dsh-shot
Composer screenshot control for DeepSeek Harness: a camera button next to ＋ in the
composer opens a two-item menu, and the capture is framed and annotated in an overlay inside
the window (no fullscreen, the window stays where it is). The result lands in the current
conversation's composer as an image attachment.
| Menu item | Behaviour |
|---|
| Direct capture | Grab the whole virtual screen immediately; whatever covers it is captured too. |
| Hide this window | Hide the DSH window first, capture, then restore it exactly as it was (including "was minimized"). |
Windows only — the capture itself is a PowerShell child that drives Win32 (window lookup,
hide/restore, DWM-aware screen grab).
Requirements
- DeepSeek Harness
0.1.7 or newer, desktop/web profile.
- Windows (the host half shells out to
scripts/capture.ps1).
- Node
^22.19.0 || >=24.0.0.
- No runtime dependencies: the host half imports only
node:* builtins.
Install
# from a checkout
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add ./dsh-shot
# from a packed tarball
pnpm pack
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add ./dsh-shot-0.1.0.tgz
# from npm (once published)
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add dsh-shot
A package that declares dsh.bundle is appended to dsh.profile.bundles automatically, so the
layer is composed on the next boot. Verify without booting:
dsh --profile <profile> --dump-config # look for the "== dsh-shot" layer
Then restart the app — the client bundle URL carries a build revision that is computed at
startup, so a page refresh is not enough for lib/client.js changes.
Use
- Click the camera button next to
＋ in the composer and pick one of the two menu items.
- The overlay appears covering the window: drag a box to select a region.
- Annotate if you want, then confirm.
| Action | Effect |
|---|
| Drag the eight handles (corners + edge midpoints) | Resize from that handle. |
| Drag inside the box | Move the box, keeping its size. |
| Arrow keys | Nudge by one pixel; hold Shift for ten. |
| Right-click / Reselect | Drop the selection and start over. |
| Esc / right-click | Step back one level (undo annotation → reselect → exit). |
Annotation tools: rectangle, arrow, text (click a point, type, Enter to confirm,
Esc to cancel; double-click existing text to edit it), an eight-colour palette, plus
undo and reselect. Text carries a translucent dark plate so it stays readable on any
background.
Confirming (or Enter) puts the image into the composer draft. It is an ordinary image
attachment: you can preview it, add a message, and it is only sent when you send.
How it fits together
| Half | File | Runs in |
|---|
| Host | lib/index.js | DSH server; registers the /api/dsh-shot/* routes and spawns scripts/capture.ps1. |
| Client | lib/client.js | Browser; the composer button and the framing/annotation overlay. |
| Capture | scripts/capture.ps1 | A detached PowerShell child; finds the DSH window, hides/restores it, grabs the virtual screen. |
The client half is declared in package.json under dsh.client and is served from
/plugins/dsh-shot/client.js.
Known limitations
- Windows only. The capture path is Win32 + DWM.
- The overlay covers the window, not the screen. The whole capture is scaled to fit
and centred, so nothing is cropped and the entire screen stays visible; the leftover margin is a
dark letterbox. On a 2560x1440 screen with a 1296x828 window that is about 50px top and bottom.
The scaling is recomputed from the window size every time the overlay opens, so a different
screen or window size needs no configuration.
- Multi-monitor is captured as one virtual screen; it is all visible, but a small window
shows it small.
- The hide mode briefly makes the DSH window disappear (roughly 0.3–1.2 s).
- Rare: the capture script can return an almost empty frame (a few tens of KB instead of several
MB). Re-running the capture succeeds; an automatic retry is not implemented yet.
Development
# static contract checks (patch, manifest, red lines)
dsh-plugin-dev check --cwd .
# pack + install/start/uninstall in a throwaway DSH_HOME
dsh-plugin-dev verify --cwd .
Headless regression suites for this plugin live outside the package, in
dsh-screenshot-research/ (test-host.mjs, test-client.mjs, deliver-probe.mjs,
e2e-shot.mjs); they drive a throwaway headless Edge with a self-signed session cookie and never
touch a real browser profile.
DESIGN.md is the implementation and decision log: the measured evidence behind each design
choice, and the traps that were already paid for.
License
MIT.
