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DSH-Desktop

Electron desktop shell for DeepSeek Harness (DSH). Bundles node + pnpm, installs @deepseek-ai/dsh into ~/.dsh/runtime, and serves the dsh web UI in a browser window.

Download & Install

Prebuilt packages are published on GitHub Releases. First launch installs the DSH runtime (~1-2 min).

macOS

1. Download DSH-Desktop-*.dmg from the latest release.
2. Open the .dmg and drag DSH-Desktop.app into /Applications.
3. The app is unsigned, so Gatekeeper blocks the first launch. Right-click the app → Open and confirm, or run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/DSH-Desktop.app

Windows

1. Download DSH-Desktop Setup *.exe (installer) or DSH-Desktop-*-win.zip (portable) from the latest release.
2. Run the installer, or unzip the archive and launch DSH-Desktop.exe.
3. The build is unsigned, so SmartScreen may warn. Click More info → Run anyway.

How it works

Electron main process
  ├─ bundled node + pnpm (resources/runtime; repo-root runtime/ in dev)
  ├─ first launch: pnpm installs @deepseek-ai/dsh → ~/.dsh/runtime (upgradeable)
  ├─ spawn  dsh web --host 127.0.0.1 --port <free-port>
  └─ BrowserWindow → http://127.0.0.1:<port>

DSH is installed from npm at runtime, not shipped with the app. Upgrading DSH = detect a newer version on launch → click "Update" → optionally restart the web service (the desktop app stays open). No rebuild or re-signing.

After a successful boot, the web port is saved in web-port.json under Electron's user-data directory. Cold starts reuse it when available so origin-scoped browser preferences survive restarts. If another process occupies that port, a new loopback port is allocated; the app never attaches to that process. Plugins must still persist durable data on the host to survive a port change. Development and installed apps keep separate port records.

Develop

pnpm install
pnpm collect      # download node + pnpm into runtime/
pnpm start        # first launch installs @deepseek-ai/dsh (~1-2 min)

Dev and packaged behave identically: both use the bundled node and the external ~/.dsh/runtime.

Tests (no Electron window or browser required):

pnpm test          # vitest for test/*.test.ts + node --test for test/*.test.cjs
pnpm typecheck

The TypeScript suites run under vitest; the *.test.cjs suites are plain
node:test (see vitest.config.ts, which deliberately excludes them).

Package

pnpm dist:mac     # macOS dmg + zip
pnpm dist:win     # Windows nsis + zip (run on Windows)

macOS artifacts are unsigned; Gatekeeper blocks first launch. Allow with:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/DSH-Desktop.app

Runtime dependencies

• node (latest) + pnpm (latest), bundled via scripts/collect-runtime.mjs
• @deepseek-ai/dsh (npm latest), installed to ~/.dsh/runtime

Desktop plugin API

The shell injects window.dshDesktop into the DSH page (updates / seats / notify / overlays). Plugins should depend on that contract, not on Electron packaging code. See docs/desktop-api.md.

Our plugins

Companion DSH plugins live in DSH-Plugs.

Thanks to

• Linux do