dsh-browser

dsh Browser Control

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Connect DeepSeek Harness to the Chrome or Firefox tabs you are already using. The model can read page content, operate controls, navigate, and manage tabs while preserving your login state, session, and cookies. A side panel or sidebar provides the conversation UI.

dsh is DeepSeek AI's open-source, plugin-based agent harness. This repository provides a companion browser bridge plugin and Chrome/Firefox MV3 extension as one standalone pnpm workspace.

Pages become structured text with a numbered inventory of interactive elements. Tools address elements by number or selector; browser_screenshot captures the controlled tab's viewport after approval. The side panel also accepts PNG, JPEG, WebP, and GIF attachments when the host advertises image support.

[!IMPORTANT] The workspace targets the latest public dsh release, currently pinned to 0.2.1-rc.5. Older DSH releases are not supported.

Quick install

The standard dsh plugin command alone cannot install this project. The integration contains both a dsh bridge plugin and a browser extension. The one-line installer currently sets up the Chrome build.

macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lum1104/dsh-browser/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Windows, in PowerShell:

$s="$env:TEMP\dsh-install.ps1"; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lum1104/dsh-browser/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.ps1 -OutFile $s; powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File $s

When the installer opens chrome://extensions, follow its instructions to load or reload dsh Browser Assistant. If dsh is already running, restart it after installation. See Detailed installation and usage for prerequisites, startup commands, updates, and developer installation.

[!IMPORTANT] The unscoped dsh-browser package on npm belongs to a different project and is not affiliated with this repository. This project is not currently published as an npm package; use the installer above.

Performance

In a paired 60-run end-to-end benchmark on August 18, 2026, both backends completed all 30 assigned runs successfully, while dsh Browser Control required fewer model/tool round trips and finished faster:

Backend	Success	Mean end-to-end latency	Mean browser tool calls
dsh Browser Control	30/30	5.32 s	3.4
Matched Playwright baseline	30/30	6.67 s	4.7

The paired Playwright / extension duration ratio was 1.24 (95% CI 1.16–1.34): Playwright took about 24% longer, or equivalently, dsh Browser Control reduced latency by about 20% and saved 1.35 seconds per task on average. The suite used six browser tasks, five deterministic seeds, the same DSH profile and model (deepseek-v4-flash), and independently validated page state. See the benchmark methodology and reproduction guide.

Core capabilities

Capability	Tool	Notes
Read page	browser_snapshot	Structured text snapshot: title, URL, main text, numbered controls, and masked form fields; delta: true returns only changes, frame reads one iframe, and query locates any element by text/selector/role and returns its selector
Click	browser_click	Click or double-click by index or selector; supports mouse buttons and modifiers
Text	browser_type	React/Vue-compatible input; replace clears the field first, and mode selects caret insertion or per-character key events
Press keys	browser_press	Single keys or chords (modifiers); action: down/up holds a key across calls and repeat repeats it
Scroll	browser_scroll	Scroll the page or selected iframe up, down, to the top, or to the bottom
Clipboard	browser_clipboard	write puts text/HTML on the system clipboard; paste delivers it as a paste event or a real platform shortcut
Files	browser_upload	Attach local files to an input[type=file] (Chrome)
Navigate	browser_navigate / browser_open_tab / browser_back / browser_forward / browser_reload	Navigation inside the controlled tab, or open a URL in a new tab and follow it (active:false keeps the current tab in front)
List tabs	browser_list_tabs	List accessible tabs with stable IDs, titles, URLs, window/index metadata, and active/controlled state
Follow tab	browser_follow_tab	Bind later browser tools to a tab returned by browser_list_tabs; it stays in the background unless activate: true
Close tab	browser_close_tab	Close a tab returned by browser_list_tabs
Read region	browser_get_text	Lazy-loaded or partial page text
Wait for stability	browser_wait	Page-load and render-settle detection
Send images	session.prompt / session.attachment	Host-capability-gated image drafts, image-only prompts, and durable history previews
Quote a selection	side panel composer	Text you highlight in the page appears in the composer and is sent with your next message as fenced, attributed page content

Clicks, text entry, and scrolling run in the selected document, including cross-origin iframes. Chrome uses its debugger for native keyboard events, caret insertion, system paste, and file uploads. Screenshots require an active tab in a focused window; browser_follow_tab { activate: true } brings the controlled page to the front.

Repository layout

packages/browser/bridge-browser/
  cordis.patch.yml
extensions/dsh-browser/
scripts/install.sh
scripts/install.ps1

Why this design

• Your real browser, not a headless copy: the model works in the page you already have open, retaining logins, sessions, and cookies.
• A text-first page interface: numbered controls, stable IDs across snapshots, delta updates, and masked sensitive values make pages operable without screenshots; user-attached chat images use dsh's separate multimodal message path.
• Pointing instead of describing: highlight the passage you mean and the side panel quotes it, so "explain this" needs no page tour. The quote is captured only while a panel is open, and nothing is sent until you send the message.
• A narrow privacy boundary: passwords and payment-card values are always rendered as •••• and never leave the page.
• A guarded bridge: authenticated handshakes protect remote connections, privileged gateway methods reject non-loopback callers, and the extension binds tools to one user-controlled tab.

Detailed installation and usage

Requirements: Node.js >=24, Corepack/pnpm, and Chrome 125+ or Firefox 140+. Windows additionally needs Windows PowerShell 5.1, which ships with Windows, or PowerShell 7+.

Install or update

For a managed installation, run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lum1104/dsh-browser/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

or, on Windows:

$s="$env:TEMP\dsh-install.ps1"; irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lum1104/dsh-browser/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.ps1 -OutFile $s; powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File $s

The installer downloads main, builds and registers the bridge plugin, builds the Chrome extension into ~/.dsh/browser-extension, and opens chrome://extensions. On the first install, load that directory as an unpacked extension; on updates, click Reload. Restart dsh if it is already running.

scripts/install.sh covers macOS and Linux, and scripts/install.ps1 covers Windows; both write the same managed workspace and the same install metadata. The installer copies the extension path to the clipboard when a clipboard tool is available (pbcopy, wl-copy, xclip, xsel, or PowerShell's Set-Clipboard), and prints the path either way. When no Chrome or Chromium install is found, it prints the command that installs one; set DSH_INSTALL_BROWSER=1 to let the installer attempt that install itself.

The Windows command downloads install.ps1 and runs it rather than piping it into Invoke-Expression: the script is UTF-8 with a byte order mark so Windows PowerShell renders its Chinese output, and Invoke-Expression rejects a leading mark. Local checkout paths may contain spaces; the installer registers the bridge through a profile-local directory junction so the package spec never contains the absolute Windows path.

To install the current branch from a source checkout instead:

git clone https://github.com/Lum1104/dsh-browser.git
cd dsh-browser
./scripts/install.sh

On Windows, run .\scripts\install.ps1 from the checkout instead. After pulling or switching revisions, rerun the installer and reload the extension.

Firefox source build

Firefox uses a separate MV3 manifest, event-page background, and sidebar. Build it from a checkout, then open about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox, choose Load Temporary Add-on, and select extensions/dsh-browser/dist-firefox/manifest.json:

pnpm install
pnpm --filter dsh-browser-extension run build:firefox

The bridge address is still auto-discovered. Firefox's moz-extension:// UUID does not authenticate an add-on, so copy the bearer token from ~/.dsh/ext-bridge-token into the extension settings (the dsh startup log reports that file's path). Signed distribution can package the same dist-firefox/ output.

Start and use

Start the managed installation with:

cd ~/.dsh/dsh-browser && pnpm start

From a source checkout, run pnpm start in the repository root. The exact supported public runtime is:

npx @deepseek-ai/[email protected] web

Local Chrome use requires no configuration; Firefox requires the local bridge token described above. Open a page, click the DeepSeek whale icon, and wait for Connected. Existing HTTP(S) tabs are instrumented on the first action. On browser-protected pages and extension stores, the model can read tab metadata and use browser-level HTTP(S) navigation, back, forward, and reload, but it cannot inspect or operate the protected page DOM.

Troubleshooting

Side panel stays "Not connected"

• Make sure dsh web is running locally (default http://127.0.0.1:3080).
• Verify the bridge is loaded: open http://127.0.0.1:3080/ext/bridge-config. It should return JSON such as {"wsUrl":"ws://127.0.0.1:3080/ext/bridge"}. If it returns a web page instead of JSON, the running dsh predates the bridge registration — restart dsh and refresh the page; the extension reconnects on its own.
• Discovery runs once when the panel opens. A filled-in address is tried first; if a loopback address does not answer, the panel makes one automatic pass (last working URL → dsh web defaults → the plugin's fixed beacon ports 43189–43198). When that pass finds nothing the status reads No service found and nothing retries until you reopen the panel or press Detect.
• DSH Desktop assigns a random local Web port on every launch, which is why the bridge plugin also listens on a fixed loopback beacon port. If the panel cannot find it, open Settings → Detect to list every local instance and click the one to use; the address can still be typed by hand. Remote --host deployments need the address and token filled in manually; Firefox always requires the token.

Development

The bridge plugin and Chrome/Firefox extension are both members of this repository's workspace. Run all commands from the repository root. For the first development installation, run pnpm install.

pnpm run build
pnpm run typecheck
pnpm run test
pnpm run check:runtime
pnpm run test:smoke

pnpm --filter @yuxianglin/dsh-bridge-browser run build
pnpm --filter @yuxianglin/dsh-bridge-browser run typecheck
pnpm --filter @yuxianglin/dsh-bridge-browser run test

pnpm --filter dsh-browser-extension run build
pnpm --filter dsh-browser-extension run build:firefox
pnpm --filter dsh-browser-extension run test

Notes:

• The bridge plugin must have a built lib/ before startup because the loader consumes it; both scripts/install.sh and the root pnpm run build build the plugin before the extension.
• The bridge build copies its browser client with Node.js copyFileSync, so the same package script works without a Unix cp executable.
• The dependencies of @deepseek-ai/dsh and the bridge plugin are pinned to the same tested public release line. An upgrade must update the manifests and lockfile together and rerun the root checks.

check:runtime checks the resolved DSH dependencies and lockfile; test:smoke starts the real web host in a temporary DSH home and verifies the bridge and session reads after a restart, without model credentials. CI runs these checks after a clean installation.

After building, run pnpm test:browser with a Playwright Chromium installation, or set CHROMIUM_PATH to a Chromium executable that supports loading unpacked extensions. This starts real DSH and Chromium instances to verify sharing controls, developer-tools consent, input, iframe uploads and targeting, and CSS edits. Site isolation is enabled and verified for cross-site frames; element clicks, input, and scrolling cover same-origin, cross-origin, and nested frames. It needs no model credentials and saves results under .artifacts/browser-smoke/.

If you encounter cache.hydratePrepared is not a function, update the repository, rerun pnpm install --frozen-lockfile and pnpm run build, then restart pnpm start. Session data and the global package cache can be kept.

Security

• The bridge path sits outside the /api trust boundary and performs its own bearer-token authentication.
• Local Chrome extension origins retain zero-configuration loopback access; Firefox origins are per-install UUIDs and must present the bearer token.
• Privileged gateway methods such as settings.*, credentials.*, and host.open* reject non-loopback sources.
• Text snapshots mask password and payment-card values. Screenshots capture visible pixels without field masking and require approval unless unrestricted control is enabled; page sharing set to off blocks screenshots under restricted control. Screenshots and attached chat images use dsh's durable attachment service. Developer tools have a separate high-privilege consent gate.
• When work begins, the assistant binds to the active tab (at prompt submission, or at the first direct browser-tool call). If you switch tabs manually, later browser actions pause and the side panel asks whether the assistant should stay on the original page or follow the current one, and offers "jump back to the assistant page" to move your own tab back to the assistant's page. Choosing the original page permits background operation; apart from that button the extension never silently retargets or changes your visible tab. Closing the controlled tab also pauses tools until you explicitly select the current page.
• Text you highlight is captured only while a side panel is open and page sharing is not off, and never from password or payment-card fields. It stays inside the extension until you send the message, is dropped when you dismiss it or its page navigates or closes, and reaches the model inside the same untrusted-content boundary as page snapshots — including its source title and URL, which the page also controls.
• Page-authored text is wrapped as untrusted input. The default auto mode reads only the controlled tab without an extra prompt; privacy-sensitive users can select ask for per-read confirmation or off to block reads entirely. In ask mode, the read dialog can allow one read or persistently switch back to auto; this can be reversed in Settings. Read page text is sent to the selected model.
• Click, type, keypress, navigation, history, and reload calls fail closed until the user approves them. An origin may be trusted for the current side-panel session (cleared when the last panel closes or the service worker restarts), while permanent trust is managed explicitly in Settings. Explicit cross-origin browser_navigate calls and unknown history destinations always prompt again.
• Allow unrestricted browser control is an explicit global opt-in. It becomes active only after the setting is saved successfully; while enabled, page reads, page actions, and tab list/follow/close operations run without approval prompts. Calls capture their access mode when received, so enabling unrestricted control never retroactively elevates an existing restricted call. Disabling it takes effect immediately, cancels calls that have not dispatched an action, waits for already-dispatched browser operations to settle, and only then saves the restrictive setting. A rapid re-enable remains restricted until that revocation finishes, and concurrent saves persist in request order. Browser-protected DOM content remains inaccessible in either mode.