dsh-better-edit

A better edit tool for DeepSeek Harness
Position-free hashes — one read, many edits, fewer tokens, more room for real work.

English · 简体中文

Quick Start • Why Hashline • Tools • Benchmark • How Anchors Work • Development

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"The harness — not the model — is the bottleneck." — Can Bölük, The Harness Problem

This is the harness fix. Hashes replace line numbers — edits above don't shift anchors below. One read serves many edits; drift outside your range passes with a notice, true conflicts retry with fresh anchors — no full read needed.

3 calls vs 6 · -55.8% tokens · 23/23 correctness. Same external-drift refactor, same file (single stochastic run; method). Payload numbers are deterministic — see Benchmark.

Why you need this

If you've watched line 47 → 74 corrupt a file after an insert — this is for you.

Before: str_replace / line numbers	After: hashline edit
Re-types old code (~5-6× billed)	Two 3-char hashes, old text never echoed
One insert shifts every number → silent wrong line	Content addresses — edits above don't move anchors below
No check against what was shown	Every line verified; [E_STALE_RANGE]/[E_UNSERVED_RANGE] reject before write, then reject-and-serve returns fresh HASH│content

[!TIP]
Shining points — honest:

• Position-free. read 1..5 → insert @0 → edit 10..12 still lands at 10..12. Anchors are canon(line) hashes, not positions (ADR-0013). Exterior drift is a notice, not a re-read.
• Fewer round-trips. Single-session 1 read → N edits — no ritual re-reads. Multi-session exterior A:10..12 / B:20..30 also passes; only overlapping A∩B≠∅ retries once via servedRows (no full read). Harness 9/9 green.
• Fewer tokens. Compact payload {path, edits:[[from,to,text]]} + never echoing old_string; diff/echo/rejection rows count as serves. Envelope -40% pinned 12-edit corpus, session -55.8% on external-drift.
• Concurrent-safe, not silent. retired anchor per (session,path) epoch blocks re-bound S@3→@3; retired + canon + hash + changed∩[L,R] makes pos-free single-thread and strict only on true overlap. One retry vs silent wrong-line.

Not for one-line touch-ups (near parity) or new files (write). Pays off in long sessions and structural edits.

Quick Start — install to verified edit in 30s

Install (pick one)

npx @deepseek-ai/dsh plugin --profile web add github:Rianico/dsh-better-edit   # from github
npx @deepseek-ai/dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-better-edit                 # from npm
npx @deepseek-ai/dsh plugin --profile web add /path/to/dsh-better-edit       # local

No config. Next session runs with hashline tools. Verify:

dsh --profile <name> --dump-config   # shows "# == dsh-better-edit" layer

Requirement
Node	^22.19.0 || >=24.0.0
Profile	dsh profile (dsh plugin creates one)
Backends	sandboxed / remote ctx.fs

See it work

read serves HASH│content — the hash is the address:

ve7│function hello() {
szJ│  console.log("world");
kQm│}

edit by hashes — always lands where you meant:

{ "path": "src/main.ts", "edits": [["szJ", "szJ", "  console.log('hi');"]] }

Returns a diff with fresh anchors — next edit needs no read:

- szJ │   console.log("world");
+ a3m │   console.log('hi');
  kQm │ }

Position-free in one line: read 1..5 → insert @0 → edit 10..12 still verifies 10..12 (resist mode). Multi-session honesty: A:10..12+1 shifts B:20..30→21..31 → B passes (drift notice); B:12..13 overlapping A → E_STALE_RANGE + fresh rows, one retry.

Batch atomically — one edit, up to 32 same-file ranges:

{
  "path": "src/main.ts",
  "edits": [
    ["a1b", "a1b", "new line 1\n"],
    ["c3d", "c3d", "new line 2"]
  ]
}

One fails → none write ([E_BATCH_ABORT]).

[!TIP]
Want proof before you install? Upstream 23/23 battery runs no LLM — stale edits are rejected every run. Same algorithm.

Configuration

Tenancy and prompt guidance declare once, read at agent/created, no code change.

Store central by default $DSH_HOME/plugins/dsh-better-edit/runtime/<name>-<hash8>/ (ls-readable + .wsPath sidecar). DBs are disposable caches — rm -rf runtime/<name>-<hash8>/ is safe, rebuilt on next read.

# $DSH_HOME/plugins/dsh-better-edit/config.yaml
storeDir: central # central | workspace | /abs
autoGitignore: false
undo_ttl_s: 604800 # 7d, -1 forever
storeMaxAgeS: 2592000 # 30d janitor
storeMaxTotalBytes: 524288000 # 500 MB LRU

Env overrides yaml (DSH_BETTER_EDIT_STORE_DIR, DSH_BETTER_EDIT_AUTO_GITIGNORE).

Guidance per preset — tool:read / tool:edit / tool:undo_last_edit are plain markdown per preset at $DSH_HOME/plugins/dsh-better-edit/<preset>/<section>.md (orders 130/131/133). Delete or empty a file → default re-seeds at next boot; keep a --- fence to blank on purpose.

Why Hashline

Verified against what was served. Every resolved line checked against read/diff/rejection rows. Stale or unseen → [E_STALE_RANGE]/[E_UNSERVED_RANGE] + fresh HASH│content, retry needs no read. Session-scoped — sub-agent serves never validate main edits.

Content-addressed. canon(line) strips ASCII whitespace, xxh32 → 62³=238,328 anchors. Re-inserting identical text keeps its hash; prettier/eslint --fix between edits doesn't invalidate. Unique by bitset probing — }/import repeats never collide; cap 238,328 lines ([E_LARGE_FILE]).

No loop, no ritual. No-op → No changes made; same no-op ×3 → [E_NOOP_LOOP]. Diff/echo/rejection rows count as serves — read is recovery, not ritual.

Token economics

Envelope change: hoist path, edits:[[from,to,text]], never repeat old_string.

snapshot	str_replace	edit	edit multi	OMP per-edit	OMP batch
pinned 12-edit corpus	1,015	609 -40.0%	582 -42.7%	590 -41.9%	480 -52.7%
local snapshot	358	272 -24.0%	241 -32.7%	268 -25.1%	180 -49.7%

Percent vs str_replace. External row pinned corpus, cl100k_base; local npm run benchmark in upstream.

engine	calls	tokens	saved	ok
OMP	6	28,467	—	✅
hashline edit	3	12,593	-55.8%	✅

Single stochastic run, opencode-go/gpt-5.6-luna high. Artifact.

Scope & honesty. Payload deterministic; practical run stochastic. We measure payload + round-trips, not throughput. Retries are where the gap is largest — see edge cases.

Tools

Tool	What it does
read	HASH│content with offset/limit; [Showing N-M of T] paging; >200KB lines show marker
read_skill	Plain text, no hashes, no serves — editing after it needs a serve
edit	{path, edits:[[from,to,text]]} path:string|null inference, "" deletes, atomic ≤32, verify-then-write
undo_last_edit	{path} restores last edit (BOM/line endings/anchors), persisted

write stays, but refuses an exact HASH│ echo for same session/path/line before dispatch.

Error codes

Code	Meaning
[E_BAD_PAYLOAD]	Bad tuple shape (payload must be {path, edits} with 3-position tuples)
[E_STALE_ANCHOR]	No line (hash/retired/canon miss) / multi-line → read
[E_BAD_ANCHOR]	Not bare 3-char, or replacement_text carries HASH│/diff-preview prefixes — refused, remove and retry
[E_SERVED_ECHO]	Copied HASH│ from same session/path/line — refused, remove and retry
[E_EMPTY_RANGE]/[E_NOT_FOUND]/[E_ACCESS]/[E_UNSUPPORTED_FILE]/[E_LARGE_FILE]	Empty guard / missing / access / binary / >238,328 lines
[E_REVERSED_ANCHORS]	Swapped range — healed with dimmed [USER] notice on success, otherwise refused
[E_BAD_ENCODING]/[E_DECODE_FAILED]	Encoding / decode failed
[E_NOT_OBSERVED]/[E_STALE_RANGE]/[E_UNSERVED_RANGE]	Served-state miss — echoed fresh HASH│content
[E_UNDO_STALE]/[E_UNDO_UNAVAILABLE]	Undo stale / unavailable
[E_NOOP_LOOP]/[E_BATCH_ABORT]	3× same no-op / atomic batch fail → nothing written

Full list in src/ — every rejection echoes fresh rows, no read needed.

Comparison

	dsh-better-edit	@oh-my-pi/hashline	str_replace
Address	HASH│ 3-char canon	[path#tag] + line	text match
Whitespace-insen.	✅	~ n/a	❌
Duplicate lines	✅ unique	~ pos	❌ first
Verified vs served	✅ every line	~ file tag	❌
Blind edit	✅ reject	~	❌
Batch atomic	✅	✅	❌
Undo	✅	❌	❌
Battery	23/23	10/10	—

~ partial, — n/a. Same lineage — patch library vs dsh tool pair; pick by seam.

Edge cases: wrong anchor impossible (verified), disk drift → reject+serve, shift above → nothing moves, repeats → unique/ambiguous, unseen → reject, batch → atomic. See upstream benchmarks.

Battery: 23/23 tool, 10/10 library (upstream npm run eval, same algorithm).

How Anchors Work

canon(line) strips ASCII whitespace → xxHash32 → A-Za-z0-9 3-char (62³). Stable across prettier; Unicode/strings stay significant except ASCII whitespace inside strings (linter-only). stride=62²+62+1 probes bitset → unique; cap 238,328. Store hash-store.sqlite per workspace (central, honoring XDG_CONFIG_HOME); 7-day served TTL, janitor storeMaxAgeS/LRU + wal_checkpoint.

How It Replaces Built-ins

dsh resolves agent → preset → global; built-ins live on preset. Plugin via cordis.patch.yml: at agent/created registers read/edit on agent layer (shadows, auto-unwinds); write stays with pre-execute guard + post-execute auto-read.

Project Structure

dsh-better-edit/
├── src/hashline/     # hash + served core
├── src/tool-*.ts     # read / edit / undo
├── src/served-store.ts # SQLite store
├── benchmark/corpus/ # 103-line fixture
├── test/             # 108 files, 1222 tests
├── assets/           # logo + banner
└── cordis.patch.yml

Development

pnpm install
pnpm typecheck   # tsc --noEmit
pnpm test        # vitest run
pnpm benchmark   # hash probe + session envelope (reads/retries/tokens)

Benchmark

103-line file, 12 replacements (8×1 + 4×3/6/10/15), cl100k_base. hashline vs str_replace vs oh-my-pi seq/batch. Upstream is source of truth — same algorithm byte-for-byte.

Criterion	hashline	str_replace	seq / batch
old_string echoed	never	every edit	never
12-edit saved	31%	0%	42% / 53%
multi-line saved	29–47%	0%	40–53%
5× output cost	~1.4× less	1×	~1.7×/~2.1× less
Verified	100%	none	tag only

Scenario	hashline	str_replace
1×8	309	324
3–15×4	393	691
TOTAL ×12	702	1015

Saved 313 (31%). Reproduce: upstream npm run benchmark. See pi-better-edit/benchmark/README.md.

Scope & honesty. Benchmark is request-payload tokens (reads cancel, replacement text identical). No transcription-failure model — real gap larger; see edge cases.

Roadmap

Current 0.7.0: pos-free resist/strict + retired anchor/canons/epoch, per-session (session,path) store, 1222 tests, 9/9 harness.

Next

• Keep benchmark/run.mjs in sync with ADR-0013 (reads/retries/tokens per session)
• Re-check wiring vs next dsh (pinned 0.1.0-rc.6)
• README.zh.md parity

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Most valuable: more served-state edge-case tests.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Acknowledgments

From Can Bölük's The Harness Problem. Thanks to pi-hashline-edit, pi-hashline-edit-pro, pi-better-edit, @oh-my-pi/hashline. Reading: hash-anchors.

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Star History

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