dsh-vault

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dsh-vault is a security-focused plugin for DeepSeek Harness that stores sensitive credentials — usernames, emails, phone numbers, passwords, TOTP secrets, and developer credentials like SSH connections, API keys, secrets, and OAuth access/refresh tokens — encrypted at rest, and exposes them to the model through CRUD, search, password generation, and TOTP tools, plus a Settings UI page.

Security & Implementation

• Zero external crypto dependencies: everything is built on Node's built-in node:crypto (AES-256-GCM authenticated encryption, scrypt key derivation, RFC 6238 TOTP).
• Master password: every entry is encrypted with a 256-bit key derived via scrypt(master password, salt) and AES-256-GCM. The key never touches disk; after unlock it is cached in-process and re-derived on restart.
• Tamper-evident: GCM auth tags plus a fixed-plaintext verification envelope — a wrong master password or modified ciphertext fails immediately, never returning garbage.
• No plaintext at rest: the on-disk document contains no plaintext credentials; each entry uses an independent random nonce.
• Atomic writes: reuses the harness writeFileAtomic + file lock; in-process writes are serialized, cross-process writers take the lock.
• Search never leaks: vault_search returns summaries only (id/title/kind/username/email/phone/host/port/url/tags) — never passwords, keys, tokens, or TOTP secrets. Full credentials are readable only via explicit vault_get by id.

Entry Model

Each record has a title, an optional kind, and any combination of fields:

Two kinds carry their own shape: a cookie entry stores a captured browser session, and a card entry stores cardNumber / cardExpiry (MM/YY) / cardCvv / cardHolder — search summaries expose only the expiry and holder, never the number or CVV, and the Bitwarden JSON export maps it to a card item (type 3, brand inferred). | fields | Arbitrary key/value pairs (e.g. {"region": "us-east-1"}), searchable |

Tools

113 tools in five groups. Basic is what a default install registers; the rest are switched on through Tool profiles (Settings → Credentials → Permissions → Model tools).

Basic (registered by default) — 11

Eleven tools. Everything below is opt-in.

Management (Standard and up) — 53

Favourites, tags, history, health, templates, attachments, card and 2FA detail.

Import & export (Full, or Custom → Import-export) — 27

Migrating in and out of other password managers, bulk operations, and env/CSV/1Password/Bitwarden/KeePass/pass interop.

Browser sessions (Full, or Custom → Browser sessions) — 8

Capturing and replaying cookie sessions; needs the optional playwright-core.

Backups & vault files (Full, or Custom → Backups & files) — 14

Backups, vault switching, rekeying, recovery codes and system search.

Typical workflows: store an SSH credential (kind: ssh + host/port/username/password or privateKey) and have the model vault_search for the host then vault_get the connection details; keep api-key/oauth entries for API-gateway access/refresh token rotation.

Installation

dsh-vault is a bundle (a package declaring dsh.bundle): once installed into a profile, its cordis.patch.yml automatically inserts the vault plugin row (referenced by package name dsh-vault; the master password is injected via the DSH_VAULT_PASSWORD environment variable). The package ships a self-contained build script — git installs compile lib/ automatically.

All four install paths below are verified end-to-end (install → bundle layer recognized → plugin activates with all 7 vault_* tools registered → real vault_add/vault_get round trip → uninstall removes the layer):

Option 1: Install from npm (easiest)

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-vault

npm packages ship prebuilt lib/ artifacts — no allowBuilds, no local compilation, install and go. Set the master password before launching:

export DSH_VAULT_PASSWORD='your strong master password'

Option 2: Install from GitHub (pin a tag or commit)

dsh plugin --profile web add github:Ox0400/dsh-vault#v0.1.1

A git install fetches sources, not built artifacts, so the prepare script builds lib/ at install time. pnpm ≥10 blocks git dependencies from running build scripts by default. The verified flow:

1. Run the add command — it fails with an allowBuilds error and prints the exact key to allow (the line containing the repo URL, including the resolved commit hash):

   allowBuilds:
     dsh-vault@https://codeload.github.com/Ox0400/dsh-vault/tar.gz/<sha>: true
   

2. Append that exact key to the profile's pnpm-workspace.yaml ($DSH_HOME/profiles/<name>/pnpm-workspace.yaml):

   packages:
     - .
   allowBuilds:
     dsh-vault@https://codeload.github.com/Ox0400/dsh-vault/tar.gz/<sha>: true
   

3. Re-run the add — pnpm now runs the prepare script, builds lib/, and installs.

Pin a tag/commit so a later upstream push cannot silently change what runs on install. Treat the allowance for what it is: permission to execute that package's code on your machine at install time — only grant it to sources you trust.

Option 3: Install from a local path

dsh plugin --profile web add /absolute/path/to/dsh-vault

pnpm links the checkout into the profile; the bundle is recognized as long as lib/ exists (run pnpm build in the checkout first if needed).

Option 4: Install from a tarball

npm pack && dsh plugin --profile web add ./dsh-vault-0.1.1.tgz

The tarball ships prebuilt lib/ artifacts, so no build step or allowBuilds is required.

dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-vault uninstalls (removes both the dependency and the layer).

Command line

The plugin hands the vault to the assistant. The bundled dsh-vault command hands the same vault to shells and scripts, so a skill's child process can read a secret without the plaintext ever entering the model's context.

0. First: which command can you actually type?

Nothing provides a dsh-vault binary until the package is installed — the plugin is a Cordis bundle, and dsh has no plugin-subcommand registry (the launcher parses only its own flags; dsh plugin … just forwards to pnpm, so dsh web exec … hands its arguments to the web app and fails with error: too many arguments). Pick your row before reading the examples:

# source checkout — this repository, right now:
pnpm vault list

# after a global install (or via npx) the same commands are:
dsh-vault list
npx dsh-vault list

Every example below is written as dsh-vault …; substitute the form from your row (pnpm vault … in a checkout).

1. What env is for

get fetches one value and needs no tag. dsh-vault env is for the other case: a script that needs several secrets at once. It prints the entries you tagged env as shell assignments, so the script picks them up itself:

$ dsh-vault env
DEMO_API_KEY='sk-demo-123'
OTHER_PASSWORD='pw-not-exported'

eval "$(dsh-vault env)" reads those assignments into the current shell — the usual reason to reach for it:

eval "$(dsh-vault env)"          # KEY=VALUE lines become shell variables
echo "$DEMO_API_KEY"

Two things worth knowing:

• Only env-tagged entries are exported. With none tagged you get dsh-vault: nothing to export — no entry carries the "env" tag.; tag one in the UI (the entry's tags field) or with vault_update { id, tags: ["env"] }.
• The name is derived from the title and field (DASHSCOPE + apiKey → DASHSCOPE_API_KEY) unless the entry sets envKeys — see Environment export.

Names — there are only three, and two of them are the word env on purpose:

Nothing else is called env*: list --json / show report envKeys (the names an entry exports — what get accepts), envTagged (whether env includes it) and hasTotp (whether totp can produce a code for it).

2. The commands

dsh-vault list                             # grouped: what `env` exports vs the rest
#   Exported by `env` (tag "env") — 1 entry:
#     a1b2c3d4-…  api-key   DASHSCOPE        → DASHSCOPE_API_KEY
#   Not exported (no "env" tag) — 1 entry; `get <name>` still works for it:
#     9f8e7d6c-…  api-key   Example Billing  → EXAMPLE_BILLING_API_KEY
dsh-vault get my-entry                     # the entry's primary secret, stdout only
dsh-vault get my-entry --field apiKey      # one named field
dsh-vault get my-entry --mask              # confirm it exists without printing it
dsh-vault show my-entry                    # non-secret metadata as JSON
dsh-vault totp my-entry                    # the current TOTP code (digits only)
dsh-vault totp my-entry --json             # + digits, period, secondsRemaining
dsh-vault env                              # env-tagged entries as KEY=VALUE
dsh-vault env --mask                       # human view, both sections as KEY=VALUE:
#   ## exported items
#   NPM_REGISTRY_API_KEY=npm_***
#   ## unexported items
#   EXAMPLE_BILLING_API_KEY=***
dsh-vault export-env .env                  # …or write them to a 0600 file
dsh-vault verify                           # check the master password, nothing on stdout

Secrets go to stdout and everything else (progress, errors) to stderr, so $(dsh-vault get …) and pipelines behave. Exit codes: 0 ok, 1 runtime error, 2 usage error.

totp exists so a script can automate two-factor login without ever handling the long-lived secret: code=$(dsh-vault totp my-entry) prints six digits and nothing else. get my-entry --field otpSecret would print the secret instead — use it only when a tool genuinely needs to enrol the secret elsewhere. --json adds secondsRemaining, which is what lets a caller wait for a fresh window rather than race an expiring code.

3. Shell quoting: not export $(…)

eval "$(dsh-vault env)" is right; export $(dsh-vault env) is wrong. Command substitution splits on whitespace and does not strip the quotes the CLI emits, so a value containing a space breaks into the wrong words and every value keeps its literal quotes:

$ export $(dsh-vault env); echo "$WITH_SPACE"
['pass]                     # split at the space
bash: export: `here': not a valid identifier
$ eval "$(dsh-vault env)"; echo "$WITH_SPACE"
[pass word here]            # read as intended

In a script, prefer the file form — no eval at all:

dsh-vault export-env .env && set -a && . ./.env && set +a

4. The master password

--password-stdin, then $DSH_VAULT_MASTER_PASSWORD (or $DSH_VAULT_PASSWORD), then an interactive prompt that hides what you type (the terminal is switched to raw mode; verify with tests/e2e/cli-prompt.mjs). It is not read from the plugin's config file, so the CLI never depends on (or leaks) whatever the profile patch holds:

DSH_VAULT_MASTER_PASSWORD=… pnpm vault list
printf '%s\n' "$PASSWORD" | pnpm vault list --password-stdin

5. Install details

Source checkout:

git clone git@github.com:Ox0400/dsh-vault.git && cd dsh-vault
npm install && npm run build            # builds lib/, including executable lib/cli.js

pnpm vault list                         # the repo's own entry point (package.json script)
node lib/cli.js list                    # same thing, spelled out
./lib/cli.js list                       # the file is executable too
npm link                                # …or put a real `dsh-vault` on PATH

To develop the plugin against a profile you also link the checkout into the profile and add a patch layer that inserts it (how this repository is normally developed); the CLI needs none of that — it reads the vault file directly. A hand-linked plugin has no .bin/dsh-vault shim, so pnpm … exec reports Command "dsh-vault" not found unless you install it as a dependency (pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-vault) or create the shim by hand:

ln -sf ../dsh-vault/lib/cli.js ~/.dsh/profiles/web/node_modules/.bin/dsh-vault

npm install:

pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-vault          # into a profile (plugin + CLI together)
pnpm dsh plugin --profile web exec dsh-vault list    # --profile is required

npm i -g dsh-vault && dsh-vault list                 # globally
npx dsh-vault list                                   # or not at all

The read commands (list, get, env, show, totp, verify, export-env) depend on Node alone, which is why the global and npx forms work. Only writing to a vault needs the harness runtime, and the plugin always has it.

Two more caveats on the profile route: its .bin shim can be pruned by a later pnpm install, and pnpm dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-vault reconciles dsh.profile.bundles from the package's dsh.bundle declaration — if your own patch layer also inserts the plugin, that mounts it twice, so remove the patch row first.

Privacy of the breach check

vault_breach_check (and the security page) can check passwords against Have I Been Pwned. Exactly one thing leaves this machine:

GET https://api.pwnedpasswords.com/range/<FIRST 5 HEX CHARS OF SHA-1(password)>
Add-Padding: true

The response lists every suffix in that bucket (hundreds of hashes) and the match is computed locally — the full hash, the password, and the entry it belongs to never leave. A password already in the bundled common-password list is answered offline and produces no request at all; repeat lookups of the same prefix are cached in memory for an hour.

What k-anonymity does not hide, stated plainly:

• the five-character prefix (20 bits, one bucket in ~1M) goes to Cloudflare, together with your IP;
• an observer who can guess candidate passwords can compute each candidate's prefix and see whether you queried that bucket — that is the known limit of this protocol, not something the header fixes;
• Add-Padding only removes the response-size signal (without it, a bucket's response length correlates with how common the password is).

To keep even the prefix on your machine, pass online: false — the check then uses only the offline list, which is far smaller, so treat it as a screening aid rather than a verdict.

Strength indicator

Each entry row shows a three-star indicator after its title — ☆☆☆ = 0 score, ★★★ = full marks — in six half-star steps:

A half star is a real half-filled star, not a ½ next to it: the coloured copy of the same three glyphs is clipped to a percentage, and ★/☆ share an advance width so the clip lands exactly on a star boundary.

Hovering it shows the exact score and verdict. The score is computed host-side (the list never receives the secret) and covers the entry's password or card PIN; machine-generated API keys and private keys are deliberately not scored, so every key does not sit at full marks.

Environment export

Entries tagged env can be materialised as KEY=VALUE lines (vault_env, vault_export_env), and their names follow the field names every toolchain expects:

• The field suffix is vendor-standard: apiKey → API_KEY, accessToken → ACCESS_TOKEN, refreshToken → REFRESH_TOKEN, privateKey → PRIVATE_KEY, password → PASSWORD, cardNumber → CARD_NUMBER.

• Set an entry's env-var names (optional field envKeys, also via vault_add/vault_update, or comma-separated in the editor) when the derived names are not what your scripts expect. They are positional and used verbatim (no prefix, no title):

  envKeys	exported
  ["DASHSCOPE_API_KEY"]	DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=apiKey
  ["GOOGLE_ACCESS_TOKEN", "GOOGLE_REFRESH_TOKEN"]	...=accessToken, ...=refreshToken
  ["MY_KEY"] on an entry with 3 secrets	MY_KEY, MY_KEY_REFRESH_TOKEN, MY_KEY_SCOPE

  Each name must be a POSIX identifier ([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*), at most 8, and no duplicates. envKey (singular string) is still accepted as a one-element shorthand and is folded into envKeys on write.

• Custom fields are exported too, as <BASE>_<FIELD>.

Upgrading: keys changed from DASHSCOPE_APIKEY to DASHSCOPE_API_KEY in 1.10.64 to match vendor conventions. Set envKey on an entry to pin an exact name if a script depends on the old spelling.

Tool profiles

The plugin ships 110+ model tools, but registers only 11 core tools by default (vault_list/search/get/add/update/delete/fill/clipboard/totp/generate_password/strength) to keep the model's tool catalog small and cheap.

Switch profiles in Settings → Credentials → Permissions → Model tools — it applies instantly (no restart) and is persisted per vault:

tools: basic|standard|full|custom can also be set in the plugin config; the UI choice wins and is stored in <vault dir>/tools.json (the process-wide tool catalog is not per vault).

Configuration

[!WARNING] Security: never put the master password in plaintext A profile patch (cordis.patch.yml / cordis.yml) is a config file that is easy to commit to git, screenshot, or capture in logs — so a plaintext masterPassword: row leaks the key to your whole encrypted vault. Always use masterPasswordEnv and export the real password into the process/shell environment instead (e.g. export DSH_VAULT_PASSWORD='…'). See the community-plugin-audit handbook for the evidence-first checklist for credential-handling plugins.

# ✗ DON'T — plaintext master password in a config file
- id: vault
  name: dsh-vault
  config:
    masterPassword: 'my-secret'

# ✓ DO — reference an environment variable; keep the file itself 0600
- id: vault
  name: dsh-vault
  config:
    masterPasswordEnv: DSH_VAULT_PASSWORD

Example:

- id: vault
  name: dsh-vault
  config:
    masterPasswordEnv: DSH_VAULT_PASSWORD
    accessMode: ask
    autoCapture: true

With autoCapture: true, when you share a credential in chat (e.g. "my npm token is npm_…"), the assistant offers to store it; on your consent it calls vault_add immediately. With autoCapture off, credentials are only saved when you explicitly ask. The Settings UI shows the current mode (read-only / ask-before-write / automatic read-write) with a dropdown to switch it, an auto-capture toggle (detect credentials shared in chat → offer to save), a kind filter, a health & rotation summary, a trash view, and masked secret fields with a Show/Hide toggle.

The vault is created automatically on first tool use; every launch re-unlocks with the master password. Forgetting the master password = permanent data loss (no backdoor — by design).

Development

Clone and develop locally:

git clone git@github.com:Ox0400/dsh-vault.git
cd dsh-vault
pnpm install    # installs devDependencies (typescript/tsdown/vitest, …)
pnpm build      # builds host lib/*.js and the browser bundle lib/client.js
pnpm test       # runs the 506 vitest tests

Tests need harness peer packages such as dsh-llm/dsh-system-prompt; inside the harness monorepo these resolve via workspace links.

The brand marks in the credential list are 68 SVG paths inlined into the browser bundle — no runtime dependency and no network call. They are generated, and the generator is committed:

npm i --no-save simple-icons@16      # 15 MB, dev-only: never a dependency of this package
pnpm gen:icons                       # refreshes src/client/site-icons.ts
pnpm gen:icons -- --check            # exits 1 when the table is stale

Only the glyph table is rewritten; the host→brand map (gist.github.com, console.cloud.google.com) is curated knowledge and is preserved. Brands that simple-icons has since removed (amazonaws, slack, linkedin, …) are kept and reported rather than dropped.

Common commands:

pnpm test          # unit + integration tests (vitest, 506)
pnpm typecheck     # tsc -p tsconfig.json --noEmit
pnpm build         # = build:host (tsc) + build:client (tsdown)
npm pack           # optional: tarball for `dsh plugin add ./dsh-vault-0.1.1.tgz`

All 506 tests pass (crypto / TOTP / password generation / store CRUD / gateway / integration).

Browser checks run against a real dsh web instead of vitest, and every one of them refuses to operate on the default vault:

node tests/e2e/theme-check.mjs      # dual-theme tokens, ring track, attach row
node tests/e2e/polish-check.mjs     # empty-state copy, relative-age hover hints
node tests/e2e/contrast-audit.mjs   # WCAG sweep over all eight tabs, both themes

See tests/e2e/README.md for the safety rules and for the two traps that make a contrast audit lie (serialised color(srgb …) values, and opacity counting as part of the colour).

Keeping credentials out of public content

Everything in this repository is public — the npm tarball, the GitHub releases, the issue and discussion posts. Before publishing, pnpm scan:secrets checks the working tree, the tracked files and the commit messages for anything that looks like a credential, and pnpm scan:public additionally checks every release and comment already posted. The local half also runs in pnpm test, so a committed secret fails CI rather than shipping.

Theming

The UI reads the host's design tokens instead of hard-coded colours. A local semantic layer maps onto the real --dsw-alias-* namespace, with literal fallbacks so the page still renders outside DeepSeek Harness:

--v-text: var(--dsw-alias-label-primary, #1f2328);
--v-border: var(--dsw-alias-border-l2, #d9d9d9);
--v-success-text: color-mix(in srgb, var(--v-success) 55%, var(--v-text));

Because the aliases flip with body[data-ds-dark-theme], light and dark follow the host automatically — there is no second stylesheet and no theme prop.

Two rules the layer exists to enforce:

• Never use state-*-primary as body text. Those tokens are tuned for fills and icons: on white they measure 2.28:1 (success) and 2.15:1 (warn), far below WCAG AA. The --v-*-text variants mix them towards the theme's own text colour, so one declaration darkens on light and lightens on dark (light 5.8/5.6/7.5:1, dark 12+/11+/6.5:1).
• Never dim text with opacity. opacity: .8 turns a 5.8:1 colour into 3.9:1. Express "secondary" with a token (--v-text-2), not with transparency.

tests/e2e/contrast-audit.mjs verifies both across every tab in both themes.

Packaging & Publishing

This package is a standard npm bundle:

• dsh.bundle.patch → cordis.patch.yml (the layer applied automatically when a profile lists this bundle)
• dsh.client → browser-side declaration (exports["./client"] points at lib/client.js)
• prepare script → self-contained build on git install (tsc host + tsdown client)
• No runtime dependencies: what the host provides arrives through peerDependencies, so there are no duplicate instances. playwright-core — needed only by browser login sessions, and lazily required — is an optional peer, so a normal install does not download it (~13 MB). Install it into your profile when you want those tools: cd ~/.dsh/profiles/web && npm i playwright-core

Distribution options:

npm pack                  # tarball → dsh plugin add ./dsh-vault-0.1.1.tgz
npm publish --access public   # registry → dsh plugin add dsh-vault

Security Boundaries & Known Limitations

What this protects

• A vault file that leaves the machine — a backup, a synced folder, a stolen disk. Entries are AES-256-GCM encrypted under a key derived from the master password with scrypt (N=32768, r=8, p=1, persisted in the document and raisable later; old documents stay decryptable).
• Other users on the same machine — the vault and every file the CLI writes are 0600.
• Secrets reaching the model's context by accident — vault_search / vault_update never return passwords, keys or tokens, and the CLI exists so a script can read a secret without it passing through a conversation.
• A password embedded in config, when you use masterPasswordEnv instead of masterPassword (see the warning above).

What this does not protect

• Another plugin in the same host process. dsh-vault is itself a plugin: it runs in-process with the harness and decrypted entries live in that process's memory. readonly / ask / auto constrain the model's tool calls — they do not isolate plugins from one another. The harness states the same limit for its own credential store: agent tool processes run as your OS user, so it "cannot isolate secrets from the agent" (@deepseek-ai/dsh-credentials-local). Only running plugins out-of-process would change this, and no plugin can enforce that by itself.
• A compromised machine or user account — a keylogger, a debugger attached to the harness process, or anything else running as you.
• A master password you typed into a file, a screenshot or a shell history. Hence masterPasswordEnv.
• What the model does with a value you let it read. vault_get returns it into that tool call's result, which is model context; vault_search/vault_update never expose one.

Reducing the exposure

lockTimeoutSeconds auto-locks an idle vault and vault_lock locks it on demand; both wipe the in-memory key. A master key held by the OS keychain (macOS Keychain / Windows Credential Manager / libsecret) would take the plaintext password out of config and environment files — the exposure that survives a disk copy — but it would not create an in-process boundary, because a plugin running as you can ask the keychain for the same item. The DSH project lists an OS-keychain credentials provider as deferred work.

Known limitation: this plugin targets single-machine / personal deployments; team-shared vaults are out of scope.

Listed in

• — official curated directory (Security & Safety section)
• awesome-deepseek-harness (Dominic789654) — community directory (Security section)

Submissions pending maintainer review: · 0xsline/awesome-deepseek-harness #563 · dsh-handbook #65