The ecosystem philosophy of DeepSeek Harness is “everything is a plugin.” In local development or high-frequency usage scenarios, single-step cost can rise exponentially as context accumulates. Existing cost plugins mostly display the amount already spent, but what influences decisions is the upcoming cost. The dsh-costcast plugin provides a persistent readout above the input box, showing the estimated cost for the next step and the current round.
This is a model inference plugin maintained by manhkhiemhoang2-bit. It uses a persistent readout bar to visualize how context becomes more expensive, helping users start a new session in time when context usage exceeds 70%.
Core Features¶
- Persistent Readout Bar: Displays context size and the cost range for the “next step” and “current round” above the input box.
- Cost Trend: Shows the per-step cost trend (bar chart), making the increase in context cost visible.
- Context Alert: Prompts you to start a new session when context usage exceeds 70%.
- Expanded Panel: Click the readout bar to expand upward and view the session cumulative amount, billing bucket composition, and per-step cost curve.
- Zero Extra Permissions: Does not read session files, does not poll, and does not make network requests.
Installation and Enablement¶
Before installation, make sure the DeepSeek Harness desktop kernel is 0.2.0-rc.2 or later.
After installation, restart the app; the client-side component loads on startup.
The installation command is as follows (please replace the path):
powershell
& "$env:APPDATA\DSH Desktop\host-commands\desktop\generations\<最新一代>\bin\dsh.cmd" `n plugin --profile desktop add "C:\path\to\dsh-costcast"
Uninstall command:
& $dsh plugin --profile desktop remove dsh-costcast
Typical Usage¶
Readout bar example:
Context 562K │ Next step ¥0.032–0.036 │ Current round ¥0.19–0.54
Click the readout bar to expand upward and view:
1. Session cumulative amount
2. Amounts for the cached read, output, and uncached buckets
3. Per-step cost trend
Known Limitations and Notes¶
- Hard-coded Model: The model name is currently hard-coded as
deepseek-flash; if you use another model, modify theMODELconstant insrc/component.js. - Holiday Handling: Peak and off-peak are determined only by weekends and time slots; no statutory holiday logic is built in.
- Data Reset: The per-step cost trend starts accumulating from the time the plugin is installed and resets to zero after the app is restarted.
- Language and Permissions: The UI text only supports Chinese and is not integrated with a locale service; it does not read session files, does not poll, and does not make network requests, requesting zero extra permissions.
- Time-Zone Dependency: Peak and off-peak determination depends on converting the running machine’s clock to Beijing time; an incorrect machine time zone can affect price tier determination.
Summary¶
By focusing on the marginal cost of the “next step” and the “current round,” the plugin helps users adjust their strategy promptly when the conversation becomes more expensive.
- Directory Page: https://www.skillhub.cn/plugins/manhkhiemhoang2-bit/dsh-costcast
- Source Code: https://github.com/manhkhiemhoang2-bit/dsh-costcast
