dsh-research-nudge

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An advisory research-debt guard for DeepSeek Harness. It notices when an agent spends a long stretch reading, editing, executing, and repeating failures without consulting external evidence, then adds a short reminder to the next model step.

It does not call an LLM, perform a search, block a tool, or force the agent to browse. The reminder explicitly allows self-contained work to continue normally.

The problem

Agents sometimes fall into a local trial-and-error loop:

read → guess an unfamiliar API → edit → run → fail → edit → run → same failure

A search of the official docs, an exact error message, or an existing GitHub issue may resolve that uncertainty faster. dsh-research-nudge turns the growing cost of the local loop into a deterministic score called Research Debt.

Research Debt: a calculated example

This is a hypothetical sequence calculated from the documented default weights, not production telemetry. It shows exactly how the score would cross the threshold:

Step	Signal	Added debt	Total
Read local code	ordinary tool	+1	1
Edit a file	mutation	+2	3
Run and fail	execution + failure	+1 +4	8
Edit again	mutation	+2	10
Run and hit the equivalent failure again	execution + failure + repeated failure	+1 +4 +6	21

The default threshold is 20, so the last result carries an additional model-visible context:

[Research Nudge]

You have accumulated significant research debt through local tool use without
consulting external information.

Before continuing, consider whether external research could resolve the current
uncertainty faster: search official documentation, GitHub, mature libraries, or
the exact repeated error.

Do not search merely to satisfy this reminder. If external research would not
help, continue normally.

Current signals: debt=21/20, tool_calls_since_research=5,
failures=2, repeated_failures=1.

Equivalent failures are fingerprinted after normalizing changing numbers and addresses, so TypeError at line 123 and TypeError at line 456 count as a repeat. A recognized research tool resets the accumulated state for that agent.

Install

Prerequisites:

• DeepSeek Harness 0.1.0-rc.7 (the current next release line)
• Node.js ^22.19.0 or >=24.0.0, matching the current DSH baseline

From GitHub:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:Leitarkkk/dsh-research-nudge

Git installs run this package's prepare build. pnpm may reject that build until you explicitly trust it. Follow the exact allowBuilds entry printed by DSH/pnpm, review the source first, and pin a tag or commit for reproducible installs:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:Leitarkkk/dsh-research-nudge#<tag-or-commit>

After the package is published to npm, the prebuilt install is:

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-research-nudge

Verify the composed layer, then restart the profile:

dsh --profile web --dump-config
dsh web

Local development install

git clone https://github.com/Leitarkkk/dsh-research-nudge.git
cd dsh-research-nudge
npm install
npm run check
dsh plugin --profile web add .

Relative paths are resolved from the directory where dsh plugin is invoked.

Default policy

Signal	Debt
Ordinary tool call	+1
File mutation	+2
Shell/build/test execution	+1
Failed tool result	+4
Repeated equivalent failure	+6
Recognized external research tool	reset to 0

A reminder is eligible when any condition is met:

• Research Debt reaches 20;
• 15 tool calls occur without recognized research; or
• 15 minutes pass without recognized research.

After a reminder, the per-agent state continues accumulating but further reminders are suppressed for 10 minutes. Names are normalized before classification and research matching, so WebSearch, web_search, and web-search are treated consistently.

Configuration

The bundle inserts a row with the id research-nudge. Override that row in the profile's cordis.patch.yml:

- id: research-nudge
  config:
    enabled: true
    debtThreshold: 20
    maxToolCallsWithoutResearch: 15
    maxMinutesWithoutResearch: 15
    cooldownMinutes: 10
    ordinaryToolDebt: 1
    mutationDebt: 2
    executionDebt: 1
    failureDebt: 4
    repeatedFailureDebt: 6
    researchTools:
      - web_search
      - web_fetch
      - github_search
      - docs_search
      - fetch_url
    debug: false

DSH patch layers replace a row's entire config value rather than deep-merging it. Any omitted fields above fall back to this plugin's schema defaults. reminder may also be set to a custom string.

Field	Default	Meaning
enabled	true	Register the lifecycle listener
debtThreshold	20	Debt score that makes a reminder eligible
maxToolCallsWithoutResearch	15	Call-count fallback threshold
maxMinutesWithoutResearch	15	Elapsed-time fallback threshold
cooldownMinutes	10	Minimum time between reminders
ordinaryToolDebt	1	Weight for other local tools
mutationDebt	2	Weight for write/edit/delete-style tools
executionDebt	1	Weight for shell/build/test-style tools
failureDebt	4	Extra weight for a failed result
repeatedFailureDebt	6	Extra weight for an equivalent consecutive failure
researchTools	common web/docs/GitHub names	Substring patterns that reset state after normalization
reminder	built-in advisory text	Model-visible reminder body
debug	false	Log resets and queued reminders to stderr

How it integrates with DSH

The plugin listens to the current tools/post-execute waterfall. It observes the typed ToolExecution and ToolExecutionResult, delegates to later listeners with next(), then prepends one official createUserMessage(...) notice through PostToolDecision.additionalContexts. Accept/block decisions and existing contexts are preserved.

No service is read from ctx, so no Cordis service injection is required. State is held in a WeakMap keyed by the calling agent and disappears with the agent/runtime.

Compatibility

The adapter is compiled and tested against the official @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools and @deepseek-ai/dsh-llm 0.1.0-rc.7 contracts. DSH is still a Developer Preview and explicitly allows compatibility-breaking changes. If a later DSH release changes the tool waterfall or message contract, update the small adapter in src/index.ts; the deterministic policy in src/policy.ts is independent.

Privacy and safety

• No telemetry, network requests, API keys, or extra model calls.
• No tool arguments are stored or copied.
• The in-memory fingerprint uses only failed-result text; it is not persisted.
• The reminder is advisory and never changes a tool result or permission decision.
• Git installs execute a local build script; review and pin third-party code before allowing it.

Development

npm ci
npm run check
npm pack --dry-run

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidelines.

License

MIT