BrowserSkill/packages/dsh-plugin-browserskill/README.md

dsh-plugin-browserskill

A DeepSeek Harness (dsh) tool plugin that exposes BrowserSkill (bsk) browser automation to the model.

Each tool maps to one bsk <cmd> --json invocation: the plugin spawns the bsk CLI, parses its structured JSON output, and returns a canonical typed value. The bsk daemon, browser, and Chrome extension keep owning the actual browser control — this package is a thin, well-typed bridge.

Tools

Tool	bsk command	Purpose
browser_session_start	bsk session start	Open an Agent Window session; optional initial URL, window size, and device emulation preset. Returns the session id and makes it the current session.
browser_session_stop	bsk session stop	Stop a session (the current one by default) and close its Agent Window. Only plugin-created sessions can be stopped.
browser_session_list	— (registry only)	List the sessions this plugin created, marking the current one. Foreign daemon sessions are never shown.
browser_navigate	bsk navigate	Navigate the active tab, with waitUntil / timeout control.
browser_snapshot	bsk snapshot	Indented aria-tree snapshot with @eN refs for interaction tools.
browser_observe	bsk observe	Semantic VOM observation (read-only) with @eN refs.
browser_click	bsk click	Click a snapshot ref or CSS selector (button / click-count options).
browser_fill	bsk fill	Fill an input / textarea / contenteditable (clears first by default).
browser_press	bsk press	Dispatch a key or combo, optionally focusing a target first.
browser_screenshot	bsk screenshot	PNG capture of the tab or a ref-cropped element; inlines the image when the deployment supports image input, otherwise returns a file path.
browser_emulate	bsk emulate	Apply or clear mobile device emulation on the active tab.

Multi-session model

One agent conversation can drive several browser sessions at once:

• browser_session_start returns the session id and makes it the current session.
• Every operation tool accepts an optional session argument. When omitted, the call acts on the current session (the one most recently started or used); when given, that session becomes current.
• Every tool result echoes the session it actually acted on, so the model never has to guess.
• The number of concurrent sessions started through the plugin is capped (maxSessions, default 5).
• Unloading the plugin stops every session it started and kills in-flight bsk processes.

Ownership boundary: the bsk daemon may be shared with other agents, terminals, or dsh instances. The plugin therefore only ever sees and operates on sessions it created itself — an explicit session argument naming a foreign or unknown id is rejected, browser_session_list shows plugin-created sessions only (no daemon-wide view), and stop/unload cleanup can never touch a session owned by another program.

Installation

The plugin follows the standard dsh bundle layout (dsh.bundle manifest + cordis.patch.yml):

dsh plugin --profile <name> add <path-or-spec-of-this-package>
dsh --profile <name>

Prerequisite: the bsk CLI must be installed and on PATH, and the BrowserSkill Chrome extension must be connected — see the BrowserSkill README. When bsk is missing, tool calls fail with install guidance instead of a bare spawn error.

Configuration

All fields are optional and validated through the plugin's Schemastery Config:

# cordis.patch.yml override example
- insert:
    - id: browserskill
      name: dsh-plugin-browserskill
      config:
        bskPath: bsk          # path to the bsk binary (default: resolve from PATH)
        defaultTimeoutMs: 120000
        maxSessions: 5
        # observationEnabled: true     # live PiP/overlay observation (below)
        # thumbnailIntervalMs: 1500    # frame cadence while a session is active
        # idleIntervalMs: 8000         # idle cadence / recent-activity window

Observation overlay (PiP mini-window)

When the plugin runs inside the dsh Web UI, an observation overlay floats over the app (registered into the shell.overlay seat): a breathing thumbnail per owned session plus its current action and elapsed time. The card docks at the top-right of the content area (clear of the composer and the shell's header controls) and wears the BrowserSkill product family's own look: the overlay reuses @browser-skill/ui components (Button, cn) and its oklch design tokens (--card, --primary, --destructive, --ring, …), status dots spec'd after the extension popup's connection indicator, and Remix icons. The BSK utility sheet is compiled scoped under the .bsk-obs root class (scripts/build-client-css.mjs), so the overlay looks like the BrowserSkill extension without leaking a single selector into the host shell — and the shell's theme cannot bleed back in.

• Lifecycle: hidden while the plugin owns no sessions; appears on the first browser_session_start; disappears when all sessions stop (or the plugin unloads).
• Focus view: status row (green/idle/red dot + session + action + mm:ss), the latest page frame (refreshes every ~1.5s while active, ~8s when idle, keeps the last frame on errors), and the action row (Interrupt + Pop out).
• Interrupt: one click kills the in-flight bsk command of the focus session (same semantics as the chat Stop button — the current action fails, the agent run may continue). Strip items carry their own hover interrupt button.
• Multi-session strip: every session gets a tile (mini frame + id + status dot); focus auto-follows the most recently active session; clicking a tile pins focus (pin badge, click again to release); errored sessions get a red edge without stealing focus; sessions the daemon lost are greyed out; prolonged daemon/browser outage shows "browser unavailable" and greys the interrupt button until captures recover.
• Drag & resize: drag the header to move the card, drag the corner handle to resize (min 240×180, max 80% of the viewport); both are remembered for the page lifetime.
• Pop out (PiP): upgrades the card into a native Document PiP window (requires a user gesture, per browser rules), sized from the current card; closing the PiP falls back to the in-page card with state intact. Browsers without Document PiP simply hide the button.
• Wire: the host serves GET /bsk-observation/state, GET /bsk-observation/events (SSE), POST /bsk-observation/interrupt, and GET /bsk-observation/thumbnail/<attachmentId> over the dsh webServer route seam (dsh 0.1's Typert Remote pipeline is closed to out-of-tree packages). All commands for one session — tool calls and frame captures alike — run through a per-session FIFO, because the daemon accepts only one unfinished command per session.
• Trust model: these routes expose live screenshots (and an interrupt write), so they replicate the browser-trust fence dsh applies to its own /api routes: the request Host must be a loopback authority (localhost, 127.0.0.0/8, [::1]), a present Origin must match the Host, sec-fetch-site: cross-site is refused, and POST requires an application/json body (cross-site simple requests can never satisfy that). The channel is therefore built for loopback-only serving — binding the dsh web server to 0.0.0.0 and reaching it through a LAN address will (deliberately) fail the fence; do not put these routes behind a non-loopback reverse proxy without adding your own authentication.
• Configure with observationEnabled / thumbnailIntervalMs / idleIntervalMs.

Behavior notes

• Cancellation: aborting a tool call (exec.signal) kills the underlying bsk child process, matching BrowserSkill's cooperative tool-cancellation model.
• UI cards: calls render as terminal cards (command line as title, output as the completed card). Screenshots additionally attach the image itself when the host mounts an attachment store and the active model route declares image input; otherwise the PNG path is returned.
• Web UI toolview (browser half): the package is dual-face. dsh.client (platform web) ships lib/client.js, which registers a keyed tool.call.toolview view for browser_screenshot. The custom view keeps the terminal block (command + output) and, when the settled result carries an image block, resolves the durable attachment through the client session's authorized readAttachment RPC and renders it with the shared MessageImage thumbnail/lightbox atoms. Every other browser_* tool keeps the stock terminal card. The bundle follows the dsh client contract: a CJS closure factory handed to window.__ModuleLoader__.load, platform modules (react, dsh-client-ui-*) external, everything else inlined, CSS Modules compiled by lightningcss.
• Errors: non-zero bsk exits surface the CLI's JSON error envelope (code, message, hint) so the model gets the daemon's actionable guidance.
• Long-running work (e.g. bsk record) is not backgrounded via ctx.jobs yet — tracked as a follow-up.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm --filter dsh-plugin-browserskill typecheck
pnpm --filter dsh-plugin-browserskill test     # unit tests mock bsk; no browser needed
pnpm --filter dsh-plugin-browserskill build    # tsdown -> lib/

License

MIT