Jesse-njx/dsh-cowork
READ + WRITE for office documents & notebooks in DeepSeek Harness — doc_read/doc_write tools (xlsx, pdf, docx, pptx, ipynb) plus MCP server and CLI
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What it does
Bounded, cell-addressed `doc_read`/`doc_write` for xlsx / pdf / docx / pptx / ipynb, plus an MCP server and CLI.
Best for
- DSH agents that need bounded reads across XLSX, PDF, DOCX, PPTX, or Jupyter notebooks.
- Workflows that create or edit spreadsheets by cell reference or notebooks by cell index.
- MCP clients or scripts that need the same document operations through an MCP server or CLI.
Not ideal for
- Workflows that must write PDF, DOCX, or PPTX files; v1 only writes XLSX and IPYNB.
- Macro-enabled Office files such as XLSM, DOCM, or PPTM, which are rejected.
- Write operations in a read-only sandbox, where `doc_write` is blocked.
README
DSH Cowork
READ + WRITE for office documents and Jupyter notebooks inside DeepSeek Harness — and anywhere else your agent runs.
DSH Cowork adds first-class document handling to coding agents:
| Format | Read | Write (v1) |
|---|---|---|
| xlsx spreadsheets | ✅ bounded, cell-addressed windows | ✅ create + edit by cell ref |
| ipynb notebooks | ✅ cells + inline outputs | ✅ create + edit by cell index |
✅ text windows (pages) |
— (v2: form-fill) | |
| docx | ✅ paragraphs + word count | — (v2: generation) |
| pptx | ✅ slides + shape ids | — (v2: generation) |
中文版见 README.zh.md.
Why
DeepSeek Harness’s built-in read is UTF-8 text only — it cannot open a
spreadsheet, a PDF, a slide deck, or a notebook. Claude Code reads PDFs and
notebooks natively; Codex has nothing. DSH Cowork closes that gap as an
out-of-tree plugin (no fork, no PR needed — the ecosystem path
CONTRIBUTING.md recommends).
Two ideas make “Cowork = READ + WRITE” coherent instead of two separate tools:
-
Stable addresses.
doc_readreturns cell refs for xlsx (A1,C12) and shape ids for pptx —doc_writeconsumes them. Line numbers cannot address binary formats; addresses can. -
Bounded windows, explicit truncation. Every read is capped
(pages / rows / slides / cells / bytes). Silent truncation is the cardinal
sin: a
> Truncated:notice always tells you the window was cut short.
Packages
| Package | What it is |
|---|---|
packages/core |
Pure TS, zero DSH deps: sniff → extract → build, windowing, safety caps |
packages/dsh |
DSH bundle: doc_read / doc_write tools (install with dsh plugin add) |
packages/mcp |
MCP server over stdio — for Codex, Claude Code, any MCP client |
packages/cli |
doc-read / doc-write binaries + SKILL.md (the pi harness adapter) |
packages/chatnode-wechat |
DSH bundle: chat with / monitor / approve your DSH agents from WeChat (iLink gateway + conversation node) |
Install into DeepSeek Harness
# GitHub delivery (not published to npm)
git clone https://github.com/Jesse-njx/dsh-cowork.git
cd dsh-cowork
pnpm install # installs deps and builds all packages (prepare)
dsh plugin --profile <your-profile> add ./packages/dsh
Then doc_read / doc_write are available to the model. (A live agent
session also verifies: ask the model to doc_read an .xlsx.)
Configure (all optional, sensible defaults):
# in your profile's cordis.patch.yml, override the cowork-docs row
- id: cowork-docs
name: '@dsh-cowork/plugin'
config:
maxInputBytes: 67108864 # 64 MiB
maxOutputBytes: 262144 # 256 KiB model-facing window
maxDecompressedBytes: 536870912 # zip-bomb guard (512 MiB)
maxZipEntries: 4096
maxPages: 20
maxSheetRows: 200
maxSheets: 1
maxSlides: 20
maxCells: 200
Use from any agent (MCP)
# Codex / Claude Code MCP config
# { "mcpServers": { "cowork": { "command": "node", "args": ["<repo>/packages/mcp/lib/index.js"], "cwd": "<your working dir>" } } }
# or the plain CLI
doc-read report.xlsx --sheets Data --rows 50
doc-write edit report.xlsx --spec edit-spec.json
Safety model
- Zip bombs: entry-count + decompressed-size caps on every OOXML archive, checked before any codec expands bytes.
-
Macros:
.xlsm/.docm/.pptm(anything withvbaProject.bin) are rejected outright — Cowork never reads or writes macro formats. -
Read-only mode: in
read-onlysandbox mode,doc_writeis hard-blocked whiledoc_readstays available. -
Edit guards:
doc_writeedit refuses unless the file was read this session (expected_version), and optionally fails on content change (expected_sha256) — a hash-check on every edit. -
No silent overwrite: creating over an existing file requires having read
it (DSH) or
force(CLI/MCP). - Atomic writes: temp file + rename, never a partial target.
- Stale formulas: edited xlsx sheets get cached formula results cleared so Excel / LibreOffice recalculate on open (exceljs never recalculates).
- Untrusted input: formulas, hidden sheets, and speaker notes are treated as data, surfaced with the extraction, never executed.
Architecture
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ @dsh-cowork/core │
│ sniff → readDocument / writeDocument → caps │
└───────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬────────┘
│ │ │
┌──────────▼───┐ ┌───────▼──────┐ ┌────▼───────┐
│ packages/dsh│ │ packages/mcp │ │ packages/cli│
│ DSH bundle │ │ MCP stdio │ │ + SKILL.md │
└──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └────────────┘
The DSH bundle routes reads through ctx.fs (bounded readBytes,
sandbox-aware resolution, fs/observed events) and performs atomic byte
writes itself because the fs service is text-only — re-observing the real
post-write version so the built-in policy machinery stays coherent.
Development
pnpm install
pnpm -r build
pnpm -r test # core 35 + plugin 15 + cli 6 + mcp 7 tests
- Fixtures:
node packages/core/scripts/make-fixtures.mjs(needs macOScupsfilterfor the PDF; skip otherwise). - Node 20+; tests run on Node’s native TS type-stripping.
Roadmap
- v1 (this repo): read all five formats; write xlsx + ipynb.
- v2: ipynb write polish, docx/pptx generation, PDF form-fill (pdf-lib), PDF page-render-to-image for vision models, docx raw-OOXML edit.
-
Ship:
dsh-pluginGitHub topic, awesome-list entry, Discussions post.
Contributing
This is a dsh-plugin-topic project. Issues, PRs, and Discussions welcome —
and per deepseek-harness CONTRIBUTING.md,
associate your own plugins with the dsh-plugin topic too.
Frequently Asked QuestionsFAQ
Use the verified command dsh plugin --profile default add github:Jesse-njx/dsh-cowork in a DSH-enabled shell. The command resolves the public package metadata and keeps the plugin attached to the catalog identity shown on this page.
Compatibility follows the bundle and profile status shown above. If a profile is not detected, keep the plugin disabled there and check the repository documentation before enabling it in production.
The GitHub link and activity metadata are the source of truth for releases and maintenance. Revisit this page after a new release to confirm the catalog has observed the latest version.