dsh-sidebar-reader

dsh-sidebar-reader

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Let your model read the current session's sidebar on demand: the active tab, official right-sidebar tabs, terminal screens, and browser page text.

Once installed, just tell the model "read my sidebar" or "show me my terminal" — the model triggers a capture through the plugin's command channel and receives a snapshot within seconds.

How it works

model ──POST /sidebar-reader/command──▶ host route (lib/index.js)
                                  client polls every 2s
                                          ▼
                     client capture (lib/client.js, runs in the Web UI)
                     ├── active tab (sidebarRight.active(), active pane's active tab)
                     ├── right-sidebar tabs (sidebarRight.openTabs, current session only)
                     ├── terminal screens (remote.terminal.attach, first full-screen snapshot)
                     └── web page text (webview innerText, desktop only)
                                          │
              client ──POST /sidebar-reader/latest──▶ host keeps the latest snapshot only
model ◀──GET /sidebar-reader/latest─── host

Agent tool (auto-registered)

The plugin's host side registers a native agent tool sidebar_read with the DSH tool registry: it appears in every new session's tool list automatically, and one zero-argument call returns the full snapshot — no HTTP, no configuration. The "prefer this over pwsh/web_fetch for terminal or page questions" preference is encoded in the tool description itself.

The HTTP endpoints below remain as a fallback channel.

Features

Channel	Source	Notes
Active tab	sidebarRight.active()	The active pane's active tab (id / kind / title / contentId), plus expanded telling whether the column is showing
Right-sidebar tabs	sidebarRight.openTabs live snapshot	Every open tab of the current session (tabId / kind / contentId)
Terminal screens	remote.terminal.attach first snapshot frame	Full screen including scrollback; input control is released right after reading
Web page text	Sidebar browser webview innerText	Desktop (Electron) only; strict mode, see below

Strict mode for web page text

The page is read only when the active tab is a browser and the column is expanded. Otherwise page is null.

Why: when a sidebar browser tab moves to the background, its webview stays in the DOM with zero width, and the fallback picker would still return it — the model would receive a page the user is not looking at. null is better than the wrong page.

What you get

What you are looking at	Readable	Notes
A page in the sidebar browser	✅ title + URL + text	Must be the active browser tab, with the column expanded
A file / document tab	⚠️ address only	You get its contentId (e.g. dsh-resource://file/...); read the file by that path
A terminal	✅ full screen	Includes scrollback (max 40k chars per terminal)
Plain web build (browser access)	❌ page text	No webview; tabs and terminals still work

Snapshot example

{
  "page": { "title": "…", "url": "https://…", "text": "…", "chars": 1235 },
  "right": {
    "sessionId": "session-…",
    "expanded": true,
    "active": { "id": "tab5", "type": "browser", "title": "Browser", "path": "sidebar://browser/…" },
    "tabs": [
      { "id": "tab3", "type": "files", "path": "sidebar://files" },
      { "id": "tab5", "type": "browser", "path": "sidebar://browser/…" }
    ]
  },
  "terminals": { "sessionId": "session-…", "terminals": [ { "id": "…", "title": "…", "state": "running", "screen": "…" } ] },
  "commandId": "cmd-…",
  "receivedAt": "2026-11-08T13:11:42.350Z"
}

Design disciplines:

1. Scope — everything is filtered to the session on screen before leaving the browser; other sessions are unreadable;
2. Never throws — each channel degrades independently; one failing channel doesn't break the others;
3. Transparent — a toast is shown on every read;
4. Revocable — all side effects live in ctx.effect and are cleaned up when the plugin is disabled.

Install

# From a plugin market (dshmarket / the official Discover tab, once listed): search "Sidebar Reader"
# or via CLI:
dsh plugin --profile <your-profile> add dsh-sidebar-reader

On the official DSH Desktop app, install from the app's own Settings → Plugins (or clone this repo anywhere and point the plugin manager's local install at the folder).

Requirements

• DSH >= 0.2.1-rc.2 (terminal capture uses remote.terminal.attach; on 0.2.0-rc.2 the plugin loads and tabs work, but terminal capture errors out — that version still called it follow)
• No better-sidebar required — official services only (sidebarRight, remote.terminal)
• Web page text is desktop-only; the web build still gets the active tab, tabs and terminals

Compatibility

Host version	Loads	Active tab	Sidebar tabs	Terminals	Web page text
0.2.1-rc.2 ~ 0.2.2-rc.1	✅	✅	✅	✅	desktop ✅ / web ❌
0.2.0-rc.2	✅	⚠️	✅	❌ (API renamed follow→attach)	desktop ✅ / web ❌

Verified: all four channels on 0.2.1-rc.5; install + composition + client module registration on 0.2.1-rc.2 and 0.2.2-rc.1 (scripts/test-plugin.ps1).

Development & testing

Two Windows PowerShell scripts ship with the repo:

# 1) Smoke test against a running GUI port: host route + client polling + snapshot
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/check-plugin.ps1 -Port 53233

# 2) Multi-version compatibility test: isolated directory + DSH_HOME per version
powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/test-plugin.ps1 -Version 0.2.1-rc.2 -Port 6123

Two traps worth knowing:

• Client changes require a page refresh: the host swaps the bundle immediately (rev changes), but a module already loaded in the page is not replaced — HMR graph sync only adds/removes entries, it does not replace an existing one;
• The id in __ModuleLoader__.load({ id }) must equal the npm package name (including scope). DSH's client module system matches registrations by package name; a mismatch fails silently — sidebar_read still answers, but every capture times out.

Privacy & security

• Reads the current session only; other sessions' data never leaves the browser;
• Everything stays on your machine: host routes sit on loopback HTTP (/sidebar-reader/*), no browser auth, nothing leaves the machine;
• Every read is announced with a toast — no silent capture;
• No telemetry, no external requests.

Host routes (prefix /sidebar-reader)

Endpoint	Method	Purpose
/health	GET	Self-check: snapshot present? command pending?
/latest	GET	Model reads the snapshot (404 when empty)
/latest	POST	Client submits a snapshot (replace-only-latest)
/command	GET	Client claims a command (consume-on-read)
/command	POST	Model issues a command

Changelog

• 1.0.1 — fixed the client module registration id not matching the package name (previously the client never loaded on any host, surfacing as capture timed out); tabs[].id now carries the real tabId; added right.active (the active tab) and right.expanded; web page text is now strict mode (null unless a browser tab is active and the column is expanded).
• 1.0.0 — first release.

License

MIT