dsh-better-prompt: A DSH Plugin for Rewriting Drafts into High-Quality Prompts

Introduction¶

In DeepSeek Harness (DSH), the quality of a prompt directly determines agent performance. When dealing with rough drafts or unclear requirements, manual refinement is often inefficient. The dsh-better-prompt plugin solves this problem: it uses an LLM to rewrite the draft in the input box into a more standardized prompt and writes it back to the input box for confirmation. The optimization direction is not rigidly fixed; instead, it is based on an editable Skill document, making it both flexible and controllable.

Installation and Activation¶

Use the provided installation command to add the plugin.

dsh plugin --profile web add git+https://github.com/Areium/dsh-better-prompt.git

After installation, you need to restart the dsh web process (dsh web or dsh --profile web) to load the plugin. The browser plugin side supports HMR; after modifying front-end code, refresh the page for changes to take effect.

Core Features¶

The plugin mainly provides the following features:

Optimization button: Adds a ✨ Optimize button to the input box toolbar (left of the send button).
Intelligent judgment: After clicking, the plugin first determines whether the draft lacks key information.
- If key information is missing, it triggers a native dsh question (ask_user_question), provides options or allows manual input, and automatically continues generation after the answer.
- If the information is sufficient, it directly optimizes and rewrites the draft without interrupting the user.
Undo mechanism: After the optimized content is written back to the input box, a ↩ Undo button appears, allowing you to restore the original pre-optimization content with one click.
Error handling: If an error occurs, the input box displays a ! marker; hover over it to view error details.
Settings page: In DSH settings, go to the “Prompt Optimization” page to view and edit the Skill document for optimization directions. It supports save, cancel, and reset to default, with a secondary confirmation for unsaved changes.

Usage¶

The usage flow is very intuitive and consists of the following steps:

Enter a piece of content in the input box (supports any language and rough drafts).
Click ✨ Optimize.
- Case A (missing information): The input area switches to the native dsh question interface (each question has options and also allows manual input, up to clarifyMaxQuestions questions); after the user answers, generation automatically continues.
- Case B (sufficient information): It directly generates the optimized prompt.
The input box content is replaced with the optimization result. If unsatisfied, click ↩ Undo to restore the original text, or edit manually.
After confirming, click send.

Edit Optimization Direction (Skill)¶

The optimization direction is not hard-coded; it comes from a Skill document (SKILL.md).

Default Location¶

On first load, this file is automatically generated at ~/.dsh/skills/better-prompt/SKILL.md.

Editing Methods¶

There are two main ways to modify the optimization logic:

Settings page (recommended):
Go to DSH settings -> Prompt Optimization. The current file path and status are displayed here. After modifying, click Save; it will take effect immediately the next time you click ✨ Optimize, without restart.
Direct file editing:
The file is located at ~/.dsh/skills/better-prompt/SKILL.md. The file contains frontmatter (for identification) and the body (defines optimization principles, such as role, context, constraints, output format, etc.).

Fault Tolerance¶

If the file is deleted, the plugin will automatically generate the bundled default version on next read.
If the document is empty, it likewise falls back to the default direction and will not cause a crash.

Configuration¶

The plugin supports customization via the Profile configuration file. The default configuration is located at ~/.dsh/profiles/web/cordis.patch.yml and must be modified by overriding the entire config line.

Field	Default	Description
`skillDir`	`$DSH_HOME/skills/better-prompt`	Skill directory for optimization direction (contains SKILL.md)
`timeoutMs`	`120000`	Timeout for a single optimization call (milliseconds)
`maxInputChars`	`20000`	Maximum character count for input draft
`maxTokens`	`8192`	Token limit for optimization output
`clarifyMaxQuestions`	`3`	Maximum number of questions asked in a single clarification round (1–10)
`askTimeoutMs`	`300000`	Timeout for waiting for the user to answer native questions (milliseconds)

Development and Architecture¶

The plugin uses a modular design, with no build step, pure ESM.

Host side (lib/index.js): Handles webServer routes, document read/write, LLM calls, and optimization logic decisions.
Client side (lib/client.js): Responsible for browser-side UI, including injection of input row buttons and settings page slots.
Skill logic (lib/skill.js): Provides pure function support for building system prompts, parsing frontmatter, and sanitizing results.

During development, after modifying lib/client.js, refresh the browser (client-modules are cached by content hash); modifying lib/index.js requires restarting dsh web.

Conclusion¶

dsh-better-prompt is a lightweight and practical DSH plugin. It makes the optimization logic transparent and customizable through a Skill document, helping developers quickly turn vague drafts into high-quality prompts. For more details and source code, please visit the GitHub repository.