Skill Manager (dsh-mode-skills)

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A skill manager plugin for DeepSeek Harness (dsh). It adds a Skills entry to the sidebar, below Plugins: see every skill, turn it on or off per agent mode, create, edit, import, and version skills, and install them from GitHub.

A preview.

What it does

• Sidebar entry: Skills sits beside Plugins and Automation tasks, outside Settings.
• Every skill at a glance: each skill shows its name, where it comes from (DSH user folder, shared folder, project, bundled with a mode, from an installed package, GitHub, and so on), and its description. Expanded, it shows the file location, when to use it, and its state in every mode.
• Per-mode switches: the list has a column for each mode that loads skills (up to four; with more, or on a narrow window, each row says how many modes it is on in), with a switch per skill, so one click turns a skill on or off in a mode; a dash means the mode does not have that skill, and a Manual or Model setting shows as a label that expands the row. Expand a skill to set it On, Manual, Model, or Off in each mode, or turn it on or off in all modes at once; choose a mode at the top to get that mode's switch on every row, and Turn all on or Turn all off for the list shown (Undo is offered). Manual: the model does not see the skill, but you can start it with /name. Model: the model sees it, but the / menu does not offer it. A mode that does not load skills (such as Minimal) and a skill the mode does not have cannot be set, and the reason is shown.
• Search and organize: search matches names, descriptions, display names, tags, and the text of the skill files (those matches are marked Text match). Give a skill a display name (such as a Chinese name) and tags, and filter by tag. Both are kept in this plugin's settings only; the skill file is not changed.
• Project skills: Project takes a project folder (checked when you press Show, with the recent ones offered) and also lists the skills in its .dsh/skills and .agents/skills. Switches apply to every project by name; a session loads a project skill only while it runs in that project.
• Install from GitHub: Import skills → GitHub takes a repository address (github.com/owner/repo, a branch and folder inside it, a link to a SKILL.md or its raw file, a git address such as git@github.com:owner/repo.git, or owner/repo), a skills.sh page, or a skills install command (npx skills add owner/repo --skill name), downloads the repository's public archive, and lists the skills in it, with a warning for skills that contain scripts. Nothing is selected until you choose, except the skill a skills.sh page, a --skill option, or a link to one skill's folder names. Addresses on other hosts, such as GitLab, are refused with that host's name. The commit is remembered: Check for updates compares each installed skill's folder with the repository's current one, and Update all installs the newer versions over them (the current files are saved as a version first). Private repositories are not supported.
• Skill store: Skill store (a button at the top right, next to Import skills) searches skills.sh, a public skill directory (with its install counts), and lists a short set of well-known repositories that ships with the plugin. A link pasted into its search box (any of the forms above) opens that repository at once; a typed link opens with Enter or Open. View and install opens that repository inside the store, with that skill selected, through the GitHub flow above: a filter box for long lists, Back to Skill store (or Esc) returns to your results as you left them, and Import selected stays at the bottom. Nothing is installed until you confirm; afterwards you can keep browsing or finish. If skills.sh lists a skill the repository no longer has, the page says so. The search text is sent to skills.sh.
• Usage per mode: Usage counts how often each skill was loaded in each mode's sessions over the last 7, 30, 90, or 365 days, both when the model called the skill tool and when you typed /name, and shows the last time. Choose a mode at the top to see what that mode loaded and what it never did. It lists the skills nobody loaded (in all modes, or in the chosen one) and can turn those off in a mode (Undo is offered). It reads names and times from the session history, never message text. The newest 400 sessions are read, for at most 25 seconds; a saved session is reused for 10 minutes.
• Token cost: each skill and each mode's skill catalog shows about how many tokens it costs (a mode's cost sits under its column heading and changes as you switch skills there), and the list can be sorted by tokens, to decide what to turn off where. See Development for how it is estimated.
• Skills DSH does not load: files in the skill folders that have a SKILL.md but that DSH does not load are listed with the reason (no frontmatter, a YAML mistake, an invalid name, an old field spelling, and so on). Where the fix is mechanical, the fixed content is offered to review and save; the old file is backed up first.
• Trash: deleted skills go to a trash to restore or delete for good; the notice right after a delete offers Undo. The trash is never emptied on its own.
• Create and edit: New skill takes a name and a description, who uses it (DSH only, or all agents), and the modes it starts on in, then opens its SKILL.md in the editor. Any expanded skill's SKILL.md can be edited too: the current file is saved as a version before an edit is written, and a file changed elsewhere meanwhile is reported. Unsaved edits are kept for the tab while you collapse the row or visit another page (the row shows Unsaved), and leaving the editor asks first. The search, filters, and open rows are kept the same way. Skills that belong to an installed package cannot be changed.
• Files and export: Files and export lists the other files of a skill folder to view, edit, add, or delete (a copy of the old file is kept in .dsh-mode-skills/backups/), and exports the skill as a .zip.
• DSH only or all agents: each skill in your own folders shows who uses it, DSH only or All agents, on its row and as a switch in its details. All agents keeps one copy in ~/.agents/skills, which DSH, Codex, Cline, Zed, and similar tools read directly, and puts a link to it in the skills folder of every other agent tool installed on this computer (Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode, Windsurf, Qwen Code, Trae, and more than 20 others, found by their own folders). An edit anywhere reaches every tool, and the mode switches stay as they are. Before a change, the page says what it will do to each tool: a tool's own copy with the same files becomes a link (the copy goes to the bin), and a different skill of its own with that name is left alone. DSH only moves the skill back to ~/.dsh/skills and removes the links. The layout is the one npx skills add -g makes, so the two understand each other's installs. Other agents (next to Usage) lists the tools found and how many skills each one can use, adds the links a newly installed tool is missing, and gives every DSH-only skill to all agents at once. Choosing All agents when creating or importing a skill links it the same way; deleting a skill removes its links, and restoring it from the trash adds them again. On Windows the links are directory junctions, which need no administrator rights.
• Import: Import skills lists the skills in Codex (~/.codex/skills), Claude Code (~/.claude/skills and plugin skills), and other agent tools (found by the ~/.<tool>/skills convention, such as Cursor and Gemini CLI), reads any folder, or takes a dropped or picked .zip or skill folder. Selected skills are copied in; another tool's link to a skill DSH already has shows as Already a DSH skill; on a name clash they can be imported under a new name or replace the existing skill (after a version is saved). Uploaded skills keep no source.
• Source change notices: an imported skill remembers its source. When the source changes later, the list marks it Source changed, and expanding it offers to import it again.
• Version history: save versions by hand (with an optional note), view, restore to the file (the current file is saved first), or delete them; a deleted version's number is not reused.
• Update the plugin itself: the page tells you when a newer version of this plugin is out and installs it with DSH's own installer after you confirm; see Updates below.
• Modes keep working after an uninstall: see Uninstall below.
• When the page fails: if the page itself fails to draw, it shows the error and Reload instead of an empty panel.
• With Mode Manager: when dsh-modes is installed, it owns the per-mode settings, creating, importing, and versions; actions here are saved through it, the same settings, import records, and versions as its Skills tab, and skills it pinned to a saved version are marked. Manual and Model, which Mode Manager does not have, are unavailable then. A setting that only this plugin had saved earlier stays unused; Hand over to Mode Manager moves the Off ones across. The trash, the skipped-file check, token costs, uploads, GitHub installs, display names and tags, the project folder, the file editor, and other agent folders work as usual.

The list holds the skills each mode sees: user folders, custom folders, skills bundled with a mode, and, with a project folder chosen, that project's.

When changes take effect

• In a mode that already has this plugin's settings, a change reaches running sessions from their next step.
• The first skill turned off, Manual, or Model in a mode adds a settings row to the mode, so that change reaches new sessions; the notice after saving names the mode.

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-mode-skills

Run pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-mode-skills in the source folder if you run dsh from source, then restart dsh web. To try a checkout, use link:/path/to/dsh-mode-skills instead of the name.

Installing from GitHub needs to reach codeload.github.com from the machine that runs dsh. Behind a proxy, set HTTPS_PROXY and NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 before starting dsh.

Uninstall

dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-mode-skills

The row this plugin adds to a mode is saved with a condition that switches it off once the package is gone. After an uninstall every mode keeps working and the skills turned off come back in every mode. The .dsh-mode-skills/ folder in the profile directory stays, so installing again brings the settings back. Delete it to clean up.

Updates

The page checks for a newer version of this plugin and can install it.

• Check: when you open the page, the plugin asks the npm registry DSH is configured with (a mirror works) for the latest version of dsh-mode-skills, at most once every 12 hours. The request names only the package. Turn it off with Check for updates automatically at the bottom of the page; Check for plugin updates there still works. Development installs (link:) are never checked. (The Check for updates button above the list is a different one: it checks the skills you installed from GitHub.)
• Upgrade: a banner at the top shows a newer release with See what changed and Upgrade…. After you confirm, DSH's own installer downloads that release's tarball from the registry and installs it, with progress and Cancel install. The installer restores the profile's files when an install fails or is cancelled, and the banner then shows the installer's message and the command to upgrade by hand. Only the latest release is offered, never a prerelease, and the tarball address must be this package's file on the registry that answered.
• After the upgrade: depending on the DSH version, the new version takes over at once (this page closes; open it again) or loads when you restart dsh (web: run dsh web again; desktop app: quit and reopen). The next time you open the page it says Upgraded to the new version. Your skills and settings stay, and running sessions are not affected. The banner shows the command that goes back to the old version.
• Installed from GitHub: the banner shows dsh plugin --profile web add github:xiaohai-78/dsh-mode-skills instead of a button.
• By hand: run dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-mode-skills@latest, or on the Plugins page use Add plugin with https://registry.npmjs.org/dsh-mode-skills/-/dsh-mode-skills-<version>.tgz. Without @latest the command does nothing, because DSH keeps the version it installed.
• From 0.2.0 or older: those versions have no update check; upgrade them by hand once.

Plan

1. View only (done): sidebar entry, every skill, its state in each mode.
2. Per-mode switches (done): work with only this plugin installed; modes keep working after an uninstall; saved through Mode Manager when it is installed.
3. Skill library (done): create, edit, import from Codex, Claude Code, or a folder, source change notices, version history; saved through Mode Manager when it is installed.
4. Everyday gaps (done): trash, checking and fixing skill files DSH skips, token costs, zip and folder uploads, more agent folders, per-mode Manual.
5. Management and GitHub (done): Model-only, tags and display names, text search, project skills, bulk switches, the files of a skill folder, export, DSH only or all agents, GitHub installs with update checks, handing Off settings to Mode Manager.
6. Store and usage (done): search on skills.sh and recommended repositories, installing through the GitHub flow, usage counts per skill and mode from the session history.
7. Later: our own index beyond skills.sh, one set of skill data shared with Mode Manager, Manual and Model in Mode Manager, a chat tool that manages skills.

Development

Before changing the plugin, read AGENTS.md, docs/requirements.md, docs/adr/, and GLOSSARY.md.

File	Role
index.js	Host plugin: serves POST /api/dsh-mode-skills and the dshModeSkills service the policy row reads. Actions: list, setModes, the skill library actions with the same names and requests as dsh-modes's (createSkill, readSkillFile, writeSkillFile, saveSkillVersion, restoreSkillVersion, deleteSkillVersion, readSkillVersion, skillSources, importSkills), and this plugin's own: deleteSkill and the trash, readSkipped, writeSkipped, stageUpload, importUploads, agentSources, setMeta, searchSkills, listSkillFiles, readSkillAsset, writeSkillAsset, deleteSkillAsset, exportSkill, setAudience, githubSources, checkUpdates, updateGithub, clearModes, usage, storeSearch, storeIndex, and the plugin update actions updateStatus, setUpdateCheck, dismissUpgraded, upgrade, upgradeStatus, and cancelUpgrade, which always answer here. While dsh-modes is installed the library and setting actions refuse with managed-by-modes. list mounts each mode's scope through agentPresets.acquireScope, reads skills.snapshot (with the project folder as cwd when one is chosen) and whether the mode has the skill tool, and releases the scope; each mode's result is reused for 60 seconds, except after a change to that mode or the page's Refresh. On start it adds the uninstall condition to the modes this plugin wrote, and takes in DSH's built-in updates where a mode differs from them only by this plugin's row
policy.js	The policy row placed in a mode: registers a skill provider in the mode's own scope that lists, for each skill turned off, an entry neither the model nor the user may invoke, and for each Manual or Model skill an entry only the user or only the model may invoke, loading the skill's current file (rank -1000). It lists nothing while dsh-modes is installed
mode-rows.js	Adding and removing the policy row, the uninstall condition (disabled: !!js, true once the dsh-mode-skills package no longer resolves), and merging built-in row updates with rebase.js
rebase.js, fs-retry.js	Three-way merge and rename retries on Windows, the same as in dsh-modes
state.js	<profile>/.dsh-mode-skills/state.json: the skills each mode turns off, sets to Manual, or sets to Model, the built-in rows of the last merge, and per skill its info (details when last seen, shown while every mode turns it off), alias and tags, imported (source, fingerprints, and for GitHub the repository, ref, folder, commit, and the latest version found), and version index; version files live in skill-versions/<skill>/<version>/. Writes are atomic; a damaged file is reported and never overwritten
skill-store.js	Version ids, SKILL.md frontmatter, line endings, and which skills may be changed (not those in node_modules), the same rules as dsh-modes
trash.js	The trash: a skill folder or flat file moves to <profile>/.dsh-mode-skills/trash/<id>/ with a record of where it came from, and restoring moves it back unchanged; across disks, or when Windows refuses a rename, it copies and then removes. The same move serves DSH only and All agents
agent-links.js	The agent tools whose user skills folder is known (the skills CLI's list) and which of them are installed; for a skill folder, what each tool sees (it reads the shared folder, a link to the skill, nothing, an identical copy, or a skill of its own); and making and removing those links, relative ones or directory junctions on Windows, never removing anything that is not a link
diagnose.js	Finds files in the skill folders that have a SKILL.md but that no mode lists, gives the reason in the order DSH checks (byte-order mark, frontmatter, common YAML mistakes, name and description, name grammar, old fields, invocation switches), and offers the fixes that are mechanical. YAML is checked for common mistakes only; anything else is reported as "see DSH's log"
tokens.js	Estimates tokens from DSH's catalog format (one - `name`: description line per skill the model may invoke, whitespace collapsed and cut to 500 characters, plus a fixed reminder) at about 0.3 tokens per English character and 0.6 per Chinese character (DeepSeek's published ratios); not a real tokenizer count
zip.js	Reads a zip (stored and deflate entries; no encryption or zip64), skipping folders, links, and macOS metadata, refusing paths that leave the archive, and holding to the file and byte limits while inflating; reads the archive comment and the list of paths without inflating; writes a zip for export
github.js	Reads a pasted address (URL, owner/repo, branch and folder, git address, raw file link, skills.sh page, skills add command), downloads the public source archive from codeload.github.com (60 MB, 60 seconds), takes the commit from the archive comment, and finds the skill folders in it
usage.js	Reads skill loads from session logs: a skill tool call counts once its result is not an error, and a user/message with source skill-invocation counts as the user's. A load belongs to the mode the session ran under then (the header's agentPreset, replaced by agent-preset/selected events, else the default mode). Reads sessions through the sessionQuery service, newest first, four at a time; saved sessions are cached for 10 minutes
store.js, store-index.json	Searches skills.sh (/api/search, two characters at least; results whose source is not an owner/repo pair are dropped), and holds the bundled list of recommended repositories with descriptions in both languages
skill-files.js, skill-import.js	File work for saving and restoring versions; finding skills in Codex, Claude Code, and folders, fingerprints, copying and replacing skill folders (Windows included), new SKILL.md files, and the list of scripts in a folder. Mostly the same as in dsh-modes
skill-view.js	Combines the modes' skill catalogs into one list with each skill's state in every mode (on, manual only, model only, pinned version, off)
update.js, self-update.js	The plugin's own update, the same as in dsh-request-params: version comparison, the registries to ask, the check that the registry's tarball address is this package's file there; and the actions, with the switch and the note an upgrade leaves in <profile>/.dsh-mode-skills/settings.json, installing through DSH's plugin manager
client.js	The Web page (Chinese and English): registers the sidebar.panellist entry and the main panel with the same id; saves through setSkillModes of /api/dsh-modes while dsh-modes is installed
cordis.patch.yml	Inserts the index.js host row

npm test

Runs on Node 22.19 and 24; when the local Node is outside that range, use npx --yes node@22.19.0 --test "test/*.test.js".

What each feature must do, and how it was verified on DSH 0.2.1-rc.2, is in docs/requirements.md.

Changes

See CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT