dsh-sidebar-flex

A draggable, remembered splitter that gives the DeepSeek Harness sidebar's workspace / session list the vertical space it needs.

Why

In the DSH web GUI two things live inside the same sidebar column:

• the global panel list — Plugins, Plugin market, Automation, MCP connectors, Learn, Remotion, More — which does not scroll and eats roughly 396 px of a 1234 px-tall window;
• the workspace / session region — whatever is left over, often about 120–140 px, i.e. two session rows.

The shell offers no way to trade one against the other, so long session lists are clipped and the session you want simply cannot be clicked. This plugin adds that trade-off as a drag handle.

What it does

A 10 px splitter sits directly under the global panel list:

Gesture	Result
Drag the splitter up / down	Shrinks / grows the panel list; the freed height goes to the workspace + session region, which is what you actually want to read
Double-click or right-click the splitter	Restores the panel list to its natural height
↑ / ↓ while the splitter is focused	Nudges the height by 24 px
Reload, restart, next launch	Height is restored from localStorage["dsh-sidebar-flex:nav-height"]

The panel list has a 54 px floor (one row). At any height below its natural height it becomes scrollable, so nothing is lost — only re-budgeted.

The sidebar width is intentionally untouched: the shell keeps its own 264–420 px clamp and its own edge handle. Earlier experiments with taking the width over still live in lib/client.js behind ENABLE_WIDTH (default false) and are off.

Install

Profiles live under <DSH data dir>/profiles/<profile> (e.g. C:\Users\<you>\.dsh\profiles\desktop). A client bundle has to be a package inside the profile's node_modules, listed in the profile manifest.

1. Put this package into the profile's node_modules — copy the directory or make a junction / symlink to a checkout:

   # Windows, from a checkout of this repo
   New-Item -ItemType Junction `
     -Path  "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles\desktop\node_modules\dsh-sidebar-flex" `
     -Target (Resolve-Path .)
   

2. Append the package name to dsh.profile.bundles in the profile's package.json:

   {
     "dsh": {
       "profile": {
         "bundles": ["...", "dsh-sidebar-flex"]
       }
     }
   }
   

3. Save the file. @deepseek-ai/dsh-hmr watches the profile manifest, recomposes the profile and pushes the new client graph over SSE — the splitter appears without restarting the app. If it does not, reload the window once.

Deliberately not registered in dependencies: the plugin manager's reconcile() drops bundles that used to be dependencies but no longer are, so an unmanaged bundle is the more stable arrangement.

How it works

The client half only. It polls for the sidebar column, finds the global panel list inside it, and writes an inline height plus a "shrunk" class that makes the list scrollable. A MutationObserver re-applies the height when React re-renders the column (React rewrites inline styles on every render), and the handle is re-parented if the shell replaces the list node. No client service, no React state, nothing that could break at boot.

Selectors are matched by [class*='panelList'] / [class*='sidebarCol'] because DSH hashes its CSS-module class names.

Notes

• The host half (lib/index.js) is inert on purpose: the layout is rendered by the browser, so there is no host service and no restart cost.
• If a theme adds decoration over the bottom of the sidebar, the session list's bottom padding belongs to that theme; this plugin only changes the panel list's height and never touches the conversation column.
• Width takeover (ENABLE_WIDTH = true): rewrites the first grid track to 200px … viewport − 420px and hides the shell's own edge handle. When it is switched back off, teardown clamps the track to the native 264–420 px range so the shell can take over again.

Uninstall

1. Remove "dsh-sidebar-flex" from dsh.profile.bundles.
2. Delete the node_modules/dsh-sidebar-flex entry (junction or copy).
3. Optionally clear localStorage["dsh-sidebar-flex:nav-height"].

Compatibility

peerDependencies: @deepseek-ai/dsh >=0.2.0-rc.2 <0.3.0-0. Built and verified against the 0.2.2 client bundles of @deepseek-ai/dsh-client-ui-layout, -ui-sidebar and -ui-workspace (selectors: [class*='sidebarCol'], [class*='panelList']).

License

MIT © 2026 yuyu121704