@deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-everything

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Model-facing Everything search tool — everything_search — powered by es.exe (Everything command-line client) for blazing-fast file search on Windows.

Leverages the Everything search engine by voidtools to provide near-instant file search across NTFS volumes, supporting the full Everything search syntax.

Prerequisites

• Windows (NTFS volumes)
• Everything by voidtools (free, installed and running)
• es.exe — the command-line client that ships with Everything, or available as a standalone download. Must be discoverable on PATH.

Verify the installation:

es -h

Should print the ES help text.

Installation

This plugin is a DSH profile bundle — it must be registered in a DSH profile's package.json and listed in that profile's dsh.profile.bundles array.

Find your DSH profile

First, determine which profile you are using:

# List available profiles
Get-ChildItem "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles" -Name

Common profiles: web, tui, headless. The profile directory is $env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles\<name>\.

Option A: Local development (npm link)

Use this when you are developing the plugin locally and want changes to apply immediately.

Step 1 — Create a global link for the plugin

cd C:\path\to\dsh-tool-everything
npm link

This registers the plugin in npm's global node_modules, which is the same directory tree DSH's own packages live in, so DSH can resolve it.

Step 2 — Register the plugin in your profile's package.json

Edit $env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles\<name>\package.json:

  "dsh": {
    "profile": {
      "bundles": [
        "@deepseek-ai/dsh-base",
        "@deepseek-ai/dsh-web-app",
+       "@deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-everything"
      ]
    }
  }

Step 3 — Restart DSH

The plugin will be loaded on the next DSH startup. After modifying the plugin source, there is no need to re-link — the symlink stays active and changes are reflected automatically.

Option B: Published npm package (future)

When the package is published to npm:

dsh plugin --profile <name> add @deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-everything

This adds the dependency and the bundle entry automatically. Then restart DSH.

Option C: file: protocol (no npm link needed)

If you prefer not to use npm link, you can install the plugin as a local file dependency:

cd "$env:USERPROFILE\.dsh\profiles\<name>"
pnpm add "file:C:\path\to\dsh-tool-everything"

Then manually add "@deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-everything" to the dsh.profile.bundles array in the same package.json, and restart DSH.

Verify the installation

After restarting DSH, check that the tool is visible to the model — ask the model to list its tools, or simply ask it to search for a known file.

Usage

Once installed, the model can call everything_search with any Everything search query:

Examples

Query	Description
*.pdf	All PDF files
report* 2024	Files starting with "report" containing "2024"
size:>1gb	Files larger than 1 GB
dm:2024-01-01..2024-12-31	Files modified in 2024
ext:txt content:hello	Text files containing "hello"
C:\Projects\* ext:ts	TypeScript files under C:\Projects
*.jpg dc:2024-06-01	JPEGs created on June 1, 2024
!hidden	Exclude hidden files

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
query	string	✅	—	Everything search query. Supports wildcards (*, ?), content:, size:, dm:, dc:, da:, ext:, path:, boolean operators (|, !, <...>), and Everything search syntax.
max_results	number	❌	50	Maximum results to return (1–100000). Use 100000 for exhaustive searches; prefer narrow queries for speed.
path	string	❌	—	Restrict search to a directory. Space-containing paths work (C:\Program Files\MacType). Implemented via Everything's path: function, not es's -path flag.
regex	boolean	❌	false	Enable regex search mode (-r). Note: Everything's regex engine does NOT support (...) grouping — use top-level alternation like .*\.pdf$|.*\.txt$.
match_case	boolean	❌	false	Case-sensitive matching (-i). Default is case-insensitive.
match_whole_word	boolean	❌	false	Match whole words only (-w).
match_path	boolean	❌	false	Match the full file path (-p).
file_only	boolean	❌	false	Files only, exclude folders (/a-d).
folder_only	boolean	❌	false	Folders only, exclude files (/ad).
sort_by	string	❌	—	Sort field: name, path, size, extension, date-created, date-modified, date-accessed.
sort_desc	boolean	❌	false	Sort descending when sort_by is set.
attributes	string	❌	—	Attribute filter, DIR-style. Letters: R read-only, H hidden, S system, D directory, A archive, V device, N normal, T temporary, L reparse point, C compressed, O offline, I not content indexed, E encrypted. Prefix with - to exclude: "R-H" = read-only AND not hidden. Combine: "RHS" = read-only, hidden, and system.
include_size	boolean	❌	false	Include file size in results.
include_date_modified	boolean	❌	false	Include last modified date (dm).
include_date_created	boolean	❌	false	Include creation date (dc).
include_date_accessed	boolean	❌	false	Include last accessed date (da).
include_path	boolean	❌	false	Include the full path AND filename (es -full-path-and-name).
include_extension	boolean	❌	false	Include file extension.
include_attributes	boolean	❌	false	Include file attributes as DIR-style letters (A, HS, HSD, ...).

Config

Key	Default	Description
timeoutMs	1200000	Cooperative tool-call timeout budget (ms).
graceMs	3000	Process termination grace period past timeout (ms).
stderrMaxBytes	65536	Stderr diagnostic tail budget (bytes).
rawOutputMaxBytes	20000000	Max stdout captured for parsing (bytes).

How it works

1. The model calls everything_search with a query and optional parameters.
2. The plugin spawns cmd /c chcp 65001>nul & es -json ... through the DSH subprocess seam.
3. es.exe queries the Everything service (which has indexed all NTFS volumes) and returns JSON results.
4. The plugin parses the JSON, converts FILETIME dates and attribute bitmasks, formats results, and returns them to the model.

Why cmd /c chcp 65001?

On Chinese Windows (and other CJK locales), es.exe writes filenames in the system ANSI code page (GB2312/CP936), but the harness subprocess seam decodes child stdout as UTF-8 — garbling every non-ASCII path. chcp 65001 switches the console code page to UTF-8 before es runs, so es emits UTF-8 bytes that decode correctly. This is verified end-to-end: without it, D:\驱动镜像 becomes D:\������.

Escaping strategy

The query is embedded in one joined cmd /c string, with every shell-special character (including SPACE) escaped by caret (^), cmd's escape character:

• size:>1gb → size:^>1gb (not a redirection)
• *.pdf | *.txt → *.pdf^ ^|^ *.txt (one OR search, not a pipe)
• Windows11 25H2.iso → Windows11^ 25H2.iso (one multi-word query)

Quotes are NEVER used for the query: es passes them through to Everything, where "..." means a literal-phrase search and silently returns zero results.

The path argument is folded into the query as Everything's path: function prefix (path:C:\Program^ Files\MacType *.ini). This deliberately avoids es's -path flag: a -path value containing spaces needs quotes, and Node.js's Windows command-line quoting mangles quotes inside a joined cmd /c string (\"), breaking cmd. The path: function handles space-containing paths correctly after caret-escaping.

es argument order matters

es parses options strictly left-to-right and is greedy about its search-mode switches: -r (regex) and -i/-w/-p (case/whole-word/match-path) must be the LAST options, immediately before the query. Any option that follows them (-size, -n, -sort) is consumed as part of the search text and silently returns zero results. The plugin therefore emits columns → -n → filters → sort → -i -w -p → -r → query.

Output quirks handled

• -size combined with -r makes es wrap its JSON in an extra array level ([[{...}]]); the parser unwraps one level.
• -attribs emits a numeric bitmask (32 = Archive); the plugin converts it to DIR-style letters (A, HS, HSD, ...).
• FILETIME dates (100-ns intervals since 1601) are converted to ISO-8601.

Because Everything maintains a real-time index, searches are near-instant even across millions of files — much faster than filesystem glob or grep for broad searches.

Errors

Error Code	Description
ES_NOT_FOUND	The cmd or es command is not installed or not on PATH.
ES_FAILED	The command failed (non-zero exit, launch failure, malformed output).
ES_RAW_OUTPUT_OVERFLOW	The output exceeded the capture budget; narrow the query.
ES_ABORTED	The tool call was aborted (timeout or cancellation).

Known Limitations

• Everything's regex engine does not support (...) grouping — .*\.(pdf|txt)$ returns nothing; use .*\.pdf$|.*\.txt$ instead.
• es must be on PATH; the plugin does not probe for a fixed install path.
• A path value containing BOTH spaces and &|<>^() shell characters may not be passed exactly; such directory names are extremely rare on Windows.

License

MIT