox · productivity · developer tooling
License
MIT © 2026 baifagg
