dsh-pstack

dsh-pstack

Bring pstack's rigorous agent workflows to DeepSeek Harness

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Quick start · Capabilities · Skills directory · Optional DSH plugins · Compatibility

dsh-pstack ports pstack to DeepSeek Harness (DSH). It keeps the upstream pstack skills, playbooks, and reference documents. Four native tools replace the interfaces that DSH lacks, while an adaptation layer maps Cursor's tool names, subagent fields, model slugs, and paths to DSH.

Most upstream pstack skills declare disable-model-invocation: true. poteto-mode routes to those hidden skills by name, but DSH's skill tool only exposes the model-visible catalog. DSH also has no equivalents for Cursor's model slugs, subagent_type, readonly, and Bun scripts. dsh-pstack handles those differences in the plugin layer. You can start with /poteto-mode after installation.

See pstack/README.md for the full capability map, gaps, and acceptance status.

[!IMPORTANT] Requires DSH >=0.2.1-rc.5 and Node.js >=24.21.1. Newer DSH versions remain supported by default; only confirmed incompatibilities are listed in Compatibility.

Quick start

1. Install the plugin:

   dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-pstack
   

   You can also install it from the Plugins page in Web or Desktop.

2. Restart the profile or open a new Session.

3. Before first use, run:

   /setup-pstack
   

   This command reads the providers, models, and reasoning efforts available in the current deployment. It writes them to $DSH_HOME/pstack-models.mdc. Without this file, every role inherits the parent's routing. After setup, the same values can be viewed and edited on Plugins → Installed plugins → dsh-pstack.

Common entry points

Command	Purpose
/poteto-mode	Main workflow entry: matches a playbook to the task and maintains todos and evidence.
/setup-pstack	Configures role models and initializes the pstack environment.
/how, /why, /teach	Architecture walkthrough, evidence investigation, and progressive explanation.
/architect, /arena, /swarm	Multi-option design, parallel candidates, and slice-parallel implementation.
/create-verification-skill	Generates a verification skill for a real project.
/statechart	Checks state models with TLA+ and TLC, and outputs a Mermaid state diagram.
/show-me-your-work	Maintains a TSV decision log and audits the current work.
/retro	Reviews a coding session's environment.
/docs-drift	Audits project-discovered documentation; report is read-only, while fix repairs approved findings.

Capabilities

Native tools

Tool	Purpose
pstack_skill	Loads a hidden skill registered by this plugin by name, and reads relative resources inside the skill directory.
pstack_models	Read-only list of the providers, models, and efforts DSH actually offers, used by /setup-pstack.
pstack_subagent	Reads $DSH_HOME/pstack-models.mdc per role, parses provider/model [effort], selects a preset by agent, and can start several subagents at once.
pstack_script	Runs bundled Node scripts by fixed id without Bun or shell scripts.

The poteto-agent and comment-sicko presets handle implementation delegation and read-only comment review. pstack_script can run five bundled scripts: check-plan, watch-pr, worktree-audit, log, and statechart. The script ids form a closed enum and cannot be used to build arbitrary paths.

Plugin configuration entry

Open Plugins → Installed plugins → dsh-pstack and click Configure in the bundle page header to open the configuration dialog.

Skills directory

skills/ is not an upstream pstack directory. It contains skills that pstack does not provide but real projects need. The source directories are skills/authored/ and skills/.agents/skills/. The build publishes them to dist/skills/authored/ and dist/skills/vendored/. vendored preserves open-source upstreams verbatim, while this repository maintains authored. References from pstack skills do not change these inclusion criteria.

Source	Skill	Purpose	Engineering capability added
vendored	writing-for-agents	Writes skills, AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, and documents referenced by pointers, covering context pointers, information hierarchy, and progressive disclosure.	Makes an agent document's trigger words, load order, and context cost predictable, and adds the writing path that Cursor's create-skill provides.
vendored	retro	Reviews a coding session's environment, checking navigation, automation, coding conventions, tool economy, and information access.	Adds the environment check that pstack /reflect and /correct do not cover; it only reports and does not modify the repository.
authored	decision-write	Writes, lands, and supersedes decision records in Draft and Land modes, requiring Status and Implemented-by to appear together.	Adds the decision lifecycle that real projects often lack.
authored	decision-audit	Read-only audit of decision-record routing, status, scope, anchors, and supersession relationships.	Keeps decision records searchable and reviewable over time.
authored	setup-project-docs	Sets up architecture, glossary, decisions, and the root AGENTS.md pointers, and can be run repeatedly to fill gaps.	Gives a new project a sustainable documentation entry point.
authored	docs-drift	Discovers maintained documents through project pointers, checks implementation drift, contradictions, terminology, links, redundancy, and unsupported elaboration, and repairs approved findings.	Adds periodic documentation inspection and controlled cleanup without assuming a fixed document layout.

vendored skills come from mattpocock/skills@59db609eb1e18aaf59b63284d0e52255aff0c63c. skills/skills-lock.json records their sources, paths, and hashes. Both skill trees ship with the package, but they do not correspond to upstream pstack versions.

Optional DSH plugins

DSH ships with the following plugins, which are disabled by default. dsh-pstack does not require them during installation. Some pstack flows need these plugins to run end to end. To enable a plugin, enter its package name in Add plugin on the Plugins page. Alternatively, run dsh plugin --profile <profile> add <package>, then restart the profile. Except for @deepseek-ai/dsh-mcp-client, the bundles and providers here are experimental.

[!NOTE] Without an optional plugin, the pstack skills still load. Steps that need the plugin print Skipped in DeepSeek Harness: <step>. <reason>. and continue. Missing gh, Java/TLC, or video tools also cause the corresponding steps to report blocked or degrade to screenshots. dsh-pstack never marks an unrun step as passed.

Sessions and isolation

Plugin	Capability when enabled	Boundaries and conflicts
@deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-session-search	Five read-only tools search and trace historical Sessions for /recall, /reflect, and /show-me-your-work: session_search, session_event_search, session_trace, session_event_trace, and session_event_read.	Matches only Sessions with the same cwd; use session_event_search for the current Session; there is no Cursor .jsonl transcript path.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-worktree @deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-tool-worktree	create_worktree creates a local branch and worktree and switches the current Session directory, isolating parallel candidates for /arena, /swarm, and /architect.	from reads only local refs and does not fetch; there is no cloud VM; creating worktrees repeatedly changes cwd; it does not automatically give each subagent its own tree.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-forge-bundle	PR panel, checks, review, mark ready, merge, and Session binding, plus starting a Session from the composer with a new worktree, serving /babysit, /shipping, and /autopilot-*.	GitHub only, requires gh login; there is no take tool on the model side; there is no stack verdict or origin CLI; it can coexist with the worktree bundle.

Verification and evidence

Choose one of three browser providers: @deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-browser-use-stagehand-native, @deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-browser-use-playwright-mcp, or @deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-browser-use-chrome-devtools-mcp.

Plugin	Capability when enabled	Boundaries and conflicts
@deepseek-ai/dsh-browser-use + one provider	Navigation, clicking, typing, screenshots, and ARIA snapshots; Stagehand also provides act, find, and extract, for verification skills and UI reproduction.	The base package does nothing without a provider; one provider per Session; screenshots need an image model; no video; Stagehand needs Chromium and a non-DeepSeek model.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-cua-bundle	macOS app clicking, typing, screenshots, and permission pages, for desktop app verification.	macOS PTC only; Windows is incomplete; no video.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-terminal-bundle	Six global terminal tools that keep a shell or REPL alive across calls and support background send, for CLI and TUI verification.	Terminal only; added to every Agent; persistent state must be cleaned up; switching invalidates the KV cache.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-mcp-client	Mounts MCP servers; tools appear as mcp__<server>__<tool>, and mcp-resources lists servers with resources, serving evidence investigation for /why and /teach.	No default server; configuration is per server; no automatic category discovery.

Multi-agent

Plugin	Capability when enabled	Boundaries and conflicts
@deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-agent-team-profile	Lead and teammate roles, a shared task board, nine team tools, and a Web roster, serving /orchestrate and /autopilot-*.	Disables subagent and subagent_fork. Conflicts with pstack_subagent. See the warning below.
@deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-ralph-bundle	Global ralph, a foreground loop with a fresh child each round, serving /autonomous-run.	Not a persistent loop in the same Session; no event watcher; does not replace goals, heartbeats, or the decision log.

[!WARNING] Do not enable @deepseek-ai/dsh-experimental-agent-team-profile and pstack_subagent in the same profile. The agent team plugin disables subagent and subagent_fork, and provides a second delegation entry point. Use only one subagent system per profile.

Compatibility

Item	Version	Notes
DSH	>=0.2.1-rc.5	Minimum supported version; verified through the 0.2.2-alpha.2 baseline
pstack	0.15.36	Upstream baseline commit 4dd1d05
Node.js	>=24.21.1	Runtime requirement
Cordis	~4.0.6-alpha.1	Peer dependency

[!NOTE] DSH version support: engines.dsh accepts every version >=0.2.1-rc.5, including newer prereleases. Routine DSH upgrades require no changes here. Add an entry only when a specific version is confirmed unsupported; raise the minimum only when a port fix requires it.

Known incompatible DSH versions: None.

Before upgrading DSH, verify experimental plugin package names, tool names, and configuration in a test profile. Upgrading upstream pstack requires regenerating the tree and rechecking the adaptation table.

[!CAUTION] pstack_script runs on the Host's Node and bypasses bash approval and the filesystem sandbox. Treat it as a trusted entry point.

A worktree Session has a different cwd from the original Session. The session-search plugin only matches the exact cwd, so search for old Sessions from their original directory.

How it works

Upstream pstack adapts Claude Code with docs/harness/claude-code.md. It preserves the skill bodies. A separate host adaptation table maps Task, AskQuestion, todo, model slugs, and paths to the target host. The generator adds a one-line Claude Code adaptation note to skills that use Cursor names. Unsupported capabilities report Skipped in Claude Code: <step>. <reason>.

dsh-pstack follows the same approach. The main adaptation document is pstack/harness/docs/harness/dsh.md. It covers Tools, Subagent fields, Models, setup-pstack, Paths, and Cursor-only features. The pstack_* tools, agent presets, and Node scripts replace fields that DSH lacks. At build time, upstream pstack and the local adaptation tree are rendered into pstack/pstack/, then packaged with src/*.ts and skills/ into dist/.

Credits

• pstack was designed and open-sourced by Lauren Tan and the Cursor team. poteto-mode, the 23 playbooks, and the 24 principles all come from upstream.
• DeepSeek Harness is provided by the DeepSeek team. DSH's plugin, bundle, agent preset, subagent, and tool host interfaces let this port land as native tools.
• mattpocock/skills provides the vendored writing-for-agents and retro skills.

This project is a community port, not an official Cursor or DeepSeek release. Upstream pstack and DSH are both MIT licensed.

License

MIT License © leiwang