description: "Adds deterministic Markdown presentation and local editing aids to a DSH Web Composer without taking ownership of source or submission."
kind: "package-bundle"
@dsh-better-composer
English | 中文
Summary
DSH Better Composer adds source-preserving Markdown presentation, fixed local completion candidates, diagnostics, and deterministic writing hints to a DSH Web Composer. The profile layer contributes Settings and editor presentation through the public DSH composer seams. DSH Core remains the owner of source, selection, history, Context Objects, and Send/Queue/Steer. Long pastes can convert into editable reference chips whose LLM-assisted rewriting runs as an independent one-shot call outside the session event stream.
Table of Contents
Use this package
Install into a profile
Install the published package from npm:
pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add @noleftbutright/dsh-better-composer
Or install from source:
git clone https://github.com/NoLeftButRight/dsh-better-composer.git
pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add ./dsh-better-composer
Remove it with:
pnpm dsh plugin --profile web remove @noleftbutright/dsh-better-composer
The package is a dsh.bundle.patch profile layer. The patch inserts one dsh-better-composer row into the active profile. The client entry is loaded only on the Web platform and depends on the public conversation, renderer, Settings, and Settings-plugin packages declared in package.json.
What you get
- Markdown visual enhancement for headings, emphasis, links, task lists, quotes, tables, fenced code, and source-preserving attachment labels.
- Deterministic local completion for approved fence-language, task-marker, and heading-spacing candidates, plus a bounded ghost for approved prompt-section headings.
- Non-blocking diagnostics for the supported incomplete Markdown constructs.
- Optional deterministic writing assistance based only on one current Core Composer snapshot.
- Context map (composer toolbar icon opens the right sidebar): occupancy gauge (measured tokens / model window), composition stack, structure stats, and per-turn growth — all push-updated live; the composition card drills down 消息 → turn → step (trace) → full message text, with the system prompt and tool inventory (from request/header) also viewable in full.
- Context management: run
/compact in-place (with confirmation and a compacting state; compaction checkpoints are marked on turns); fork a new session after any closed turn; pin turns as anchors shown as gold ticks on the growth chart.
- Cache visualization: hit rate, current-context cache coverage, and read/write tokens (provider prefix caching, automatic).
- Long-paste conversion into an editable "pasted text" chip (threshold adjustable in Settings; 0 disables): delivery is selectable per chip — inline into the prompt at submit time, or materialized as a workspace file the agent reads on demand. Clicking the chip opens a right-sidebar editor supporting manual edits and instruction-driven LLM rewriting (a one-shot call outside the session event stream, optionally carrying recent session messages as reference).
- Five Settings controls: enable Better Composer, Markdown visual enhancement, Markdown syntax hints, deterministic writing assistance, and the long-paste threshold. The legacy
toolbarMode field remains schema-compatible and is not a separate UI toggle.
Understand the implementation
Implementation internals — click to expand
The Host entry in src/index.ts installs the Settings schema, the client bundle, and the betterComposer Remote service (@Remote runtime markers, no generated artifacts). cordis.patch.yml adds the bundle to a profile. src/client/index.ts owns effect-scoped registration and disposal for Settings, decorations, actions, the editor surface, the Settings card, the clip source, and the right-sidebar tab.
The Markdown provider parses the authoritative Composer snapshot and emits UTF-16 source ranges. The editor surface presents those ranges through Core's generic decoration and surface-extension seams. Completion acceptance and language changes use the existing Core transaction path. Ghost text, diagnostics, tables, code controls, and deterministic assistance are presentation only; they never create a second source, selection, history, Context Object, or submission path.
Paste clips (@clip:<id>) work by detecting a single-revision length jump via prefix/suffix diff, replacing the inserted span with a chip through the public setDraft(text, references) verb, and expanding the chip at submit time through a registered inputTriggers codec — either the full text (inline) or a workspace-file handle (file mode, where the Host writes the text under <cwd>/.dsh/pastes/). Clip payloads persist under the harness home so reloads never lose them. The right-sidebar editor registers through sidebarRightTabs + sidebar.right.pane.tab; its LLM rewrite calls the Host editText Remote method with an independent purpose and appends nothing to the session event log.
The assistance rule is intentionally small: it may show a fixed Validation-section reminder when a current text segment contains a recognized Goal or Task heading and a fenced code block without a recognized Validation or Acceptance Criteria heading. It does not score prompts, infer intent, rewrite source, or call a model.
Further Exploration
Model Experience
A file-mode clip reaches the model only as a file handle (name, byte count, saved path, and a hint to read it with file tools); an inline clip splices its full text into the user message. The LLM rewrite runs outside the session: the model sees only the clip text, the instruction, and the optional recent-message excerpt the plugin passes explicitly — never the session event stream.
Known Limitations and Deferred Work
The host must provide the declared public composer, Settings, input-trigger, right-Sidebar, and Remote seams; an older host missing one disables only that capability. The supported code-language list is finite and local. File-mode delivery requires a known session workspace path; clips created before cwd capture fail file-mode sends with an explicit error rather than silently. Paste detection cannot distinguish a paste from any other large single-step insertion (IME commits, undo); the threshold limits but does not eliminate false positives. Browser acceptance belongs to the host release process; this repository's automated checks do not replace a maintainer's real-browser review.
Dev Note
Working context for maintainers — click to expand
The package uses the existing DSH profile bundle mechanism and local package scripts. Run pnpm test, pnpm run typecheck, pnpm run bundle, and pnpm run pack:check from this directory.
