DeepSeek Harness — Desktop (macOS / Apple Silicon)

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A thin Electron shell around the existing dsh CLI. Double-click the app and it boots dsh --profile web --no-open --port 0, waits for the local URL, and renders the exact same Web GUI in a native window — so every web feature is available with zero divergence, no terminal required.

✨ Animated menu-bar whale

The tray whale in the macOS menu bar is alive — it sways while DeepSeek Harness is working and rests when idle. Its sway speed (and a touch of the swing angle) tracks how busy the backend is: a gentle glide during a single chat, a lively waggle while parallel jobs run.

Busyness	State	Frequency	Amplitude
0	Still	—	0°
1	Light	Slow (~2.4 s/cycle)	±4°
2	Medium	Medium (~1.7 s/cycle)	±6°
3	Heavy	Fast (~1.1 s/cycle)	±8°

Busyness = running sessions + running jobs, read live from the harness's own event streams.

🚀 Getting Started

Launch — double-click the .app, or drop it into Applications and open from there. If macOS warns on first launch (unsigned build), right-click → Open.

Tray — the whale in the menu bar is the tray:

• Left-click → show the window; right-click → Open / Quit.
• Clicking the window's red close button hides the window to the tray; the app keeps running in the background.

Update — the app checks GitHub Releases on launch (then hourly) and offers Restart now when a newer version is out. To install manually, grab the latest .dmg or .zip from Releases.

How it works

DeepSeek Harness.app
  └─ Electron main process
       ├─ resolve dsh (DSH_BIN override → /opt/homebrew/bin/dsh → … → PATH)
       ├─ spawn: dsh --profile web --no-open --port 0
       ├─ parse stdout:  "dsh web: http://127.0.0.1:<port>"
       ├─ BrowserWindow.loadURL(that URL)
       └─ lifecycle: SIGTERM on quit · retry dialog on backend crash

The backend binds 127.0.0.1 on an OS-assigned port, so the /api loopback trust fence passes with no extra configuration and there is no fixed-port conflict (it can run alongside a terminal dsh web).

Develop / run

npm install          # installs electron + electron-builder (project-local npm cache)
npm start            # run from source

Package

npm run pack         # builds the .app (release/mac-arm64/DeepSeek Harness.app)
npm run dist         # also builds .dmg and .zip

Output lands in release/. If a Developer ID Application certificate is present in your Keychain, electron-builder signs it automatically (hardened runtime + entitlements); otherwise the app is left unsigned for local use.

Code signing & notarization (remove Gatekeeper)

Signing + notarization require an Apple Developer Program membership and a Developer ID certificate. The toolchain (notarytool, stapler) and the build config are already wired up — you only need to supply the credentials.

One-time setup

1. Join the Apple Developer Program (paid).
2. Create a Developer ID Application certificate and install it in Keychain: Xcode → Settings → Accounts → (your Apple ID) → Manage Certificates → + → Developer ID Application. Verify with security find-identity -v -p codesigning (it should now list one).
3. Create an App Store Connect API key (Developer role): App Store Connect → Users and Access → Integrations → App Store Connect API → Team Keys → generate → download the .p8 → note the Key ID and Issuer ID.

Build + notarize

npm run pack    # signs automatically once the cert is in Keychain

APPLE_API_KEY_PATH=~/.appstoreconnect/AuthKey_XXXXXX.p8 \
APPLE_API_KEY_ID=XXXXXXXXXX \
APPLE_API_ISSUER_ID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 \
./scripts/notarize.sh

scripts/notarize.sh zips the app, submits it via notarytool, staples the ticket, and validates. Once notarized, Gatekeeper stops complaining — even for apps distributed to other machines.

Auto-update (GitHub Releases)

The app checks for updates with electron-updater, published to GitHub Releases at Evan1u/deepseek-harness-desktop.

Publish a new release — requires a GitHub Personal Access Token with repo scope:

GH_TOKEN=github_pat_xxx ./scripts/publish.sh

This builds the .zip/.dmg, uploads them plus latest-mac.yml, and running apps auto-detect, download, and offer to restart into the new version.

Note: reliable macOS auto-update is best with a signed app; for an unsigned personal build it is best-effort (Gatekeeper may still prompt on the replaced bundle).

Configuration

• DSH_BIN — absolute path to the dsh executable (defaults to /opt/homebrew/bin/dsh).
• DSH_HOME — inherited from the environment; the desktop app uses the same ~/.dsh profiles, credentials, and sessions as the CLI.

Roadmap

• v0.1 — Electron shell wrapping dsh web (full web parity).
• Appearance-adaptive Dock icon (light/dark variants follow the system).
• Busyness-aware animated tray whale + close-to-tray (background resident).
• Auto-update (GitHub Releases).
• Code signing + notarization — config and scripts ready, pending Apple Developer credentials.
• Native IPC transport — load dist over file:// and bridge /api over ipcRenderer via the harness's window.__DSH_TRANSPORT__ hook (no HTTP server).