dsh-tui
A full-screen interactive terminal UI for the DeepSeek Harness agent runtime — the web UI, reimagined for the terminal.
dsh-tui runs the official DeepSeek Harness agent (tools, file editing, shell, subagents, sessions, permissions, plan mode) behind a Claude Code / opencode-style interface — live token streaming, reasoning blocks, boxed tool cards, prompt history, and a full slash-command suite. No browser, no Electron, just your terminal.
It is not a model wrapper or a plain chat REPL — it drives the real agent runtime.
Features
- Live streaming — answers render token-by-token as the model generates.
- Reasoning display —
thinking blocks stream dim/italic, with per-turn effort control (/model <id> high).
- Tool cards — box-drawn
⏱ bash blocks with lifecycle markers (● running → ✓ done / ✖ error) and arg/result previews.
- Full agent toolkit — the agent can read/edit files, run commands, delegate subagents, and execute plans.
- Session management — list and resume any persisted session (
/resume).
- Permission modes —
read-only / workspace-write / danger-full-access, switchable live (/permissions).
- Plan mode — toggle plan-first behavior (
/plan).
- Compaction — shrink the conversation on demand (
/compact).
- Trajectory — a filtered event timeline of the whole session (
/trajectory).
- Diagnostics — environment + model-catalog health check (
/doctor).
- Scrollback — mouse wheel /
PgUp / PgDn, with ↑ N indicator.
- Markdown rendering — fenced code blocks, inline code, bold, headings, lists.
- Cross-platform — macOS and Linux terminals (iTerm2, Terminal.app, kitty, alacritty, xterm, …).
Install
dsh-tui is a DeepSeek Harness plugin. You need the official dsh installed first:
# 1. Install the official DeepSeek Harness (once)
npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web --help # or: npm i -g @deepseek-ai/dsh
# 2. Create a `tui` profile and add this plugin
dsh plugin --profile tui add @nexlineai/dsh-tui
# 3. Run it
dsh --profile tui
The profile initializes on first use; dsh-tui composes over the same @deepseek-ai/dsh-base core as the web UI.
Model key
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=sk-...
The TUI uses the same credential sources as the harness (DEEPSEEK_API_KEY / settings.yaml).
Demo
A representative session transcript — streaming answer, reasoning block, tool card, trajectory, doctor, model picker — is in demo/session.md.
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|
/help | list commands |
/model | list models + reasoning efforts; ● active marks current |
/model <id> [effort] | switch live, e.g. /model deepseek-v4-pro high |
/resume | list persisted sessions (id, title, date) |
/resume <n> | continue that session with full history |
/permissions | list permission presets |
/permissions <name> | switch (read-only / workspace-write / danger-full-access) |
/plan | toggle plan mode |
/compact | compact the conversation now |
/trajectory | show the session event timeline |
/settings | one-screen summary of model/permission/plan/stream state |
/doctor | environment + model catalog health check |
/version | dsh-tui + runtime versions |
/status | session, cwd, event and turn counts |
/reasoning on|off | show/hide the thinking display |
/stream on|off | toggle live token streaming |
/clear | clear the conversation area |
/exit (or q, quit, :q, Ctrl+D) | leave |
Keybindings
| Key | Action |
|---|
Enter | submit |
↑ / ↓ | prompt history |
← / → | move cursor |
Home / End (Ctrl+A / Ctrl+E) | line start / end |
Backspace / Delete | delete |
Ctrl+U / Ctrl+K | kill to start / end |
Ctrl+W | delete previous word |
Esc | clear the input line |
Tab | complete a slash command |
Ctrl+C | clear (empty → exit) |
Ctrl+D | exit |
PgUp / PgDn / mouse wheel | scroll the conversation |
Layout
┌ DeepSeek Harness TUI deepseek-official/deepseek-v4-pro · session a1b2c3d4 ┐
│ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 15:35:34 · 2s · 12→45 tok │
│ ❯ list the files │
│ ✻ thinking │
│ · a simple listing; I'll use bash ls │
│ This is the repository root — a plugin-based agent harness with pnpm workspaces... │
│ ┌─ ⏱ bash ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ $ ls -la │ │
│ └─ ✓ done ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ ❯ your input │
│ ~/project · stream on · 1 turns · 500→120 tok ↑ /help │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
How it differs from the web UI
Same agent, same permissions, same sessions — but everything happens in your terminal. dsh-tui is aimed at people who live in a terminal, want a keyboard-first flow, or run the harness over SSH / inside a multiplexer like herdr or tmux.
Why a separate CLI?
The official dsh ships a web UI and a one-shot headless mode — no interactive terminal agent. dsh-tui fills that gap as an installable plugin, without forking the runtime.
Contributing
Bug reports, terminal-compatibility notes, and PRs are welcome — see
CONTRIBUTING.md. For rendering issues, please include your
terminal, $TERM, and the output of /version and /doctor.
License
MIT — see LICENSE. Not affiliated with DeepSeek AI; the runtime it drives is MIT-licensed upstream.
