dsh-skill-picker-english

Can't remember skill names? The official / completion relies on prefix memory — who can remember them all once you have dozens installed? This plugin makes skills visible, searchable, and quick to pick — click ⚡ and every skill with its description is laid out in front of you: search, click, insert, and it loads automatically with your message.

A skill picker for the DSH Web GUI: a button in the composer's right tool row opens a searchable list of installed skills; picking one inserts the official /skill-name gesture into the draft, so DSH's native mechanism loads the skill and executes it with your message. WorkBuddy-style "write the skill into the message box" interaction, recreated for DeepSeek Harness.

Why use it (vs the official / completion)

The official / skill completion is built in, but it's memory-driven — you have to remember the skill name first, then type / plus a prefix to filter it out. Once you have many skills, that falls apart:

| | Official / completion | dsh-skill-picker-english | |---|---|---| | Trigger | Type / in the input box | ⚡ button beside the input box | | Discovery | Prefix memory-driven — forgotten names are unfindable | Full-list browsing + keyword search — you can browse even if you forgot the name | | Sorting | Fixed | Recently used on top, frequent ones first | | Description | Truncated | Full description at a glance |

Know the name? Use the official one. Forgot it? Use this plugin — the two complement each other and can be used together.

Features

• ⚡ One click pops up every skill (lightning icon, instantly understandable)
• / completion: typing a slash lists all skills, with fuzzy search (any match on name + description) + frequent-first ordering (v0.2.0)
• 🔍 Real-time search (searches both skill names and descriptions)
• 🧠 Smart ordering: recently used on top, frequent ones first (same as WorkBuddy)
• 📋 Uses the official host skills API (same data source as DSH's built-in / completion; automatically covers user-level + project-level skills)
• 🧩 Inserts the official /skill-name gesture; loading/execution go through DSH's native mechanism — zero agent-side changes
• 🎨 Follows the Web UI theme (CSS variables), light/dark adaptive
• 📦 Pure client + host dual-half plugin, no third-party runtime dependencies

Installation

# Method 1: GitHub clone + link (recommended; no npm publishing needed)
git clone https://github.com/a735624258/dsh-skill-picker-english.git
dsh plugin --profile web add link:/path/to/dsh-skill-picker-english

# Method 2: Install directly from Git
dsh plugin --profile web add "github:a735624258/dsh-skill-picker-english"

# Method 3: After publishing to npm (prebuilt install, best experience)
dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-skill-picker-english

Note: not yet published to npm (npm view dsh-skill-picker-english will 404) — use method 1 or 2. If the dsh command is blocked by the PowerShell execution policy (File ... cannot be loaded), use: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "dsh plugin --profile web add link:C:\path\to\dsh-skill-picker-english"

Takes effect after restarting dsh web (or refreshing the page to load the new bundle).

Usage

1. Open any session and find the ⚡ button on the right side of the input box's tool row
2. Click it to pop up the skill list (you can type keywords to filter)
3. Click a skill → /skill-name appears in the draft automatically
4. Continue typing your message and send — DSH recognizes the /skill-name gesture, automatically loads the skill, and executes its instructions

Example: after picking review-multiple-choice, the draft becomes /review-multiple-choice grade these multiple-choice answers, and the skill loads automatically when sent.

How it works

DSH's dsh-tool-skill scans user messages for the /kebab-case-name gesture (SKILL_GESTURE regex) during the agent/pre-step phase; on a hit it injects the matching skill content into the conversation as a skill-invocation — i.e. "writing /skill-name in the user message auto-loads the skill" is an official, existing capability; it just has no UI.

This plugin only adds the UI layer:

[client]  ⚡ button → fetch('/dsh-skill-picker-english/skills')
                     ↓
[host]    scans user-level $DSH_HOME/skills + project-level <cwd>/.dsh/skills etc. → skill catalog (name + description)
                     ↓
[client]  pick → inputActions.setDraft(draft + '/skill-name ')
                     ↓
[DSH]     agent/pre-step recognizes the gesture → auto-loads the skill → executes

• Client half: registers into the official conversation.input.right slot (the control seat in the composer tool row, left of the send button); the skill list prefers the official host skills API (connection.api.skills.list — same source as DSH's built-in / completion, session-scoped, automatically includes user-level/project-level skills), falling back to the host scan route on failure; inserted text goes through the framework input machine's inputActions.setDraft (a single path — undo/draft persistence handled automatically); recent/frequent ordering is stored in localStorage

Relationship with the official / completion

DSH already ships built-in skill completion: typing / in the input box pops up a skill menu filtered by prefix (e.g. /sk lists skills starting with "skill"). This plugin doesn't replace it — it fills in the gaps of the official approach:

| | Official / completion | dsh-skill-picker-english | |---|---|---| | Trigger | Type / in the input box | ⚡ button beside the input box | | Discovery | Prefix memory-driven — you must remember the name to type it | Full-list browsing + keyword search — you can browse even if you forgot the name | | Sorting | Fixed order | Recently used on top, frequent ones first (localStorage) | | Best for | Veterans who remember names | People with many skills, incomplete name recall, or who prefer browsing |

In one sentence: know the name, use the official one; forgot it, use this plugin. They complement each other and can be used together.

Compatibility & notes

• Skill sources: prefers the official host skills API (connection.api.skills.list — exactly the same data source as DSH's built-in / completion, session-scoped, automatically covering all official directories: user-level ~/.dsh/skills, project-level <workspace>/.dsh/skills, <workspace>/.agents/skills, etc.); when the official API is unavailable it automatically falls back to the built-in scan (user-level + project-level directories). Both paths honor the DSH_HOME environment variable.
• Not scanned yet: ~/.agents/skills and custom skill directories (customSkillDirs config) — PRs welcome.
• Failure protection: the client half uses ctx.slots.inject (registers only once the conversation.input.right slot declaration exists; silently skips when the slot is missing, so startup never breaks); the host half wraps its route in try/catch and returns an empty list instead of an error when the scan directory doesn't exist.
• Dependency versions: written against the DSH 0.1.0-rc.6 API (cordis 4 / web profile standard assembly). If a DSH major-version update changes the API, the plugin's startup log error is the source of truth; uninstall with dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-skill-picker-english to roll back.

Development

# Install dependencies (provides esbuild)
npm install

# Build (source src/ → output lib/; client half auto-wraps the __ModuleLoader__ handshake)
npm run build

# Install into the web profile (link mode; source changes take effect immediately)
dsh plugin --profile web add link:$PWD

# Syntax check (the built output)
node --check lib/index.js
node --check lib/client.js

⚠️ After changing source code you must npm run build: lib/client.js is a build artifact, and the ESM source cannot be loaded directly as a client bundle — the DSH web shell requires client bundles to register in the window.__ModuleLoader__.load({ id, factory }) CJS handshake format, otherwise startup fails with loaded without registering "dsh-skill-picker-english" via __ModuleLoader__.load. The build script (build.mjs) injects this handshake automatically via esbuild's banner/footer.

Directory structure:

dsh-skill-picker-english/
├── package.json        # dsh.bundle.patch + dsh.client declarations + build script
├── cordis.patch.yml    # bundle patch: inserts the plugin row into the web profile
├── build.mjs           # esbuild build: host ESM + client CJS (__ModuleLoader__ handshake)
├── src/
│   ├── index.js        # host half source: /dsh-skill-picker-english/skills route + prompt section
│   └── client/
│       └── index.jsx   # client half source: conversation.input.right slot component
├── lib/                # build output (don't hand-edit; generated by `npm run build`)
│   ├── index.js
│   └── client.js
└── README.md

Dependencies

• host: @deepseek-ai/cordis, @deepseek-ai/dsh-host-webserver, @deepseek-ai/dsh-skill, @deepseek-ai/dsh-system-prompt
• client: @deepseek-ai/dsh-client-runtime, @deepseek-ai/dsh-client-ui-slots, react

License

MIT