dsh-thinking-effort

August 30, 2026 · View on GitHub

A DSH (DeepSeek Harness) plugin that adds configurable reasoning effort levels to hand-declared llm-pi-ai models and sets a default reasoning effort for subagents.

Compatibility note: DSH 0.1.2-alpha.1 and later accept language-pack locale IDs through LocaleRuntime. This plugin registers ja and ko dynamically, so no DSH core fork is required. Older DSH builds that only expose built-in locale IDs support zh and en only.

Why use it?

The llm-pi-ai adapter supports hand-declared third-party models, but those entries often do not declare reasoningEfforts. As a result, Composer does not show a reasoning effort selector, and gateway-specific values such as ultra cannot be mapped to DSH's standard levels.

This plugin provides the configuration layer needed to:

Add default off, high, and max options to models without a declaration;
Configure reasoning levels per model from the DSH settings page;
Map a DSH level such as high to a gateway value such as ultra;
Set a default reasoning effort for subagents while preserving explicit request values;
Keep existing user-defined model declarations unchanged.

The plugin is usually unnecessary when you only use built-in DSH models and their reasoning controls already work.

Identifiers

These identifiers have different responsibilities:

Identifier	Purpose
`@hytime/dsh-thinking-effort`	npm package, browser bundle path, loader ID, and host/client runtime ID
`thinking-effort`	Cordis composition entry ID and settings Slot ID

Features

Feature	Description
Default levels	Adds `off`, `high`, and `max` without overwriting custom values
Per-model editor	Select levels and configure their gateway values from Settings
Gateway mapping	Send `ultra` when the user selects DSH `high`
Subagent default	Apply a default effort only when a subagent request has no explicit value
Multilingual settings	Includes Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean dictionaries; Japanese/Korean switching uses DSH language-pack support
Version watermark	Show the installed plugin version in the bottom-right corner

Install, upgrade, and remove

Use the official DSH CLI to manage the plugin profile. A plain npm install does not register a DSH profile bundle.

# Install the latest version
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add @hytime/dsh-thinking-effort

# Install a specific version
dsh plugin --profile <profile> add @hytime/dsh-thinking-effort@0.1.10

# Upgrade
dsh plugin --profile <profile> update @hytime/dsh-thinking-effort

# Remove
dsh plugin --profile <profile> remove @hytime/dsh-thinking-effort
rm -f "${DSH_HOME:-$HOME/.dsh}/thinking-effort-loaded.json"

See INSTALL.md for profile discovery, migration, validation, and troubleshooting.

Quick use

Open DSH Settings → Model capabilities and effort.
Use the Page language selector at the top to choose 中文, English, 日本語, or 한국어. DSH uses the persisted locale first, then the browser language, then English as the fallback.
Choose a subagent default from the Subagent default effort card, then click Apply.
Use Quick settings to apply the official DeepSeek or generic preset to all models, or expand a provider and model for detailed configuration.
Use the search field to filter models by name or ID. Model rows show text/image input capability badges, a context-window badge when declared, and a settings button for per-model editing.
Select a reasoning level and enter the exact gateway value. For example:

DSH level Gateway value
off Leave empty to omit the parameter
high ultra
max max
Return to Composer and select the model to use its reasoning selector.

DSH level	Gateway value
`off`	Leave empty to omit the parameter
`high`	`ultra`
`max`	`max`

The settings page shows the installed version as a small watermark such as v0.1.10 in the bottom-right corner.

Settings page layout

The page header contains the language selector. Below it, the Subagent default effort card controls the default for requests without an explicit effort. The Quick settings controls apply a preset across models. Provider sections can be expanded or collapsed; each model row exposes input capabilities, context length, and a settings control for reasoning levels and gateway values.

English Model capabilities and effort settings page

How it works

Host: Scans llm-pi-ai models and modelOverrides on startup and settings changes, adding defaults only where reasoningEfforts is missing.
Client: Registers a settings page through the DSH Settings Remote (ctx.remote.settings) and the official DSH locale service. Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean dictionaries are maintained separately in src/locales/zh.json, src/locales/en.json, src/locales/ja.json, and src/locales/ko.json, then generated into the client bundle before publishing.
Subagents: Stores the default in the llm-pi-ai user layer as subagentEffort. The agent/request waterfall only fills requests that do not already specify an effort.
No configured default: The plugin does not automatically choose off, high, or max; the request omits reasoning and the gateway decides its own default behavior.

Limitations

llm-pi-ai exposes seven standard levels: off, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, and max.
Non-off levels require a gateway value. An empty off value means that the parameter is omitted.
The selected subagent level must be supported by the target model, or the gateway may return UNSUPPORTED_REASONING_EFFORT.
off and an unset effort may both omit reasoning; whether this disables thinking depends on the gateway protocol.
Host changes require a DSH restart. Settings and locale changes are applied in the browser, with a refresh available when needed.

License

MIT