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dsh-todo-list — a To Do List plugin for DeepSeek Harness (DSH)

A deployment-level DeepSeek Harness (DSH) To Do List plugin: it recognizes key items from conversations — natural chat, imported notifications, announcements, and email content — turns them into dated to-dos, and manages them from the To Do List entry in the left sidebar. The plugin mounts as a bundle into a profile (dsh plugin add one-click install) without modifying DSH source. No approval or configuration needed; data and the entry survive restarts.

Feature Overview

• Understand-notification skill: a packaged skill (understand-notification, ships in skills/ and registers through a dedicated todo-skills provider) that teaches the model to extract actionable items from notifications, announcements, emails and conversations into a structured JSON with the 5W1H shape (who / what / when / where / why / how) plus urgency/importance — pure extraction rules, no tool calls inside the skill. Extraction follows an explicit granularity rule: actions merge into one entry when the owner is the same (or unstated), the due date is the same, and the actions form a "first … then … finally …" chain delivering one result (details go into what); actions split when the owner differs, the due date differs, or the deliverables are independent. Titles stay as short as possible; what carries the full detail; unmentioned 5W1H fields are left empty rather than invented.
• Extract to-dos with preview & confirm: the model parses the text per the skill and calls todo_preview to stage candidates; a multi-select popup appears, and items are written only after you confirm — nothing is added without your approval.
• Seven model tools: todo_preview / todo_add / todo_list / todo_complete / todo_remove / todo_update / todo_today for staged-preview and direct CRUD inside a session.
• REST API: /api/todo with list, batch-add, update, delete and clear-completed endpoints, plus /api/todo/pending (list / stage / clear) and POST /api/todo/pending/confirm for the preview-confirm flow.
• Sidebar panel: a To Do List entry plus Pending/Done tabs; click an item for details (due date, days left, urgency/importance, 5W1H elements, notes). Both the detail popup and the preview popup are draggable by their headers.
• Settings page: language (Chinese / English), panel opacity and width, persisted automatically; the preview popup shares the same opacity setting.
• Reliable persistence: local JSON with atomic writes and legacy-data migration; nothing is lost on restart.

Installation

Prerequisites: a working DSH web profile (usually at $DSH_HOME/profiles/web, with DSH_HOME defaulting to ~/.dsh) and an available dsh command.

Recommended: dsh plugin add

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-todo-list

This runs pnpm add dsh-todo-list inside the profile directory; because the package declares dsh.bundle.patch, dsh plugin automatically appends it to the profile's bundle layer (dsh.profile.bundles) — no manual edits to package.json or cordis.patch.yml. Restart dsh web after installing.

Alternative: local file: install

A file: install needs the project source (this repository), not the npm package — the npm tarball only ships the compiled lib/, the packaged skills/ and cordis.patch.yml, with no src/ or TypeScript toolchain to build from. Get the source first:

git clone https://github.com/perry-ai/dsh-todo-list.git   # or download the zip from GitHub

Then build the output and declare the dependency:

# 1. Build the project in the source directory ($SRC)
cd "$SRC"
pnpm install        # the prepare script compiles src/ → lib/

# 2. Declare the dependency: edit $PROFILE/package.json, add to dependencies
#    "dsh-todo-list": "file:<path to $SRC>"

# 3. Join the composition: edit $PROFILE/cordis.patch.yml, append
#    - insert:
#        - id: dsh-todo-list
#          name: 'dsh-todo-list'

# 4. Install and restart
cd "$PROFILE"
pnpm install

A file: dependency is installed by copy (not linked); pnpm may skip copying when it detects no content change — use pnpm install --force in that case. The plugin is ready after restarting dsh web.

Quick Start

Add to-dos directly in a DSH conversation using natural language, e.g.:

Please note two items for me: send the draft quarterly business analysis report to management by August 26 — it's important; also submit last month's expense claim in early September, no rush.

The model automatically calls todo_add, parsing the text into to-dos (title / 5W1H elements / due date / urgency / importance), e.g.:

Added 2 to-dos:
[ ] 2026-08-26 Draft the quarterly business analysis report and send it to management (urgent, important, top priority) (7 day(s) left) — important
[ ] 2026-09-01 Submit last month's expense claim (13 day(s) left)
Now: 2 pending, 0 done

Note: model tool output is currently rendered in Chinese; the English above is an illustration.

Then you can:

• call todo_today so the model converts relative dates ("tomorrow", "next Monday", "end of month") into concrete dates;
• use todo_list to view the list, and todo_complete / todo_remove / todo_update to maintain it (title, due date, urgency, importance, notes, 5W1H fields, etc.);
• or open the To Do List entry in the left sidebar: switch between Pending/Done, click an item for details (due date, days left, urgency/importance, 5W1H elements, notes), and open settings to switch the language or adjust opacity/width;
• or use the REST API directly: GET http://127.0.0.1:3080/api/todo to list, POST /api/todo to batch-add.

Storage & migration

• The list lives at $DSH_HOME/storages/dsh-todo-list/todos.json with the shape { version, todos, nextId } (store version 3: the 5W1H fields were added in v2, and the former acceptance field was merged into what in v3; older files load fine — missing 5W1H fields are backfilled as empty strings and legacy acceptance values are merged into what with a "完成标准:" prefix on read).
• Every change first writes <file>.tmp and then atomically renames it, avoiding half-written files.
• On first load, if the legacy <cwd>/todos.json from the old dynamic plugin exists, it is migrated to the new location; the original file is kept.
• Reads go through an in-memory snapshot that is refreshed after every write.

Features

• Model tools: the Host registers 7 global tools — todo_preview / todo_add / todo_list / todo_complete / todo_remove / todo_update / todo_today. todo_add turns multiple items from a piece of text into to-dos in one call, each with a YYYY-MM-DD due date; todo_preview stages the parsed candidates for the confirm popup instead of writing them directly.
• Understand-notification skill: the packaged understand-notification skill defines the extraction rules (granularity: merge same-owner + same-due-date actions that form a "first…then…finally…" chain delivering one result into a single entry with details in what, split when owner or due date differs or deliverables are independent; resolve due dates — explicit or relative to the current date, inferred ones marked in notes; fill the 5W1H fields who / what / when / where / why / how, leaving unmentioned ones empty and never inventing content; keep titles short and what detailed — completion criteria also go into what, not a separate field; judge urgency/importance, notes) and the exact JSON output shape; it carries no tool-call instructions — the bridge to todo_preview lives in the tool description. The skill is discovered from the package's skills/ directory via the todo-skills provider (independent of the host filesystem provider).
• Fields & priority: every to-do carries a title (the display main field, kept as short as possible), the 5W1H elements — who (owner), what (action detail, required and detailed — merged sub-steps and completion criteria live here), when (due date), where (place/channel), why (reason), how (steps) — plus urgency, importance and notes. The priority is derived automatically from urgency + importance — both high → urgent, shown as the badge URG in the list, either high → high, both medium → medium, either low → low. Missing 5W1H fields default to empty strings (never invented); legacy data is backfilled on load, with the former separate acceptance field merged into what.
• REST API: GET /api/todo (list), POST /api/todo (batch add), PATCH /api/todo/:id (update), DELETE /api/todo/:id (delete), POST /api/todo/clear-completed (clear completed); preview flow: GET/POST/DELETE /api/todo/pending (list / stage / clear candidates) and POST /api/todo/pending/confirm (write the checked candidates).
• Sidebar entry: a To Do List entry at the bottom of the sidebar — icon + label + pending-count badge in the wide bar, a round icon when collapsed to a rail. Clicking opens a panel with Pending/Done tabs; the pending tab shows a pending-count badge.
• Detail popup: click any row to float a detail popup to the right of the panel — due date, days left, color-coded urgency/importance, the 5W1H elements (who / what / where / why / how, shown when present) and notes; the clicked row is highlighted. The popup is draggable by its header.
• Preview-confirm popup: when the model calls todo_preview, a popup (registered in the shell.overlay slot) shows the candidates with multi-select checkboxes; confirming writes the checked items via /api/todo/pending/confirm, cancelling clears them. Its visual language — background, opacity, rows, colors — matches the detail popup exactly, so both look identical side by side. Draggable by its header too.
• Settings page: the gear button opens settings to adjust the panel opacity (0.01–0.1) and width (150–350 px) with a slider plus a live numeric display, persisted to localStorage; the detail and preview popups share the same opacity value.
• Persistence: the list is stored at $DSH_HOME/storages/dsh-todo-list/todos.json, written via temp file + atomic rename so a crash never leaves a half-written file.
• Theme adaptation: the panel uses a translucent DeepSeek-brand blue and automatically adapts to DSH web's dark/light theme (based on body[data-ds-dark-theme]); the sidebar footer stacking fix is built into the client styles, no platform source changes needed.
• Internationalization: every UI string is defined in zh/en dictionaries; the plugin starts in the DSH language and offers a language switcher (Chinese / English) in its settings page.

Architecture

• src/index.ts mounts the /api/todo prefix routes through the webServer service, registers the 7 model tools through the optional tools service, and registers the packaged-skill provider through the optional skills service.
• src/skill-provider.ts scans the packaged skills/ directory (<name>/SKILL.md or <name>.md), parses minimal frontmatter (name / description / whenToUse), and exposes them as a filesystem-style skill provider — zero extra runtime dependencies, and no conflict with the host filesystem provider (unique provider name todo-skills, scans only its own directory).
• src/types.ts declares domain types and shared constants; src/services.ts declares the structured subset contracts (types only, zero runtime) of the DSH/Cordis services this plugin consumes.
• src/store.ts handles persistence: in-memory snapshot + atomic rename writes, migrating old dynamic-plugin data on first load.
• src/domain.ts centralizes validation (title, date format), days-left math, priority derivation (derivePriority), item projection and CRUD, plus candidate staging for the preview flow (stageCandidates / pendingSnapshot / confirmPending / clearPending).
• src/api.ts dispatches REST routes; request bodies are JSON, capped at 1 MiB (413 when exceeded, 400 for invalid JSON). Besides CRUD it serves /api/todo/pending (GET list / POST stage / DELETE clear) and POST /api/todo/pending/confirm.
• src/tools.ts defines the JSON Schemas and text rendering of the 7 todo_* tools (todo_preview stages candidates without writing).
• src/client.ts is the browser half: it self-registers as a single file via window.__ModuleLoader__, injects styles, and mounts the sidebar entry, detail popup, settings page and the preview-confirm popup (registered in the shell.overlay slot), reading and mutating data through /api/todo. The detail and preview popups share the same opacity setting and are draggable by their headers.

Build

Requires Node 22.19+ / 24+ (same as DSH) and the TypeScript toolchain:

pnpm install   # installs devDependencies and triggers the prepare build into lib/
pnpm build     # manual build: tsc -p tsconfig.json, src → lib
pnpm typecheck # type-check only: tsc --noEmit

lib/ is build output and is not committed (see .gitignore); pnpm install regenerates it from src/ via the prepare script, so run pnpm install once in this project before a file: install. The published package ships .d.ts declarations, so TypeScript consumers get types out of the box.

Manual verification

1. Mount the plugin and restart dsh web; confirm the To Do List entry appears at the bottom of the sidebar.
2. In a session, call todo_today to get today's date, then todo_add to batch-add items.
3. Call todo_list; confirm every item returns a title, due date and days left.
4. Open the sidebar panel and switch between Pending/Done; confirm the pending-count badge and that completed items show no due badge.
5. Click an item to open the detail popup; confirm due date, days left, color-coded urgency/importance, 5W1H elements and notes; the clicked row is highlighted.
6. Open the settings page and adjust opacity and width; confirm changes apply immediately and persist.
7. Request GET /api/todo and confirm {"todos":[...]}; PATCH an item as done, list again, and confirm the done state and pending count change.
8. Restart the Harness and confirm the to-dos are still there.

Known limitations

• No cross-process file lock: with several Hosts running against the same $DSH_HOME, each process keeps its own in-memory snapshot and writes may overwrite each other.
• To-dos are not shown inside the conversation; they are managed only via the sidebar entry and the todo_* tools.
• Priority cannot be set manually; it is always derived from urgency and importance.
• The sidebar footer fix depends on the CSS class [class*="footerActions"]; renaming it in the platform would break the layout.
• Relative dates (tomorrow / next Monday, etc.) are converted to concrete dates only after the model calls todo_today first.
• Preview candidates are held in memory: they are discarded on a process restart, and a new todo_preview call replaces the whole pending set. Nothing is written until you confirm in the popup.