dsh-anchored-standard-windows

August 15, 2026 · View on GitHub

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Progressive-Disclosure Agent Preset for Windows DeepSeek Harness — Zero initial tool bloat, full Standard power on demand.

dsh-anchored-standard-windows is a modular User Agent preset designed for DeepSeek Harness on Windows. It eliminates initial context pollution by introducing a multi-tier progressive tool loading mechanism—combining the lightweight speed of Minimal with the rich capabilities of Standard.

Highlights & The Progressive Solution

  • The Problem with Stock Standard: The official Standard preset injects full tool schemas, skill registries, and system prompt digests starting from Turn 1. This burns substantial context tokens, introduces latency, and increases model hallucination risk on simple tasks.
  • The Problem with Stock Minimal: Minimal is fast and clean, but cannot access advanced tools (PowerShell, workflow automation, web fetchers, subagents, or domain skills) when tasks scale in complexity.
  • The Anchored Solution: Progressive Disclosure. Your model starts lean and fast, discovers tools dynamically via bounded search, and pulls heavy capabilities into context only when needed.

How It Works: 3-Tier Progressive Architecture

[ Turn 1: Bootstrap ] ──────────► [ Turn 2+: Resident Core ] ───────► [ On Demand: Dynamic Unlock ]
  • bash                            • bash, str_replace_editor          • PowerShell (pwsh)
  • str_replace_editor              • dev_tool_search                   • Web & Network Tools
  (Zero skill catalog bloat)        • skill_search / skill_load         • Subagents & Workflows
                                                                        • Specific SKILL.md specs
  1. Bootstrap Phase (Turn 1)
    Only bash and str_replace_editor are exposed. No automatic skill catalogs and no bulky instruction dumps. Immediate response with minimal token consumption.
  2. Resident Discovery Core (Turn 2+)
    Promotes the active set to include lightweight discovery tools: dev_tool_search, skill_search, and skill_load.
  3. On-Demand Dynamic Promotion
    When the agent determines it needs specialized tools (e.g. pwsh, web tools, or specific domain skills), it queries dev_tool_search or skill_load. Only the requested schemas are injected into the active scope.
  4. Compaction & Resume Resilient
    After session compaction, the context cleanly resets to the lean resident set to prevent permanent bloat, while durable session events preserve unlocked tools across resumes.

Relationship with dsh-subprocess-win32

This repository is a preset specification package, not a Cordis runtime plugin:

RepositoryRole in DSHWhat It ProvidesInstallation Guide
dsh-subprocess-win32Cordis Runtime Pluginsubprocess-win32 runtime, process adapter, and lifecycle installer for both presetsInstall this first on Windows. Its manager configures, installs, and updates presets automatically.
dsh-anchored-standard-windows (This repo)Agent Preset Packageagent.cordis.yml, phase-gating modules, and preset unit testsOptional. Needed only when inspecting, customizing, or testing Anchored independently.

Installation

Install dsh-subprocess-win32 first. Its lifecycle manager copies and renders this preset into the DSH user preset directory, substitutes the actual Git Bash path, and configures the shared Skill roots:

$setup = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\DeepSeekHarness\setup\dsh-subprocess-win32.ps1"
& $setup -Action setup -PackageSource C:\src\dsh-subprocess-win32

Start a new empty session and choose Anchored Standard (Windows). Do not switch the Agent preset in an existing session; the composition is fixed at session creation.

Standalone preset copy

If you already have the Windows runtime and want to copy only this preset, copy preset\anchored-standard-windows to:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\DeepSeekHarness\home\.agent-presets\anchored-standard-windows

Before starting DSH, replace these two placeholders in agent.cordis.yml:

  • __GIT_BASH__ with the forward-slash form of your Git Bash executable, for example C:/Program Files/Git/bin/bash.exe.
  • __CODEX_SKILL_DIRS__ with a YAML list of additional read-only Skill roots. The DSH default roots still apply; the managed installer adds the user's .codex\skills directory when it exists.

The standalone copy must be paired with dsh-subprocess-win32 on Windows. Do not mount the stock dsh-tool-skill catalog row in the same composition, or the large automatic Skill catalog will return to the first request.

Skills and MCP

Skills are discovered progressively. skill_search returns bounded summaries; skill_load loads one exact SKILL.md body for the next request. Project .agents\skills and DSH default roots remain read-only. Codex Skills are not copied or modified. MCP Tools can be shared only after converting their server configuration to DSH's MCP client format; Resources and Prompts are not assumed compatible.

Tool-search behavior

The discovery implementation resolves schemas in the calling Agent scope. This is important for tools such as pwsh; resolving a process-global catalog can make a valid Standard tool appear to be missing. The implementation follows the fix described in upstream issue #24.

Example flow:

skill_search("pdf")
skill_load("pdf")
dev_tool_search("PowerShell")
pwsh(...)

The names above are illustrative; always use the exact names returned by the discovery tool.

Update, rollback, and removal

This repository has no install-time lifecycle script. Update it by checking out a new commit, running the preset tests, and then re-rendering the preset through the dsh-subprocess-win32 manager. Do not overwrite a managed preset by hand: the manager detects modified files and refuses to destroy them silently.

For the managed installation, preview and execute removal with:

& $setup -Action uninstall -DryRun
& $setup -Action uninstall

That operation removes the DSH runtime, this preset, backups, and the dedicated DSH root only. It preserves project files, Codex plugins, Codex Skills, and the original Codex MCP configuration. Export modified presets first if you need to keep local changes.

Limitations

  • Experimental community preset; no official DeepSeek endorsement.
  • Requires a DSH host whose Agent-plane hooks and event types match the tested 0.1.0-rc.6 composition.
  • dsh-subprocess-win32 0.3.0 can encounter Windows workspace-write ACL failures (0xC0000142) in Git/MSYS Bash. Full-access validation passed, but the package never silently bypasses DSH approval or selects danger-full-access.
  • The Windows fallback shell is not a Linux sandbox. Treat command output as untrusted and keep approvals enabled.

Tests

npm test

The tests cover bootstrap and promotion tool schemas, suppressed context, compaction epochs, Skill discovery/loading, and the Windows Bash adapter. They are not a model-quality benchmark.

References and acknowledgements

This preset is adapted from the ideas and public tests in:

  • DeepSeek Harness, official Agent presets, Skills, and Cordis composition.
  • xiaobright/dsh-anchored-standard at commit f57a1bde2dbaba3039bdae8631f78a0cb3ae3ebe (MIT), the original community two-phase preset.
  • sjh9714/dsh-win32 at commit f8a68a9836b84fdfec5c1f36ab60cea9923c689f (MIT), the Windows subprocess direction used by the companion runtime.
  • Issue #24, documenting current-Agent-scope tool schema lookup.

Thanks to the upstream maintainers and community testers for the runtime seams, trajectory experiments, and regression reports. This repository is an independent Windows adaptation and is not affiliated with DeepSeek or OpenAI.