dsh-classic-tools

Web search for local models and help for small context windows, for DeepSeek Harness (DSH):

• a Web: on / off chip next to the message box, with web search through your local Ollama;
• a tool budget and a scratchpad that keep small-context models (about 49k tokens or less) on track;
• two light modes, Ultralight and Advanced thinking.

Maintenance: best-effort. Issues may go unanswered; forks are welcome.

What it adds

Web chip and /web

• /web on | off | toggle | status, or click the Web chip in the message box. One switch for every conversation and every model, applied from the next message. The state is kept in <DSH_HOME>/web-toggle.json. Web starts OFF until you turn it on.
• OFF: the web tools are hidden from the model, so it never calls a dead tool.
• ON:
  • DSH itself searches the web for each new message of yours (not left to the model's choice) and adds the results before the model answers. Greetings, panel passages and questions about your own notes ("my notes", "in my Logseq") are not searched.
  • Short research rules are added to the system prompt: answer from pages read, mark single-source facts "(unconfirmed)", end with a Sources section.
  • If the answer has no Sources section, the model is sent back once to add it.
  • web_search and web_fetch go through Ollama. web_fetch is replaced by web_read (below).

web_read

DSH's web_fetch returns the start of a page. web_read(url, question?, start?) instead cleans the page (CSS and script leftovers, menus, repeated paragraphs, link targets), saves it in <DSH_HOME>/cache/web, splits it at headings, ranks the passages against the question with BM25 (keyword scoring, no model) and returns the best ones, about 4000 characters, in page order. The model can read other parts with another question or start=p7. A saved page is reused for 24 h and deleted after 3 days.

Tool budget

On an agent whose context window is 49152 tokens or less (maxContextWindow), each family of tools stays hidden until your messages mention it, and then stays available for the conversation. Larger models keep every tool. A family is { id, tools: [tool names], words: "regular expression" }. The defaults name the tools of the author's other plugins (Zotero, Logseq, documents, memory, tasks...); tools that are not installed are skipped. Replace them in cordis.patch.yml:

- id: tool-budget
  name: 'dsh-classic-tools/tool-budget'
  config:
    maxContextWindow: 49152
    families:
      - id: wiki
        words: 'wiki|confluence'
        tools: [wiki_search, wiki_page]

Scratchpad

For the same small-context models: tools step_done(step, learned), scratch_note(text), scratch_read(name?). Notes are kept in <DSH_HOME>/scratch/<conversation>/ (state.md ledger, steps/NN.md, notes.md, raw/ = full text of folded outputs, synthese.md = final answer). After a step_done, long tool outputs (over 600 characters) are folded at the next step to a short head and a pointer, the same replay-safe way as DSH's own tool-result pruner (the original stays in the session log). The protocol and the ledger are re-sent with every request, so they survive compaction. If you ask for the results in a folder ("save it in ~/reports"), a step that says it wrote elsewhere is refused. Folders untouched for 7 days are removed at startup. Larger models do not see these tools. The idea follows AgentFold and Context-Folding (2025), MemGPT's core memory and Anthropic's memory tool.

Ultralight and Advanced thinking

Two agent modes with the smallest possible prompt for small models: no shell, no file changes, web tools only while the Web chip is ON. Ultralight answers concisely; Advanced thinking asks for step-by-step reasoning with self-checking (set Effort to "high" in the model menu).

The interface is in English, and in French when DSH's language is French. To translate the chip, add a table next to en and fr at the top of client.js.

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add github:MathieuPortmann/dsh-classic-tools

Restart the profile afterwards. Requires Node ^22.19.0 || >=24 and DSH >=0.2.0-rc.2 <0.3.0 (see Compatibility), and an Ollama that can answer web search and fetch requests (see Permissions). Once the package is on npm, dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-classic-tools works too.

Configuration

Everything has a default. Edit the rows in cordis.patch.yml (or your profile) to change:

Row	Option	Default	Meaning
web-toggle	skipSkills	[]	slash commands (names without /) that work only on your own text: a message using one gets no automatic search, for example [summarize, translate]
tool-budget	maxContextWindow	49152	agents with a window up to this size get the tool budget
tool-budget	families	see above	the hidden tool families
scratchpad	maxContextWindow	49152	agents with a window up to this size get the scratchpad
scratchpad	foldMinChars, foldHeadChars, ledgerMaxChars, nudgeAfterCalls, keepDays, dataDir	600, 240, 1600, 6, 7, <DSH_HOME>/scratch	folding and ledger sizes, reminder after N calls without step_done, days before cleanup, folder

Environment: OLLAMA_HOST (default http://127.0.0.1:11434), DSH_HOME (default ~/.dsh).

How it works

• lib/web-toggle.js (host side) registers the Ollama providers, /web, the web_read tool, the research rules and the hooks; its pure rules are in lib/web-rules.js (search query, Sources detection, turn state).
• lib/web-page.js is the web_read engine: cleaning, passages, BM25, cache. Pure JavaScript, no dependency. It is a port of native code; the port was compared with that code on about 140,000 generated, fixture and real-page cases (cleaned text, chosen passages and cache files) with identical results.
• lib/tool-budget.js, lib/scratchpad.js and lib/scratch-core.js (pure functions) hold the small-context helpers.
• client.js (page side) draws the chip. It reads the state from the description of the /web command ("... - currently ON"), so showing the state leaves no line in the conversation (a click runs /web on or /web off, which shows one short line).
• cordis.patch.yml adds the rows, the two modes and the web provider choice (searchProvider: ollama, fetchProvider: ollama). Removing the bundle removes all of it.

Compatibility

Component	Supported
Node.js	^22.19.0 || >=24.0.0 (engines.node)
DSH	>=0.2.0-rc.2 <0.3.0; declared as optional peerDependencies on @deepseek-ai/dsh-llm, @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools and zod, the only packages loaded from the DSH installation
Platform	Linux (tested); pure JavaScript, no native addon
Ollama	a version that serves /api/experimental/web_search and /api/experimental/web_fetch (experimental endpoints that may change)

Tested with DSH 0.2.0-rc.2 on Node 22.23 (see Verification).

Permissions and external services

Everything the plugin can touch, and what happens when it fails:

Capability	Where	Used for	If it fails
Network	lib/web-toggle.js (fetch)	POST to your Ollama (OLLAMA_HOST, default 127.0.0.1:11434): /api/experimental/web_search (the search query) and /api/experimental/web_fetch (a page URL). Ollama's web search and fetch are served through ollama.com (see Ollama's documentation), so your search queries and the URLs the model reads leave your computer through Ollama; the plugin sends nothing anywhere else, and only while Web is ON	web search returns an error to the model; the automatic search puts a short "search failed" note in the context
Files	lib/web-toggle.js, lib/web-page.js, lib/scratchpad.js, lib/scratch-core.js	reads and writes <DSH_HOME>/web-toggle.json (the switch; watched for changes), <DSH_HOME>/cache/web/*.md (pages read by web_read; pruned after 3 days), <DSH_HOME>/scratch/<conversation>/ (scratchpad; cleaned after 7 days). No other file	the switch reads as OFF; a page is not cached; scratchpad tools return an error
Commands	none	no child process, no shell	n/a
Dynamic module loading	lib/web-toggle.js, lib/scratchpad.js (importFromDsh)	loads zod, @deepseek-ai/dsh-llm and @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools from the DSH installation that runs the plugin (a synchronous require of an ES module fails on Node 22). Nothing is downloaded and no code is evaluated from text (eval / new Function are not used)	the plugin fails to load
Tools for the model	web_read; step_done, scratch_note, scratch_read	see above. web_read works only on http(s) URLs and says it is unavailable while Web is OFF	an error text is returned
Command	/web	the switch	usage error
Hooks	agent/inbox/claimed, agent/pre-step, agent/turn-stopping, tools/pre-execute	hide or show tools, add the automatic search results and the Sources reminder, fold old tool outputs, save the final answer	each hook swallows its own errors so a turn is never blocked
Session log	lib/scratchpad.js	the scratchpad folds a long tool result by appending a compaction/prune event and a replacement tool/result event (nothing is deleted; the original stays in the log)	the output stays unfolded
Interface	client.js	one chip in the message box; registers a French dictionary and language entry with DSH's locale service	no chip

Verification

Checked on a disposable profile (DSH_HOME pointing at a temporary folder, so the real profile is never touched):

npm pack
dsh plugin --profile t add file:$PWD/dsh-classic-tools-0.1.0.tgz   # install
dsh t --port 3095 --no-open                                         # start: rows load, no error
dsh plugin --profile t remove dsh-classic-tools                      # uninstall

npm test runs 23 standalone tests (the web_read engine, the Web rules, the tool budget, the scratchpad core and the imposed-folder rule) with no DSH installation needed.

Develop

npm test

License

MIT