DSH BTW
DSH BTW is a community-maintained DeepSeek Harness plugin, not an official DeepSeek AI product. Type /btw your question in the current conversation to get a context-aware answer in an independent bubble without interrupting the main task. Supports DSH Web and desktop apps that include DSH Web. From 1.0.0, hosts outside the supported list are rejected by the version gate and the plugin will not run; installed configuration and main-conversation records are kept.
Features
- Context-aware questions: explain concepts, recap conclusions, or ask a quick question about the current conversation.
- Answers only: no reading new files, browsing the web, running commands, or editing code.
- Independent answer bubbles: render Markdown and formulas, copy answers, collapse, expand, and close individual bubbles. Multiple answers can stay visible.
- Keep the main task going: side questions are answered separately and by default do not add answers to the main conversation.
- Return on request: when you want the conclusion available to the main conversation, ask for it in the question ("send the answer back to the main conversation") and the side ask uses
send_message to deliver a self-contained answer to the main session. It does not send anything when you did not ask.
- Cancel anytime: close a bubble while it is answering to cancel that question.
- Themes and languages: follow DSH light and dark themes and switch between Chinese and English UI.
Screenshots
Side questions in stock DSH
The main conversation stays in place, with the side answer above the composer.
A BTW answer bubble in the stock DSH conversation
Command menu
Type / and select btw under Commands, or enter /btw your question directly.
The official command menu with btw
Independent answer bubbles
Each answer has its own copy, collapse or expand, and close controls in the upper right.
Multiple answer bubbles with copy, collapse, and close controls
Side-question settings
Open Plugins, pick @michengai/dsh-btw, and the settings form sits directly on the detail page — the whitelist and the prompt box, pre-filled with the built-in prompt so you can edit it in place.
The side-question settings form on the plugin detail page
Drawing from a side question
With pele_draw on the whitelist, a side question can render a diagram. It shows up inside the side-question panel, and the main conversation is untouched.
A side question rendering a flowchart with pele_draw
DSH product ecosystem
For a desktop workbench, download DSH Codex Desktop. Existing DeepSeek Harness installations can add plugins as needed by following each project's README. Below are 11 first-party plugins; consult the corresponding desktop release notes and bundled catalog for what that version includes.
| Plugin | What you can do |
|---|
| Codex UI | Organize projects and conversations, search tasks, and navigate chat turns |
| Agency Agents | Choose and summon specialists for your task |
| Skills Manager | Find, enable, create, and import local skills |
| Archive Manager | Search, restore, or clean up archived conversations |
| IM Connect | Send tasks and receive replies through messaging platforms |
| Automation | Schedule tasks and review each run |
| BTW | Ask side questions without interrupting the main task |
| Simplify | Use /simplify to improve code within your Git changes |
| PUA | Guide the Agent to try new approaches after failures, investigate causes, and verify results before completion |
| Code Review | Use /review to request an independent Agent code review and receive the report in the current conversation |
| Codex Pet | View conversation notifications and respond to tool approvals and questions through a desktop pet |
Prerequisites
- An installed copy of DeepSeek Harness.
- Host compatibility: Full DeepSeek Harness
0.2.x line (>=0.2.0-rc.1 <0.3.0-0), verified with 0.2.0-rc.1, 0.2.0-rc.2, 0.2.1-rc.1, 0.2.1-rc.2, and 0.2.1-rc.3, and forwards-compatible with subsequent 0.2.x releases, alphas, and RCs without requiring routine plugin version bumps.
- Legacy hosts prior to
0.2.0-rc.1 are no longer supported. The version gate cleanly intercepts breaking changes in the 0.3.0 generation. Users on 0.1.x hosts should install 0.1.24.
- Node.js 22+ and
dsh available in your terminal.
Installation
Examples use the web profile; replace it with your target profile. Disable other plugins that provide /btw before installing.
Ask an agent to install it (recommended)
Send the prompt below to any agent that can run terminal commands on your computer. Replace web with your actual profile. Once installed, use the plugin in DSH.
Install the DSH plugin @michengai/dsh-btw into my local web profile by running: dsh plugin --profile web add @michengai/dsh-btw@latest --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/. Then run dsh --profile web --dump-config, confirm the configuration includes michengai-btw, and explain how to reload DSH and start using the plugin.
Install manually from npm
[Console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
$OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
dsh plugin --profile web add @michengai/dsh-btw@latest --registry=https://registry.npmjs.org/
Reloading
Install or update after current tasks finish, as desktop apps may reload automatically. If the change has not taken effect, use the desktop app's reload action or restart the dsh web service. Refreshing the browser alone is not enough.
Installing @latest on a host before 0.2.0, or on a 0.2.1 alpha, is rejected by the version gate, and the plugin will not run. On 0.1.x, install 0.1.24 instead. Rejection does not delete existing configuration or main-conversation records.
Usage
Ask about selected text
Select text within a single conversation message, choose Ask BTW from the compact selection toolbar, and enter a question or choose Explain this. Enter sends, Shift+Enter inserts a newline, and Esc cancels. Answers use the existing BTW bubbles with an expandable quote.
- Supports prose, lists, and code text; quotes are limited to 8,000 UTF-16 code units including whitespace and are never silently truncated.
- The quote is frozen when the menu opens. Other context comes from completed main-chat content at send time.
- Main-composer drafts are preserved. Cross-message selections, editable fields, and tool output do not show the menu.
- Add to conversation appends a quote to the existing draft without sending. After insertion, focus returns to the composer; insertion is blocked while a message is being submitted. Right-click keeps the browser's native menu.
- Keyboard selection is supported inside focused message elements: release Shift to focus the toolbar. Browsers without the Popover API use a fixed-position fallback, which may be clipped by the host layout.
- Coexists with
dsh-better-sidebar: BTW handles conversation text only; file previews and editors retain the sidebar plugin's own Add to conversation action without a duplicate toolbar.
- This entry uses host DOM markers. Unrecognized layouts keep their normal context menu;
/btw remains available.
Command entry
In a conversation with existing context, enter:
/btw Summarize the proposed plan in one sentence.
| Goal | Action |
|---|
| Ask a side question | Submit /btw your question, or choose btw from the / menu. |
| Read the answer | Wait for the answer in the independent bubble above the composer. |
| Copy an answer | Click the copy icon in the bubble's upper right. |
| Collapse or expand | Click the collapse or expand icon. |
| Cancel a question | Close its bubble while it is running. The main task is unaffected. |
| Dismiss an answer | Close the completed bubble. |
| Ask again | Submit another /btw question. Each question is independent. |
Use the regular conversation to run commands, edit code, or continue the main task. BTW can only answer using existing context.
BTW accepts text only. Side questions with images or files are rejected without clearing the draft or attachments; remove the attachments before retrying.
Usage Notes
- Each question is independent and uses completed content from the main conversation at the time you ask. It does not include an answer still being generated or previous side questions.
- Bubbles are not restored after refreshing the page. Copy any answers you want to keep first.
Settings
Both entries are optional. Leaving them empty keeps the built-in behaviour: text answers only, with the shipped prompt.
Open Plugins, find @michengai/dsh-btw, and open Configure on its row. The page sits in the same place as the configuration page of dsh-subagent-default-model.
| Field | Effect |
|---|
| Allowed tools | Tool names the side question may call in addition to send_message, one per line (for example pele_draw). Empty allows text answers only, which is the default. |
| Custom prompt | Instruction text that replaces the built-in side-question prompt. The box is pre-filled with the built-in prompt so you can edit it in place; saving it unchanged restores the default. |
Notes:
- The whitelist widens what the side question may call; the main conversation is never restricted by it. A name that does not exist simply allows nothing.
send_message is not a whitelist entry. Delivering an answer back to the main conversation stays bound to the rule that it may only target the side question's own parent session, so a whitelist entry cannot turn it into "send to any agent".- The custom prompt replaces the instruction prefix only. The tool-permission sentence and the reply-channel sentence are always appended, so the model never believes it can call everything.
- Changes apply to the next side question without reloading the plugin.
- The permission sentence names the allowed tools, so widening the whitelist changes the side-question prompt. That prompt is a trailing user message; the tool list and system prompt stay byte-identical to the main conversation, so parent prompt cache reuse is unaffected.
Example: let a side question draw diagrams
dsh-pele provides the pele_draw tool, which renders Mermaid source into an SVG card inside the conversation. Add pele_draw to Allowed tools and a side question can draw too.
Note: dsh-pele is a recent plugin that is not published to npm and not in the plugin marketplace yet, so it cannot be installed by searching the marketplace. Clone the repository and install its plugin directory into your profile:
git clone https://github.com/hesheng01/dsh-pele.git
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add <absolute-path>/dsh-pele/plugin
The first install needs a Host restart.
Uninstallation
[Console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
$OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
dsh plugin --profile web remove @michengai/dsh-btw
Reload DSH afterward. Disabling or updating the plugin does not delete the main conversation's records.
Development
[Console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
$OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
npm ci --ignore-scripts
npm run check
npm run check runs type checking, tests, and a build.
Development and builds target 0.2.1-rc.2. npm run test:compat builds with that baseline and runs the test suite on each of the four isolated host versions, using a test model adapter. DOM component tests do not replace live-browser acceptance.
GitHub and npm both include a ready-to-run lib; after changing source, run npm run build before committing.
To install from source, run dsh plugin --profile web add . --ignore-scripts from the project directory, then reload DSH.
License
Apache-2.0. Copyright 2026 MichengAI.
