Why this exists

A session sees one folder. grep and glob are fast inside it and blind outside it, so when the work needs a file that lives anywhere else, the model either guesses a path or stops and asks you for one — and the lookup goes back to you, in another window, with the conversation waiting.

Searching is not the expensive part. Picking the right hit, opening the document, reading the part that matters, putting two of them side by side, and being able to say where the answer came from — that is. It is also exactly what a model is good at, once it can reach an index.

This plugin gives it both: es.exe for file and folder names wherever Everything has indexed them, Anytxt for the text inside PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB, RTF, TXT and MD files. The whole surface is read-only — nothing writes, deletes, re-indexes, OCRs or starts an engine.

When to use it

• The search is a step, not the goal. You asked for something else — a summary, a comparison, a fix — and the answer needs a document you cannot point at. Handing that lookup back to yourself costs a window switch and a paste.
• You know the answer, not the keyword. "The price clause we agreed with that supplier", "the note about this error". The model can try five phrasings in two languages, read the hits, and come back with the quote and the path.
• The answer spans files. "Compare the payment terms in these two contracts", "what did the last three meeting notes decide about the schedule". A search field returns a hit list; the reading and comparing is the part you wanted delegated.
• The work is batch. "List the counterparty in each of these 30 contracts" — no search field does this. Search once, read every hit, write the table.
• The file is not text. grep cannot open a PDF, a .docx, or a spreadsheet. Either the text comes through Anytxt, or you paste it in by hand.
• The answer has to cite a source. A path plus a snippet can be checked; a plausible paragraph cannot.

Contents

• Why this exists
• When to use it
• Tools
• Requirements
• Install
• Configuration
• Scopes
• Engine selection
• Errors
• Security and limits
• Known limitations
• Related plugins
• For AI agents
• Development
• License

Tools

Tool	Engine	Use for
local_search_files	Everything via es.exe	File/folder names, paths, cross-drive discovery
local_search_content	Anytxt JSON-RPC	Text inside PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EPUB, RTF, TXT, MD
local_search_fragments	Anytxt	Snippets around a match in one indexed file
local_search_read	Anytxt	Extracted plain text of one indexed file, capped
local_search_status	both	Check whether each engine is reachable

Requirements

• Windows.
• DeepSeek Harness >=0.2.1-0 <0.3.0.
• Everything running, plus es.exe (a separate download from voidtools; the plugin auto-detects PATH/common install folders, or set files.everything.esPath).
• Anytxt Searcher for content search: the GUI (ATGUI.exe) must be running because the JSON-RPC service lives inside it. The indexing service alone is not enough.

This plugin does not bundle Everything, es.exe, or Anytxt. Install and license them separately.

Install

dsh plugin --profile desktop add @fishdivinity/dsh-local-search

From GitHub before the first npm release:

dsh plugin --profile desktop add github:fishdivinity/dsh-local-search

Restart the profile or open a new session. The five local_search_* tools appear in the model toolset.

Configuration

Sidebar Plugins → the Local Search card in the Official plugins group → the plugin's own page. That is the same card shape the GitHub plugin contributes. Saves apply to the next tool call; leaving the page drops unsaved edits. Reset, under the description, first shows what it will clear and only writes once you confirm: the engine and limit settings go, a fresh probe refills them, and the search scopes are left alone because they are paths you typed.

The page is organised by capability: File names and File contents each open with a backend picker and show that backend's fields once it is selected; Search scopes and Limits are the same whichever backend runs, so they close the page. The Host's GET /dsh-local-search/api/describe supplies the sections, the registered backends, the field types and the hard caps, and the page only renders them, so a new backend does not change the page logic.

Test connection sits under the Anytxt endpoint field. It probes the endpoint as typed — nothing has to be saved first — together with Everything, and puts the result and its fix in a dialog that can probe again. The es.exe path in the field is checked too, so a typo there says the file is missing instead of reporting the saved binary as OK. A failing engine gets a link to its official download page; this plugin never bundles, downloads, or installs either product.

A save checks before it writes. When the endpoint or the es.exe path is part of the edit, the page probes them first: whatever the check refuses is not written, and a dialog asks whether to Save anyway — a deliberate exception rather than the default. A hard rejection (no file at that path, no such directory, a rejected address) gets no such way out. The Host only checks that the path exists; it never starts a file named by a request. Path fields and the endpoint are also checked when focus leaves them: a missing path, a directory where a file belongs, or a non-local address is flagged under the input and clears as soon as the value changes.

Path fields are rewritten to one standard spelling on save: d:/alpha is stored as D:\alpha (upper-case drive letter, backslashes, no trailing separator), and allRoots is rewritten entry by entry. When the path exists, the on-disk spelling wins (d:/alpha → D:\Alpha). Spaces and non-ASCII names are left alone — D:\Alpha\我的项目\drawio a is fine as typed, because the Host passes values to es.exe and the file APIs without going through a shell.

The first run fills what it can and then stops: while files.everything.esPath or content.anytxt.url is still unset, the plugin probes once, writes what answered, and records that pass in a hidden autoConfigured key. After that a field you clear stays clear instead of being filled again.

Every key is optional, and the row config replaces the whole config object rather than merging. Only timeoutMs stays in the profile's cordis.patch.yml: each tool fixes its deadline when it registers, so the page leaves it out rather than showing a field that would not take effect.

Key	Default	Meaning
files.backend	everything	Filename backend auto uses.
files.everything.esPath	auto-detect	Absolute path to es.exe. Resolution order: the configured value, ES_PATH, common install folders, where.exe.
files.everything.esEncoding	gbk	Code page used to decode es.exe output. Any TextDecoder label is accepted; the page offers gbk and utf-8.
content.backend	anytxt	Content backend auto uses.
content.anytxt.url	http://127.0.0.1:9920	Anytxt JSON-RPC endpoint on this machine (127.0.0.1, localhost or [::1] only). The default also tries :9921.
scopes.workspaceRoot	session default directory	Root for scope=workspace.
scopes.workRoot	empty	Root for scope=work; required before using that scope.
scopes.personalRoot	empty	Root for scope=personal; required before using that scope.
scopes.allRoots	C:\ plus D:\ when present	Semicolon-separated roots for Anytxt scope=all. Everything scope=all searches all volumes it indexes.
limits.maxResults	20	Default result cap; hard cap 100.
limits.readMaxChars	8000	Default local_search_read window; hard cap 20,000 characters.
timeoutMs	30000	Per-call timeout budget; profile YAML only.

Example row override:

- id: fishdivinity-local-search
  name: '@fishdivinity/dsh-local-search'
  config:
    scopes:
      workRoot: 'D:\Projects'
      personalRoot: 'D:\Documents'
    limits:
      maxResults: 50

A 0.2 profile needs no hand edit: on startup its nine flat keys (esPath, esEncoding, anytxtUrl, workspaceRoot, workRoot, personalRoot, allRoots, maxResults, readMaxChars) move into the structure above and are removed. When the settings layer refuses that write — a home patch overrides the profile — the old keys stay and are still read.

Scopes

• workspace (default): the session's working directory.
• work: scopes.workRoot.
• personal: scopes.personalRoot.
• all: scopes.allRoots for Anytxt; all indexed volumes for Everything.

Use all only when the user explicitly asks for a cross-drive/global search. The path argument overrides scope.

Engine selection

engine defaults to auto, which follows the backend configured for that capability: files.backend for local_search_files, content.backend for local_search_content, fragments, and read.

• local_search_files: auto or everything.
• local_search_content / fragments / read: auto or anytxt.
• local_search_status: auto, everything, or anytxt.

The tool names stay stable if more engines are added; engine values are additive. Content items carry both engine and a self-describing ref such as anytxt:123; pass the ref unchanged to local_search_fragments/local_search_read, and pass engine only as an assertion.

Errors

Failures are typed HarnessErrors with stable codes:

Code	Meaning
EVERYTHING_ES_NOT_FOUND	es.exe is missing; install it or set files.everything.esPath.
EVERYTHING_DOWN	Everything is not running / cannot be reached.
EVERYTHING_TIMEOUT, EVERYTHING_TOO_LARGE	Query too broad or slow; narrow it.
ANYTXT_DOWN	Anytxt GUI is not running or the JSON-RPC endpoint is unreachable.
ANYTXT_TIMEOUT, ANYTXT_RPC, ANYTXT_HTTP	Anytxt-side query/transport failure.
ROOT_NOT_FOUND, SCOPE_NOT_CONFIGURED, INVALID_SCOPE	Root/scope configuration problem.
INVALID_ARGUMENT	Empty query, bad limit, etc.

If a search reports *_DOWN, fall back to grep/glob and say that you fell back.

Security and limits

• Read-only: no write, delete, index-sync, OCR, export, or settings operation is registered.
• es.exe is always spawned with a fixed argv; model text goes after --, so -export-*, -save-settings, -clear-settings, -exit, -reindex, -save-db, and run-count switches are unreachable.
• Anytxt is only called through Search, GetResult, GetFragmentAll, and GetRawTextByFID.
• No network access except the configured local Anytxt URL.
• Results are capped; local_search_read caps the returned text.
• The plugin runs with the user's privileges and can read files the user can read. Prefer scope=workspace unless a global search is requested.

Known limitations

• Windows only.
• Everything 1.4 indexes metadata, not file contents; use Anytxt for contents.
• Anytxt's JSON-RPC API is local and unofficial; GUI versions can change behavior. The plugin reports unreachable/wrong-shape responses instead of guessing.
• Anytxt's index may be stale. Verify important hits with read/the original file.
• No auto-start: starting ATGUI.exe writes the index and is left to the user.
• Anytxt's terms limit personal/non-commercial use; commercial use needs its own license.

Related plugins

• dsh-tool-everything covers Everything filename search through the SDK.
• dsh-workspace-search covers workspace file names/contents in the sidebar.
• This plugin's differentiator is Anytxt document content plus one routing surface for names and contents.

For AI agents

A session that can only see one folder and is asked about anything else should search instead of guessing. Map the question to a tool:

Question	Tool	What comes back
Where is this file?	local_search_files	Paths and names, anywhere Everything indexed
What does this document say?	local_search_content	Matching lines from the text Anytxt extracted, with a ref per hit
Which part of it?	local_search_fragments	Snippets around one match — pass that hit's ref unchanged
Give me the text	local_search_read	Extracted plain text of one file, capped
Is the engine even there?	local_search_status	Per-engine reachability, before you report "no results"

• scope defaults to workspace (the session directory); work and personal are configured roots; all crosses drives and is only for an explicit global search. path overrides scope.
• Pass a content hit's ref back unchanged (anytxt:123); engine is an assertion to check against, not a selector.
• EVERYTHING_DOWN / ANYTXT_DOWN mean the engine is not running — fall back to grep/glob and say you fell back. A down engine is not "no such file".
• Results are capped (limits.maxResults, hard 100; local_search_read 20,000 characters). Narrow the query instead of paging.
• Every failure carries a stable code from the table above; quote the code, not the prose.
• Windows only, and the engines are installed separately: file-name results cover what Everything indexed, content results cover what Anytxt indexed.

A shorter machine-readable copy of this section is in llms.txt. Terms this package answers to: local search, Everything, es.exe, Anytxt, full-text search, PDF / Word / Excel / PowerPoint / EPUB text, cross-drive search, file names outside the workspace.

Development

No dependencies; tests use Node's built-in test runner.

npm test
npm run check
npm run pack:check

The engine and config modules (lib/everything.js, lib/anytxt.js, lib/roots.js, lib/format.js, lib/config.js) are independent of the DSH runtime so their tests run under plain Node. lib/client.js ships as the browser half: it is written directly in the client module system's lazy-CJS factory format, so there is no build step. See docs/architecture.md, docs/extending-engines.md, docs/config-migration.md for the rules a config-shape change has to follow, and .github/RELEASING.md.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md (Chinese) or CHANGELOG.en.md (English). They stay in the repository; the npm tarball ships only the runtime files, README, LICENSE, locale, and icon.

License

MIT. Everything and Anytxt are separate products with their own licenses and trademarks; this project is not affiliated with voidtools or CBEWIN.