dsh-plugin-uw

Union Workspaces plugin for DSH — Merge multiple directories into one session.

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The problem it solves

Full-stack development often means your code lives across several repos — frontend, backend, and a shared types or protocols package. To make a single cross-stack change, the AI needs to see and edit all of them at once.

Mount just one directory and the AI is blind to the others — the task simply fails. Mount a huge directory instead (your whole home, say) and you pay for it in context explosion: tool scans and file searches fan out across countless irrelevant files, burning tokens, degrading answer quality, and handing over far more directory access than you meant to.

Union Workspaces lets you merge exactly the directories you need into a single session. The AI reaches all of them at once, while the scope stays tight — it sees only what you picked, nothing outside it.

Introduction

dsh-plugin-uw (Union Workspaces) lets you merge multiple directories into one session in the DSH Web GUI. A primary directory plus one or more member directories form a union workspace, giving the AI agent simultaneous access to all member directories.

Screenshots

Session file browser	Settings page

Features

• Union workspaces — Group two or more directories into one session so the agent can access all of them at once.

• Two permission presets:

  Preset	Description
  workspace-write (default)	Read/write/delete/move all member directories (via uw_write/uw_edit/uw_delete/uw_move tools)
  danger-full-access	Read/write everywhere (unrestricted)

• Sidebar integration — Click the ⛓ icon in the sidebar footer to open the management panel.

• Management panel — Right-side panel with two tabs:

  • Workspaces: create, rename, delete unions and manage members.
  • Files: browse member directories in a tree view (lazy-loaded, recursive expansion).

• Quick upgrade — Upgrade an existing session via the /uw command or the header button.

• Persistent storage — Union definitions survive restart (~/.dsh/union-workspaces.json).

• Auto-match — Sessions opened from the sidebar are auto-matched to a union by workspace title.

• Member directory tools — The plugin registers uw_read, uw_write, uw_edit, uw_delete, and uw_move tools for reading, writing, deleting, and moving files in member directories, bypassing the sandbox single-root restriction. All member directories are readable, writable, deletable, and movable.

• @mention — Type @ in the chat input to search files from all member directories, making it easy to reference files across the union.

Installation

Via DSH plugin command

# Install from GitHub
dsh plugin add github:lcgash/dsh-plugin-uw

# Or specify a profile (replace <name> with your profile name)
dsh plugin --profile <name> add github:lcgash/dsh-plugin-uw

From npm

# Install globally
npm install -g dsh-union-workspace

# Or install into a DSH profile (replace <name> with your profile name)
dsh plugin --profile <name> add dsh-union-workspace

From source

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/lcgash/dsh-plugin-uw.git
cd dsh-plugin-uw

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

# Install into a DSH profile (replace <name> with your profile name)
dsh plugin --profile <name> add link:$(pwd)

After installation, your cordis.patch.yml should include the plugin row:

- insert:
    - id: union-workspace
      name: 'dsh-union-workspace'

Usage

1. Click the ⛓ icon in the sidebar footer, or type /uw.
2. Choose a creation mode:
   • Quick mode: pick directories, name auto-generated.
   • Custom mode: set a name, choose members, select a permission preset.
3. After creation, the workspace appears in the sidebar.
4. Click the workspace in the sidebar to open a new session — it will be auto-marked as a union.
5. Click the ⛓ button in the session header to expand the member directory file browser.
6. The AI agent can use the uw_read, uw_write, uw_edit, uw_delete, and uw_move tools to read, write, delete, and move files in member directories directly (the standard read/write/edit tools are restricted to the primary workspace root by the sandbox).

Development

# Build
npm run build

# Type-check
npm run typecheck

Architecture

• Host half (src/index.ts) — runs in the DSH Node.js process, owns the union store (~/.dsh/union-workspaces.json), serves /api/dsh-union-workspace/* routes, and applies permission presets on session start.
• Client half (src/client/index.ts) — runs in the web GUI, registers locale dictionaries, settings section, conversation header badge/buttons, the /uw command, and mounts the overlay dialog and files panel via DOM injection.
• Routes (src/routes.ts) — REST API endpoints for listing, syncing, marking, and browsing union workspaces.
• Tools (src/tools.ts) — Registers the uw_read, uw_write, uw_edit, uw_delete, and uw_move model tools for reading, writing, deleting, and moving member directory files, bypassing the sandbox single-root restriction.
• Store (src/store.ts) — persistent file-based store with sanitization and migration support.

License

Apache-2.0