dsh-search-first

dsh-search-first

Look before you build.

An agent with a task in hand tends to start building immediately — and then re-implements something that already exists, badly. This bundle makes searching for prior art the first step instead of an afterthought.

What it does

Two halves, both optional:

1. A system-prompt rule. Adds one section to the assembled system prompt telling the agent to search for an existing implementation, package or documented approach before it writes, edits, runs or installs anything, and to reuse what it finds. This alone changes behaviour: the rule is read on every assembly.
2. An optional hard guard. With strict: true, the first hands-on call in a turn (write, edit, ops_bash, plugin_manager, present, …) is refused until a search tool has actually run in that same turn. The refusal carries the reason and the retry instruction, so the agent corrects itself on the next step instead of dead-ending.

The rule is always on; the guard is off by default, because a one-line typo fix should not require a web search.

Install

dsh plugin add dsh-search-first

or install the bundle from the plugin market.

Config

Every key is optional and can be set on the bundle row:

- insert:
    - id: search-first
      name: 'dsh-search-first'
      config:
        enabled: true      # false removes both the rule and the guard
        order: 130         # position among system-prompt sections
        strict: false      # true = deny hands-on tools until a search ran
        rule: |            # replaces the default rule text
          ...
        searchTools: [web_search, memory_search]   # what counts as a search
        guardedTools: [write, edit, ops_bash]      # what the guard holds back
        allowTools: [ops_bash]                     # guard exceptions

searchTools and guardedTools accept exact names or prefixes: an entry ops_bash also matches ops_bash_async.

Behaviour notes

• The guard is per turn, per session. Once a search tool runs, every guarded tool is allowed for the rest of that turn.
• The guard never blocks search tools themselves, and never blocks tools in allowTools.
• Subagents inherit the rule through the system prompt but keep their own turn state.
• The rule section is registered once; if the systemPrompt service mounts late, registration retries for up to 20 seconds.

Why

Rebuilding a solved problem is the expensive path. Finding the mature solution first is the cheap one — in tokens, in time, and in bugs.

License

MIT