dsh-remote-workstation

Remote SSH workspaces for DeepSeek Harness — mount a server directory into the DSH sidebar and work on it like a local workspace.

DeepSeek Harness (DSH) workspaces must be directories on the machine that runs DSH. This plugin removes that restriction: it adds a Remote panel where you browse any SSH host over SFTP, pick a directory, and register it as a workspace. The Files tab, file previews, and the agent's read / write / edit tools then work on the remote files, while every other path in the profile keeps using local disk.

If you know VS Code Remote-SSH, this is the same idea for DSH: browse the server in the sidebar, select a folder, and let the agent work there.

┌─────────────────────────── DSH host (your machine) ──────────────────────────┐
│  sidebar:  Remote  ▸ host ▸ /srv/app          workspace: app@build-box       │
│                                                    │                          │
│  ctx.fs  ── resolve/listDir/readText/writeText ──► RemoteWorkspaceFileSystem │
│                                                    │  anchor prefix           │
│  ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces/build-box/srv/app  ◄─────┘  (local, empty)         │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┘
                                                     │ SSH/SFTP (ssh2)
                                                     ▼
                                         build-box:/srv/app  (real files)

Features

• Remote Explorer panel — host picker, directory browser, "mount as workspace" in one click.
• Workspace anchoring — DSH requires a real host directory, so the plugin creates an empty anchor under ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces/<host>/<path> and maps it to the remote directory. The Files tab, previews and read/write/edit tools then operate on the remote files.
• Pluggable filesystem provider — replaces ctx.fs with a union filesystem: anchor paths go to SFTP, everything else stays local. It extends SandboxedFileSystem, so the read-only / workspace-write / full-access sandbox fences still apply.
• Self-contained host management — add, edit, test and remove SSH hosts inside the panel (password, private key, or SSH_AUTH_SOCK agent). No other plugin required; hosts from an existing ~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json are picked up as a secondary source.
• Careful credential handling — the mount table never stores secrets; credentials are read from the plugin host store (0600) or the DSH SSH store on every connection and never leave the host process.
• Nothing to install on the server — plain SFTP, no agent or helper binary.

Requirements

• DeepSeek Harness (dsh) >= 0.2.1-rc.2 with a web profile (the plugin ships a browser half).
• A reachable SSH server with SFTP enabled, plus one of: password, private key, or a running SSH agent.
• Node.js ^22.19.0 || >=24.

Install

# straight from GitHub
dsh plugin --profile web add github:MingTXin/dsh-remote-workstation

# from npm (once published)
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-remote-workstation

# local development checkout
dsh plugin --profile web add link:/absolute/path/to/dsh-remote-workstation

The plugin declares dsh.bundle, so dsh plugin add appends it to the profile's dsh.profile.bundles. Restart DSH Desktop / dsh web afterwards — a plugin's host half is only mounted at process start (client bundles hot-reload on page refresh, host code does not).

Want to try it without touching your main GUI? Copy the profile, point its node_modules at the original (junction / symlink), and boot a second host:

dsh --profile rwtest --port 43199 --no-open

Quick start

1. Sidebar → Remote.
2. Pick a host, or click ＋ Add host and fill in alias / host / port / user / auth.
3. Browse to the directory you want (click folders, or type a path and press Enter).
4. Click Mount as workspace — the plugin creates the anchor, records the mapping and registers the workspace (idempotent: mounting twice is a no-op).
5. Open the workspace from the sidebar and switch to the Files tab: that is the remote directory. Sessions started there give the agent remote file access.

中文速览：侧栏「远程」→ 选主机（或「＋ 添加主机」）→ 浏览到目标目录 →「挂载为工作区」→ 从侧栏打开该工作区，右侧 Files 标签即远端内容，会话里的读写工具也走远端。 更详细的中文说明（主机管理、验收记录、排错）见 docs/README.zh.md。

Host management

The panel keeps its own host list in ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces-hosts.json (written with mode 0600, credentials in plaintext — the same trade-off as ~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json):

{
  "version": 1,
  "hosts": [
    {
      "alias": "build-box",
      "host": "10.0.0.5",
      "port": 22,
      "user": "dev",
      "auth": { "kind": "password", "password": "..." }
    }
  ]
}

• Sources are merged: plugin store first, then ~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json. A host defined in both places uses the plugin definition, so ports, users and keys can be overridden per host.
• Keys use { "kind": "key", "keyPath": "~/.ssh/id_ed25519", "passphrase": "..." }; { "kind": "none" } falls back to SSH_AUTH_SOCK.
• Test connects once and reports the remote home directory plus latency; on failure it shows the raw error (timeout, auth, DNS).

Configuration

The plugin is mounted through a bundle patch (cordis.patch.yml), so options live on the loader row:

- id: fs-sandbox          # replaced by the plugin's union filesystem
  disabled: true
- insert:
    - id: remote-workspace
      name: dsh-remote-workstation
      config:
        storePath: ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces.json          # anchor <-> remote mapping
        sshHostsPath: ~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json                 # secondary host source
        hostsPath: ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces-hosts.json    # plugin-owned host store
        anchorRoot: ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces              # where anchors are created
        remoteReadOnly: true                              # stage 1: read-only
        connectTimeoutMs: 15000
        maxReadTextBytes: 33554432

Option	Default	Meaning
storePath	~/.dsh/remote-workspaces.json	mount table (no credentials)
hostsPath	~/.dsh/remote-workspaces-hosts.json	plugin-owned hosts (credentials, 0600)
sshHostsPath	~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json	fallback host source
anchorRoot	~/.dsh/remote-workspaces	anchor directory root
remoteReadOnly	true	reject remote writes
connectTimeoutMs	15000	SSH connect timeout
maxReadTextBytes	32 MiB	single readText ceiling
mounts	[]	static mounts ({host, remote, anchor?}), not persisted

fs-sandbox has to be disabled: a composition may mount only one ctx.fs provider, and this plugin's provider already inherits the sandboxed implementation.

Security notes

• Plaintext credentials live in ~/.dsh/remote-workspaces-hosts.json (mode 0600; on Windows the effective protection is the NTFS ACL of your user profile). Prefer keys or an SSH agent if that matters, or keep using dsh-ssh.json.
• The plugin takes over ctx.fs for the whole profile it is installed into. Sessions that never touch anchors behave exactly as before (local backend), but the swap is profile-wide.
• Read-only by default (remoteReadOnly: true): remote writes fail with remote workspaces are read-only in this build until stage 2 lands.
• Credentials never cross the HTTP API: the panel only receives alias/host/port/user/source.

Known limitations

• No remote watch — the Files tab does not auto-refresh for anchor workspaces (workspace-file/watch-unsupported); collapse/expand the folder or reopen the file.
• @-file mentions and turn diffs still use host-local paths (upstream boundary: DSH's docs/subsystems/ssh.md notes that web workspace views which assume host filesystem access need separate integration).
• Built-in glob / grep run the host ripgrep binary, so they see the empty anchor directory rather than remote files. Use SSH-exec style tools for remote searching until remote_search lands.
• SFTP mtime has one-second resolution; the version token combines device, inode, size and mtime.

Roadmap

• Stage 2 — remote writeText / editText with version checks (atomic SFTP writes), remote_search tool, reuse of remote shells for builds.
• Stage 3 — polling-based remote watch, git integration, image/binary previews.
• Optional: consume the upstream packages/ssh family (@deepseek-ai/dsh-fs-ssh) instead of the custom union provider, once web workspace views become provider-driven.

Development

npm test                          # offline: unit tests; SSH integration tests auto-skip
npm run probe -- <alias> /path    # manual SFTP transport probe against ~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json

SSH-backed tests opt in through environment variables:

DSH_RW_REMOTE_HOST=<alias from ~/.dsh/dsh-ssh.json> \
DSH_RW_REMOTE_DIR=/tmp/dsh-remote-workstation-fixture \
npm test

Layout: lib/index.js (provider + plugin entry), lib/mounts.js (anchor table, host store), lib/ssh/{pool,sftp}.js (ssh2 transport and SFTP primitives), lib/explorer.js (JSON API), lib/client.js (browser panel: sidebar.panellist + main slot).

License

MIT © dsh-remote-workstation contributors

Not affiliated with DeepSeek. "DeepSeek Harness" and "DSH" refer to the harness this plugin extends.