dsh-restart-desktop

A restart button for the DeepSeek Harness Desktop sidebar. One click fully quits the Electron application and opens it again — no tray menu, no terminal, no hunting for the window.

中文说明：README.zh.md

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Features

• One click, real restart. The whole desktop app exits and starts again — the same thing as closing it from the tray and reopening it, but in one action.
• Lives where you expect it. A row in the sidebar footer, directly above Settings; in the collapsed 56px rail it becomes a round icon button.
• Stays out of the way. The button only renders when the Host reports that this is a Windows desktop app; in dsh web or on unsupported platforms it hides itself.
• No shell windows. The relauncher is a detached Node process and a hidden PowerShell child; nothing flashes on screen.
• Evidence when it fails. Every attempt appends to %TEMP%\dsh-restart-desktop\restart.log, and the launch is verified with a retry.
• Localized. English and Simplified Chinese UI text, display metadata for the plugin manager, and its own original icon.

Requirements

DeepSeek Harness	Desktop build (Electron), dsh >= 0.2.0-rc.1
OS	Windows 10/11
Node	20+ (only for development)

The plugin is a DSH bundle: a Host half plus a browser half. It is not an npm dependency of your project; it installs into a DSH profile.

Install

From the repository URL

Add the bundle to your profile (~/.dsh/profiles/<profile>/package.json) and restart the app — keep your existing entries and add one line in each list:

{
  "dependencies": {
    // ...your existing entries
    "dsh-restart-desktop": "github:StarMoon-win/dsh-restart-plugin"
  },
  "dsh": {
    "profile": {
      "bundles": [
        // ...your existing entries
        "dsh-restart-desktop"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Or use your build's plugin manager (Settings → Plugins) to install from the GitHub source. New bundles activate live; refresh the page if the sidebar does not show the button yet.

From a local checkout

git clone https://github.com/StarMoon-win/dsh-restart-plugin.git

Then point the profile at the checkout:

"dependencies": {
  "dsh-restart-desktop": "link:/absolute/path/to/dsh-restart-plugin"
}

and add "dsh-restart-desktop" to dsh.profile.bundles, or install the directory through the plugin manager.

Uninstall

Remove dsh-restart-desktop from dsh.profile.bundles (and from dependencies), then restart the app.

Usage

1. Find Restart in the sidebar footer, above Settings.
   • Expanded sidebar: icon + Restart / 重启.
   • Collapsed rail: a round icon button with a native tooltip.
2. Click it. The page shows Restarting…, the app exits after about a second, and a fresh instance opens.
3. Running tasks are interrupted. There is no confirmation dialog — the click is the confirmation.

If the button shows Restart failed, wait a few seconds and try again, then read the log:

%TEMP%\dsh-restart-desktop\restart.log

How it works

Sidebar button (client.js)
   │  GET  /dsh-restart-desktop/status    → render only when supported
   │  POST /dsh-restart-desktop/restart   → 202, then the page dies with the app
   ▼
Host routes (index.js)
   │  write  %TEMP%\dsh-restart-desktop\request.json
   │  spawn  helper.mjs  (detached, ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1)
   ▼
Relauncher (helper.mjs)
   1. wait 1.2 s so the HTTP response can leave the Host
   2. compute the application process tree by image name
      (Windows PowerShell; excludes the helper and the PowerShell child)
   3. terminate the tree: main process, renderers, GPU, Host,
      and the tool processes those started
   4. start the same executable with a clean environment
   5. verify after 4 s; retry up to three times; log everything

Why force-terminate?

The desktop shell turns a window close into hide to tray, and quitting asks the Host whether tasks are active before showing a confirmation dialog. app.asar exposes no app.quit() / app.relaunch() channel to plugins — the only Host-facing control messages are quit-inspection and update-tasks, both initiated by the Electron main process.

So the only way a plugin can produce a complete restart is to end the application tree from outside it and start the executable again. That is exactly what the detached helper does.

Security

The two routes are reachable only from the same machine and the same page:

• loopback peer only (127.0.0.1 / ::1);
• requests carrying Forwarded, X-Forwarded-For, or X-Real-IP are rejected;
• Host must be a loopback authority (127.0.0.1, localhost, [::1]), which also refuses DNS rebinding;
• when Origin is present it must match Host;
• the headerless “loopback, no Host, no Origin” shape of the desktop document proxy is accepted;
• restart requires POST; GET /dsh-restart-desktop/restart answers 405.

Development

git clone https://github.com/StarMoon-win/dsh-restart-plugin.git
cd dsh-restart-plugin

node --check index.js
node --check client.js
node --check helper.mjs
node scripts/validate.mjs

scripts/validate.mjs checks the manifest exports, the locale files, the icon, and the patch file without activating the plugin.

To exercise the relauncher without touching the app, point a request file at a harmless program (for example notepad.exe, image notepad, a 200 ms delay) and run node helper.mjs <request.json>; the log shows the stop, launch, and verification steps.

Reloading a linked checkout

A profile installed with link: points at your working tree. Host code is not hot-reloaded across that junction, so after editing index.js or helper.mjs:

1. disable and re-enable dsh-restart-desktop in Settings → Plugins (or via the plugin manager), or
2. restart the app with the new button.

The browser half (client.js) is picked up on the next page load.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Check
No button in the sidebar	Is the profile the desktop one and the bundle in dsh.profile.bundles? Open /dsh-restart-desktop/status on the app origin; supported must be true.
Button always says “Restart failed”	Read %TEMP%\dsh-restart-desktop\restart.log. A missing launched pid=… line means the helper could not start the executable.
Install fails with timed out waiting for the writer lock	A stale package.json.lock in the profile; restart the app so the recorded holder PID is gone, then install again.
App exits but does not reopen	The log ends with FAILED: the application did not come back. Start the app manually and report the log.

License

MIT © Star_Moon_win

GitHub topics

This repository is tagged:

deepseek-harness · dsh · dsh-plugin · deepseek · cordis · cordis-plugin · electron · desktop · restart · windows

They are also mirrored in package.json → keywords for npm and search.