@deads-inc/dsh-web-search-brave

Brave Search API-backed web search provider for DeepSeek Harness (dsh). It registers a WebSearchProvider into the ctx.web seam, so the built-in web_search tool works out of the box when you have a Brave Search API key.

• MIT license, ~270 lines of code, zero runtime dependencies
• Concurrency-safe rate limiting (1500ms gap between requests)
• Exponential backoff with jitter on 429s
• Configurable via DSH Settings or env vars

Install

Requires BRAVE_API_KEY from brave.com/search/api.

From npm (recommended):

dsh plugin --profile web add @deads-inc/dsh-web-search-brave
export BRAVE_API_KEY=<your-key>

From this repo:

git clone https://github.com/ChrisDeadman/dsh-web-search-brave.git
cd dsh-web-search-brave
export BRAVE_API_KEY=<your-key>
bash install.sh

Restart dsh web. Verify the provider is active:

dsh --profile web --dump-config | grep -A3 brave

How it works

• Registers the brave-search provider on the ctx.web seam.
• Resolves the API key in this order:
  1. Literal apiKey in the config (not recommended).
  2. The BRAVE_API_KEY credential stored in the DSH credentials service.
  3. The BRAVE_API_KEY env var at launch time.
• Serializes concurrent calls through an in-process rate limiter (1500ms gap, configurable).
• On 429/403, honors Retry-After, backs off with exponential + jittered backoff (capped at 30s), up to 3 attempts.

Configuration

All options are optional; sensible defaults are used.

Option	Env / Config Key	Default	Notes
API key	BRAVE_API_KEY	—	Required.
API base URL	BRAVE_SEARCH_BASE_URL	https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search	Override for proxies or testing.
Throttle (ms)	—	1500	Min gap between outbound requests.
Max attempts	—	3	Retries on 429/403 before failing.

Enabling as the active search provider

The plugin registers brave-search but does not forcibly enable it. To use it as your search backend, add this to your profile's cordis.patch.yml:

- id: web
  config:
    searchProvider: brave-search

bash install.sh does this automatically for you.

Security notes

• Your BRAVE_API_KEY is only ever sent to the configured baseURL (default: Brave's official endpoint).
• Custom baseURL is an escape hatch for proxies or testing; use it deliberately. The plugin does not validate the URL's domain.
• There are no postinstall scripts, no network calls other than the search API, no telemetry.

Development

This package is plain ESM with no build step and no runtime dependencies — everything it imports (@deepseek-ai/*) is provided by the host DSH install as peer dependencies.

To test a local change, run bash install.sh, then in a fresh terminal:

# 1. Confirm the bundle is wired into the composed profile config:
dsh --profile web --dump-config | grep -A3 brave

# 2. (Optional) Import the module directly. This needs the profile's
#    node_modules to already carry the @deepseek-ai/* peers (a web profile
#    that has any dshmarket package does). It fails harmlessly otherwise —
#    dsh itself always resolves the peers from its own installation at boot:
node --input-type=module -e "
  const m = await import('@deads-inc/dsh-web-search-brave');
  if (typeof m.apply !== 'function' || m.name !== 'web-search-brave') throw new Error('bad module');
  console.log('OK: exports:', Object.keys(m).join(', '));
"

# 3. With BRAVE_API_KEY set, run a real end-to-end search:
dsh --profile web "Use web_search to find one page about Node.js 24. Reply with just the URL."

See AGENTS.md for guidance for AI coding agents working on this repo.

License

MIT.