dsh-image-plugins

Multimodal capability for DeepSeek Harness (dsh) behind a text-only main model (e.g. DeepSeek's official chat route, which cannot carry images). The plugin understands image files and generates images through fully configurable endpoints — bring your own baseUrl / apiKey / model for a vision model and for an image-generation model. Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works; an optional dashscope adapter speaks the Alibaba Model Studio native API.

Everything is optional: a capability is enabled only when its config block is present, so an unconfigured install is inert and safe. No API keys are shipped in the package — each user configures their own.

What it provides

Capability	Kind	Behavior
understand_image	model tool	Reads a workspace image file, sends it to your vision endpoint (chat/completions + base64 image_url), returns the model's text description as the tool result. The description enters the session log, so a text-only main model can reason about the image without ever receiving one.
generate_image	model tool	Generates an image from a prompt via your endpoint, saves it into the workspace, returns the saved path. With the dashscope provider it also accepts an optional reference_image for image editing (I2I).

Auto-understand (V2): implemented but disabled

The plugin contains a dormant agent/pre-step rewrite (config flag autoUnderstand, default off): when enabled, images attached to a chat message are described by the vision model and the message is rewritten to carry that text before it enters the session log, so the main model never receives an image block. The code is unit-tested but was never verified end-to-end in a live session and is not part of the supported surface.

Why it is disabled: attaching an image to a chat message requires the routed model to declare input: [text, image] — the host refuses attachments for text-only models — and for a text-only endpoint (like DeepSeek's) that declaration is a workaround: a claim the endpoint never actually honors, neutralized by the rewrite before the wire. We found that inelegant and disabled the feature. The supported flow is the V1 tools above (image files in the workspace, no declaration needed). A future paste-to-chat iteration would use a lighter paste-to-path client approach instead.

Quick start

1. Install (npm; or see Install for other channels):

   dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-image-plugins
   

2. Configure — override the image-plugins row in your profile's cordis.patch.yml with your own endpoint and key (any OpenAI-compatible provider):

   - id: image-plugins
     name: dsh-image-plugins
     config:
       vision:
         baseUrl: 'https://your-vision-endpoint.example.com/v1'
         apiKey: 'sk-...'
         model: 'your-vision-model'
       image:
         baseUrl: 'https://your-image-endpoint.example.com/v1'
         apiKey: 'sk-...'
         model: 'your-image-model'
         defaultSize: '1024x1024'
   

3. Restart dsh web, then in the workspace:

   • 看图："Look at images/screenshot.png and tell me what it shows."
   • 生图："Generate an image of a red apple on a wooden table."（保存到 generated/）
   • 图生图（需 dashscope provider）："Change the color of images/logo.png to blue."

Install

The plugin is a standard dsh bundle. From npm (recommended):

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-image-plugins

Other channels:

# GitHub (pin a version; the first install needs allowBuilds, see below)
dsh plugin --profile web add github:alanzhao0128/dsh-image-plugins#v0.1.0

# Tarball (npm pack output, send the file)
dsh plugin --profile web add ./dsh-image-plugins-0.1.0.tgz

# Local checkout
dsh plugin --profile web add /path/to/dsh-image-plugins

Then restart dsh web (or the profile's process). For a GitHub install, pnpm ≥ 10 refuses to run the package's build script until you allow it in the profile's pnpm-workspace.yaml:

allowBuilds:
  dsh-image-plugins: true

then re-run the add command. npm and tarball installs ship built artifacts and need no allowance.

The bundle inserts its row without configuration, so after install nothing is enabled until you configure it. The plugin loads fine either way.

Configure

Override the image-plugins row (same id) in your profile's cordis.patch.yml, or pass a --patch overlay:

- id: image-plugins
  name: dsh-image-plugins
  config:
    vision:
      baseUrl: 'https://your-vision-endpoint.example.com/v1'
      apiKey: 'env:VISION_API_KEY'   # literal key or env:NAME
      model: 'your-vision-model'
      timeoutMs: 60000               # optional
      maxImageBytes: 20971520        # optional, bytes
      systemPrompt: ''               # optional, sent before the image
      defaultPrompt: ''              # optional, used when the model gives no prompt
    image:
      provider: 'openai'             # 'openai' (default) or 'dashscope'
      baseUrl: 'https://your-image-endpoint.example.com/v1'
      apiKey: 'env:IMAGE_API_KEY'
      model: 'your-image-model'
      timeoutMs: 120000              # optional
      defaultSize: '1024x1024'       # optional
      outputDir: 'generated'         # optional, workspace-relative

Notes:

• Each block is independent: configure only vision, only image, or both. A partially filled block (e.g. baseUrl without apiKey) fails the load loudly.
• apiKey accepts a literal value or env:VARNAME resolved from the process environment. Keys never enter the session log or tool results.
• The profile patch targets the row by id and replaces its whole config — restate every key you need.
• Endpoints must be OpenAI-compatible: vision = POST {baseUrl}/chat/completions accepting image_url data URLs; image generation = POST {baseUrl}/images/generations returning data[0].b64_json or data[0].url. Anything compatible — OpenAI, 硅基流动, 智谱, 通义兼容模式, Ollama, etc. — works as-is.

DashScope (阿里云百炼)

DashScope's compatible-mode path does not serve images/generations (it 404s), so image generation speaks the native Model Studio API through provider: 'dashscope'. Vision (understand_image) works through the compatible-mode chat/completions path with any VL model. Both share the same API key:

- id: image-plugins
  name: dsh-image-plugins
  config:
    vision:
      baseUrl: 'https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1'
      apiKey: 'sk-...'                # 百炼 API Key
      model: 'qwen3.7-flash'          # any VL model (verified with qwen3.7-flash)
    image:
      provider: 'dashscope'
      baseUrl: 'https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1'  # a /v1 or /compatible-mode/v1 suffix is normalized away
      apiKey: 'sk-...'                # 百炼 API Key
      model: 'qwen-image-3.0-pro'
      defaultSize: '1024x1024'        # converted to the native 1024*1024 form

The image adapter calls POST /api/v1/services/aigc/multimodal-generation/generation (sync), maps output.choices[0].message.content[0].image, and downloads the PNG (URLs expire after 24 h). Works with the qwen-image family, including qwen-image-3.0-pro.

Image editing (I2I) with a reference image

With the dashscope provider, generate_image accepts an optional reference_image path. The reference (PNG/JPEG/WebP/GIF, ≤ 10 MiB, cap configurable via image.maxReferenceBytes) is sent to the model as base64 alongside the prompt:

Change the color of images/logo.png to blue, keep everything else identical.

The model edits the reference image instead of generating from scratch. The openai flavor has no image input and rejects the parameter with a clear error.

Use

Understand an image (V1 tool, recommended)

Put the image somewhere in the workspace, then ask the agent:

Look at images/screenshot.png and tell me what it shows.

The agent calls understand_image with the path, optionally passing a specific question as prompt (e.g. "what is the trend of the third row in this chart?").

Generate an image (V1 tool, recommended)

Generate an image of a red apple on a wooden table.

The agent calls generate_image; the file lands in the workspace under generated/ (or your configured outputDir) and the tool result reports the path.

Distribution

Channel	Install command	Notes
npm	dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-image-plugins	Recommended; no build allowance
GitHub	dsh plugin add github:alanzhao0128/dsh-image-plugins#v0.1.0	Needs allowBuilds once
Tarball	dsh plugin add ./dsh-image-plugins-0.1.0.tgz	From npm pack; safe to delete after install (a later pnpm install in the profile may then need the file back)

How it stays compatible with dsh's architecture

• Tools are registered through the documented ctx.tools seam (@deepseek-ai/dsh-tools defineTool); tool results are durable log entries, which is exactly the channel the "model-visible ⟺ logged" invariant requires.
• The plugin depends only on published @deepseek-ai/dsh-tools and @deepseek-ai/schemastery; no internal modules.

Development

npm install
npm test          # unit tests against mock endpoints + real Cordis mount
npm run build     # tsc -> lib/ (also runs on prepare)

Smoke-verify against a scratch profile (does not touch your real profiles):

DSH_HOME=/tmp/dsh-image-test-home dsh plugin --profile test add /path/to/dsh-image-plugins
DSH_HOME=/tmp/dsh-image-test-home dsh --profile test --dump-config   # shows the layer

Known Limitations and Deferred Work

• Binary writes bypass the fs approval events. The fs seam exposes no binary write today, so generate_image resolves the target through ctx.fs (consistent path rules, session-workspace cwd) but writes the bytes with node:fs. The write therefore does not emit fs/write-intent approval events. Switch to a seam write when the fs service grows one.
• Vision responses are text-only. The plugin returns descriptions as text; it never emits image content blocks, because a text-only route cannot carry them into the next request.
• No inline chat preview yet. Generated images are returned as paths with a generic tool card (the path is clickable to open). An inline preview needs a client-side tool.call.toolview registration (V1.5, not shipped).
• No video generation. Planned as a background-job capability (ctx.jobs) once a provider interface is chosen.
• No per-request retry/backoff for endpoint failures; the caller sees the error.
• Version pinning. Built and tested against @deepseek-ai/* 0.1.0-rc.6; dsh is in developer preview and breaking changes are expected between releases. Re-run npm test after upgrading the host.

License

MIT