DSH / PLUGIN / INTERACTION

dsh-user-questions

v0.1.0-rc.5deepseek-ai / deepseek-harness47f943859b

Included in DSHPluginsUI & client pluginsBuilt-in source
Runtime anatomy
HOSTCLIENTUITOOLDATAFLOW

Overview

dsh-user-questions

User-interaction Service Definition. It owns ctx.userQuestions, the service a model-facing tool or permission plugin uses when it needs to pause work and ask the human for a decision.
BUILT-IN / ATOMIC
Already shipped with DSH — no separate install

This is an atomic module already shipped with Harness, not a standalone profile layer.

Capabilities

What it contributes

HostCordis loadableZero-config
Client / UIHost only0 contributions
Model tools0None declared
Profile stateenabledbase, headless, web

README / EN

Package documentation

@deepseek-ai/dsh-user-questions

English | 中文

User-interaction Service Definition. It owns ctx.userQuestions, the service a model-facing tool or permission plugin uses when it needs to pause work and ask the human for a decision.

Service: UserQuestionService (ctx key: userQuestions)

Public API

  • ctx.userQuestions.registerProvider(provider): () => void Register the UI-side provider. Only one provider may be active in a context; disposal unregisters it.
  • ctx.userQuestions.ask(request): Promise<AskUserQuestionAnswer> Ask the active provider and wait for the answer.

Key Types

  • AskUserQuestionRequest{ questions: [{ id, question, detail?, header?, options?, multiSelect?, intent? }], agent?, signal? }; detail supplies supporting text that providers render with the question without turning it into an option label. When present, agent must be the registry's exact live runtime root.
  • AskUserQuestionOption{ label, description? }.
  • AskUserQuestionIntent{ kind: 'plan-review', approve }; the tagged presentation intent below.
  • AskUserQuestionAnswer{ answers: [{ id, selected, custom? }] }.
  • UserQuestionProvider — UI implementation with ask(request).
  • UserQuestionErrorHarnessError subclass with codes such as EMPTY_QUESTIONS, BAD_INTENT, NO_PROVIDER, DUPLICATE_PROVIDER, ASK_ABORTED, CALLER_NOT_LIVE, and DELEGATED_CALLER.

For a single-select question, custom overrides the selected choice and selected is empty. For a multi-select question, custom may supplement the labels in selected. A UI may preserve a skipped item as { id, selected: [] }, keeping the existing answer shape while retaining other answers in the batch.

When a request carries an agent, ask() authenticates its exact identity through the live AgentRegistry and admits only a runtime root. Durable lineage is not authority: a session with historical delegation depth may ask after it is resumed as a new runtime root, while a live child owned by another agent is rejected even if its durable depth is zero. Agentless programmatic requests retain the existing provider path.

Presentation intent

intent declares that a question IS a known kind of decision, so a UI that recognises the tag may present it as such — plan-review says detail is a plan under review, and dsh-plan-mode sets it on the exit_plan_mode question. An intent changes presentation only: a UI honouring it answers with the same option labels a generic UI would send, and a UI that does not know the tag renders the generic option list, so callers read the same answer fields either way. approve names the label that approves rather than relying on option order. ask() rejects with BAD_INTENT the two assertions no type can carry: an approve naming none of that question's own options, and an intent on a question with no detail — the thing it declares itself a review of.

Role

This is the Service Definition package. Consumers such as @deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-ask-user depend on this service; the Web host runtime supplies the shipped Service Provider. The loop stays unchanged: a tool call awaits a promise, and the tool result resumes the normal agent loop.

Model Experience

Indirectly, through dsh-tool-ask-user, which retains a successful provider answer as compact JSON or one of these failures: Error: ask_user_question was aborted before the user answered, Error: ask_user_question requires at least one question, Error: human interaction requires the exact live calling agent when an agent is supplied, Error: human interaction is unavailable while the calling agent is owned by another live agent; include the unresolved question or decision in the child agent's final result, Error: no user-questions provider is registered, or Error: <message>. Waiting for the human adds no tokens.

KV Cache effect

No direct invalidation; the named consumer owns any request-prefix changes.

Known Limitations and Deferred Work

  • One provider per context — there is no routing or fan-out to multiple UIs; a second registration throws DUPLICATE_PROVIDER, and with none registered ask() throws NO_PROVIDER rather than degrading.
  • The vocabulary is the question-form shape only — selectable options plus optional custom text; richer interaction shapes (file pickers, diff-preview confirmations) have no seam vocabulary yet.

LIMITATIONS

Known limitations

- **One provider per context** — there is no routing or fan-out to multiple UIs; a second registration throws `DUPLICATE_PROVIDER`, and with none registered `ask()` throws `NO_PROVIDER` rather than degrading. - **The vocabulary is the question-form shape only** — selectable options plus optional custom text; richer interaction shapes (file pickers, diff-preview confirmations) have no seam vocabulary yet.