dsh-backup

One-command backup and restore for DeepSeek Harness user data — sessions, settings, credentials, skills, and plugin config under ~/.dsh, excluding reinstallable node_modules — with sha256 checksums, integrity verification, automatic rotation, and scheduled auto-backup that survives restarts. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Commands

• /backup — immediately back up ~/.dsh to ~/Desktop/dsh-backups/dsh-<timestamp>.tar.gz
• /backup list — list existing backups (name + size) and auto-backup status
• /backup verify [prefix|all] — validate archive checksums (default: the newest)
• /backup restore <prefix|latest> [--dry-run] — restore ~/.dsh from an archive
• /backup auto <N>|off|status — auto-backup every N hours (1–720; keeps 3 copies below 24h, 7 otherwise; persisted across restarts)
• /backup --keep N — override the rotation count (default 7)
• /backup github status|sync — GitHub sync status / push now
• backup_dsh tool — same capability for the model (mode=backup|list|verify|restore|auto)

GitHub sync

With config.githubRepo set, every backup (manual, automatic, or panel) is also pushed to a Git repository — archives, checksum sidecars, and rotation deletions stay in sync:

- id: dsh-backup
  name: 'dsh-backup'
  config:
    githubRepo: 'your-name/dsh-backups'   # owner/repo, full URL, or a local path

Use a private repository — archives contain plaintext credentials. For an https remote, set the token in the environment (DSH_BACKUP_GITHUB_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN); it is only written into the sync worktree's credential file (never process args). Push is HEAD:main --force-with-lease; archives over 90 MB are skipped with a notice. State (last push, last error) lives in <destination>/auto.json and shows in the panel and /backup github status.

Settings panel (Web)

The same controls have a visual entry: a Backup tab inside Settings → Plugins (dsh web). It shows the destination, auto-backup state, GitHub sync status, and every archive with its size, and offers one-click back-up-now, per-archive verify, download, and restore with a dry-run preview plus explicit confirmation. Downloads stream from the loopback-only route GET /backup-download/<name>. The tab talks to the host through the backupPanel Typert Remote namespace (/api RPC); the browser bundle ships prebuilt in lib/client.js — no build step at install time.

How restore works

Restore is safe by construction:

1. The archive's sha256 is verified first — a corrupt archive never touches existing data.
2. Entries are listed and any path outside the backup root rejects the restore (tar path-traversal guard).
3. The current ~/.dsh is snapshotted, then moved aside to ~/.dsh.pre-restore-<timestamp> — restore replaces rather than merges.
4. The archive is extracted; restart dsh afterwards so restored sessions and settings take effect.

--dry-run shows the archive summary without writing anything.

Configuration (optional)

Plugin config in the active cordis profile:

- id: dsh-backup
  name: 'dsh-backup'
  config:
    destination: '~/Backups/dsh'   # default ~/Desktop/dsh-backups
    keep: 10                       # default rotation count
    exclude:                       # extra tar --exclude patterns
      - '*cache*'
    githubRepo: 'name/dsh-backups' # optional GitHub sync (see below)

Auto-backup state lives in <destination>/auto.json and resumes after restart.

Security note

Backups contain plaintext credentials (.credentials.yaml, qq-bridge/config.json). Archives and checksum sidecars are chmod 600 on POSIX (Windows relies on per-user profile ACLs), but do not sync the backup directory to untrusted locations, and treat archives as sensitive as your API keys.

Storage note: the plugin writes its own data (archives, checksum sidecars, auto.json) directly through node:fs, the same pattern as DSH's own session persistence — the ctx.fs capability is the model-facing sandboxed surface and does not apply to host-owned storage.

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-backup

Then restart dsh web (plugin discovery is cached per process) and run /backup, or open Settings → Plugins → Backup.

Requirements

• macOS, Linux, or Windows 10+ with tar in PATH (Windows ships bsdtar in System32; Git Bash's GNU tar also works — checksums prefer sha256sum/shasum and fall back to an in-process hash on Windows)
• DSH 0.1.0-rc.6 or compatible

Development

Zero runtime dependencies — the host plugin is lib/index.js. The browser half lives in src/ and is bundled (zod inlined, React/Cordis external) into lib/client.js, which is committed so git installs never build:

node scripts/build-client.mjs   # rebuild the client bundle after editing src/
node scripts/smoke.mjs          # host smoke suite (real temp dir, mocked DSH services)
node scripts/smoke-client.mjs   # client bundle: handshake, schemas, tab registration, SSR

License

MIT