dsh-midtalk

Mid-task interjection + optional interruption + a structured recovery card for DeepSeek Harness (DSH). Two slash commands that separate "I want to say something" from "stop this step right now" — without losing the scene when it stops.

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• Host-side Cordis plugin only. No client code, no build step, no third-party runtime dependencies; there is one peer dependency on the host package @deepseek-ai/dsh-llm — only index.js uses it to build the injected message; lib/core.js and the self-test do not need it.
• No model calls, no network, no telemetry. It only writes its own boot marker, wake log and recovery cards under $DSH_HOME/midtalk/.
• Not distributed via npm: package.json sets "private": true; you install it by placing the directory into a profile (§3).

1. The problem

While a task is running you have two extremes:

This plugin splits those into two commands and lets one Enter key decide. It never upgrades /say into /cut on its own (a deliberate choice — see §6).

2. Commands

Both commands append "the last tool call started X seconds ago (estimate)" to their reply — information only, semantics unchanged.

3. Install

The package declares dsh.bundle.patch in package.json (pointing at cordis.patch.yml in the repo root), so DSH's own plugin command can install it into a profile as a layer; placing it by hand works too (Option B).

Both files are required: index.js and lib/core.js — index.js:44 imports ./lib/core.js relatively, so a missing file means a failed mount.

Option A: dsh plugin add (recommended, restart required)

dsh plugin --profile web add "github:blueberrymaid/dsh-midtalk"

A thin pnpm forwarder (@deepseek-ai/dsh/lib/plugin-Ddi42qoW.js:7-17): it runs pnpm add <spec> inside the profile directory, then reconciles the profile's layer list against the installed state — a dependency that resolves to a package declaring dsh.bundle joins dsh.profile.bundles; anything else is installed as a plain dependency with a one-line warning (:25-33, :46-78). So dsh.bundle.patch is not decoration: without it the plugin installs but never becomes a profile layer. Restart dsh web to activate.

Option B: place it in a profile + roster (no pnpm / no network)

Step 1 — put it into the module directory

# from GitHub
git clone https://github.com/blueberrymaid/dsh-midtalk.git dsh-midtalk

Copy the whole directory (at least index.js + lib/core.js) into:

$DSH_HOME/profiles/<profile>/node_modules/dsh-midtalk/

$DSH_HOME defaults to .dsh under your home directory; on Windows the real path looks like C:\Users\<you>\.dsh\profiles\web\node_modules\dsh-midtalk\ (the profile name is usually web; check the directories under $DSH_HOME\profiles\).

Step 2 — add it to the roster

Add one insert: entry to $DSH_HOME/profiles/<profile>/cordis.patch.yml:

- insert:
  - id: midtalk
    name: dsh-midtalk

Back that file up first (e.g. Copy-Item cordis.patch.yml cordis.patch.yml.bak). It is read once at startup, all-or-nothing: one bad line stops dsh web from booting.

name also accepts a relative or absolute path (e.g. ./node_modules/dsh-midtalk/index.js).

Step 3 — restart dsh web, then verify below.

How to verify it is loaded

Read $DSH_HOME/midtalk/boot.json — the plugin writes it in apply() and again once command registration finishes (index.js:210, index.js:235):

{ "plugin": "dsh-midtalk", "version": "1.0.0", "stage": "registered", "commands": ["say", "cut"], "pid": 18092 }

• version must match what you installed; stage reaches registered only after the commands are registered.
• pid is the process that wrote the file. If the version does not change, or stage stays at apply, the live process is not running the code you just copied — the ESM module cache can serve the old version; a restart is the reliable cure.
• Typing / in the composer should list /say and /cut.

Appendix: no-restart path (dsh-my-guardian staging, as tested locally)

Machines with dsh-my-guardian installed can hot-mount through its staging file, without restarting. This is the flow the author tested locally — not a general requirement:

1. copy the package to $DSH_HOME/profiles/web/node_modules/dsh-midtalk/;
2. write one line into $DSH_HOME/profiles/web/cordis.staged.json:

   [{"id":"midtalk","name":"./node_modules/dsh-midtalk/index.js?v=1"}]
   

3. within seconds guardian tries to mount it: on success the staging file is emptied and the entry appears in promoted inside $DSH_HOME/guardian/state.json; on failure the line stays and lastError explains why (3 consecutive failures freeze it).

Two traps we hit for real:

• A new module name needs a new id. Keeping the old id with a new name is silently ignored (the staging line just sits there).
• Re-mounting the same path does not reload code. The ESM module cache keeps the old code alive (measured: dsh-progress-report stayed inert across three installs). The only lever is a query string on the module name (?v=2) — then confirm with version in boot.json.

Uninstall / rollback

1. remove that insert: entry from cordis.patch.yml (with guardian you can instead POST http://127.0.0.1:3080/guardian/api/remove with {"id":"<staged id>"} for a hot unmount);
2. delete $DSH_HOME/profiles/<profile>/node_modules/dsh-midtalk/;
3. optionally delete $DSH_HOME/midtalk/ (boot marker, wake log, recovery cards — plain text, safe to keep).

4. Recovery card

Before interrupting, /cut writes the scene to $DSH_HOME/midtalk/last-interrupt-<sessionId>.json — one card per session, never overwritten across sessions; written atomically (temp file + same-directory rename, so a half-written JSON is impossible).

Fields: at, reason, plugin, version, agentStatus, sessionId, interruptedAt{turn,step,attemptId}, userText, pendingToolCalls[]{at,attemptId,callId,name,arguments} (arguments parsed to objects), lastReasoning, lastText, usage, lastFinish, diagnostics (frame-type counters, parse errors) and frames (last 12 stream frames).

Recovery protocol (after an interruption; relies on this card only, no other file):

1. list state first, do not continue working;
2. read the card — especially pendingToolCalls, the tool calls that were in flight at the moment of interruption (name + arguments);
3. decide for each one whether it landed: the card records intent, not an inventory, so check the files/commands it touched yourself (read the file, check exit codes, compare timestamps);
4. hand that assessment (landed / roll back / verify first) to the user for a decision;
5. after their confirmation, redo the interrupted step.

agent.cancel does not undo anything already written.

5. Hard rule line (plugin-only)

Both commands end their injected text with:

〔硬规则 · 收到插话先输出一句正文回复（确认收到 + 回应内容），再决定是否继续调用工具；只发工具调用、或不回话＝违规〕

It is hard-coded in lib/core.js:16 and does not go into the host's per-turn AGENTS.md: this is the plugin's own behavioural constraint and should not pollute global instructions. It comes from a real incident: an interjection was answered with tool calls only, twice. It is a text constraint with no enforcement layer — but it makes "asked and not answered" an explicit violation rather than a style question.

6. What it deliberately does not do

• No background killing: jobs.kill / terminals.kill / subagents.interrupt / goals.disarm are not wired. Killing background work creates half-done state, which contradicts the whole point.
• No automatic threshold upgrade: it will not watch how long the current step ran and silently turn /say into /cut. That would turn your one guarantee ("/say never breaks anything") into a conditional guarantee decided by state you cannot see.
• No hiding of the bracketed text: injected behaviour notes render as a system row (source: {kind:"plugin", form:"notice"}), clearly not your message — but visible. True invisibility needs an unrendered channel; not available.
• No rollback of already-written files (the platform has none).

7. Undocumented internals it depends on

Every row below was checked against the sources; DSH version tested: @deepseek-ai/dsh 0.1.5-rc.3 and @deepseek-ai/dsh-llm 0.1.5-rc.3 (read from version in those packages' package.json:4). Upgrading DSH can change any of them — and when one changes the plugin fails silently (it is dynamically loaded JS, so there is no compile error).

8. Known limits

• /say latency = remaining time of the current step (a 100-second step means 100 seconds of silence; split long work into short steps or use /cut).
• The pending-wake queue caps at 8 and silently drops the oldest: MAX_PENDING_WAKES = 8 (lib/core.js:20). More than 8 queued sends for one agent means the oldest is dropped (index.js:132-143), leaving only a "why":"dropped:queue-full" line in $DSH_HOME/midtalk/wake.log — the user is never told. Normal use (one /cut at a time) cannot reach it; only rapid repeated /cut can.
• The card records tool-call intent, not a "did it land" inventory — that is not structurally available.
• More than 20 tool calls in one step: only the last 20 are kept (lib/core.js:26).
• lastText / lastReasoning are clipped at 2000 chars (lib/core.js:24-25); frames keeps only the last 12 (lib/core.js:21).
• An empty /say (no text) injects an interjection with no content.
• Compatibility was verified only against the version tested (0.1.5-rc.3): 2026-09-25, Windows + node 22. Linux / macOS were not tested (no platform-specific branches in the code, but it has never been run there).

9. Development

dsh-midtalk/
├── index.js                     host half: command registration, cancel, disk writes, event subscriptions
├── lib/core.js                  pure logic: frames→trace, trace→recovery card, injected text (zero deps; the self-test covers only this layer)
├── test/plugin.spec.mjs         self-test (no framework, node built-ins only)
├── .github/workflows/test.yml   CI: ubuntu-latest + windows-latest × node 22
├── .gitignore / .gitattributes
├── cordis.patch.yml            layer patch referenced by dsh.bundle.patch (used by Option A)
├── package.json
├── README.md / README.en.md
└── CHANGELOG.md / LICENSE

node test/plugin.spec.mjs     # dsh-midtalk self-test: 38 passed, 0 failed

The self-test covers lib/core.js only (it imports no DSH package, touches no filesystem and writes nothing under .dsh), so it runs anywhere, on any platform, with no npm install.

10. License

MIT (see LICENSE).