dsh-external-link

Stop clicking a link and watching it open in a window inside DSH. Anchor clicks in the DSH web GUI go to your OS default application instead — including http://localhost, which the Electron shell otherwise treats as its own surface.

dsh-plugin · MIT · macOS / Windows / Linux · zero configuration

When you need it

• You work in a UI project and click http://localhost:5173 in a chat. DSH Desktop opens a bare in-app window instead of your browser.
• You click a documentation link and want it in the browser you actually browse in — with your tabs, extensions and logins.
• You click a mailto: or tel: link and want the OS handler, not a dead anchor.

What it does

Where	Behaviour
Anchor click on http / https / mailto / tel	Handed to the OS default application (open on macOS, start on Windows, xdg-open on Linux)
Anchor click on a same-origin link	Left alone — in-app navigation still works
Any other scheme (file:, javascript:, data:, relative paths)	Left alone
window.open from application code (not an anchor click)	Not intercepted

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add github:d0ublecl1ck/dsh-external-link

Reload the DSH window (or restart DSH). The host half mounts POST /external-link/open; the browser half starts intercepting clicks as soon as the page is loaded.

Uninstall:

dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-external-link

How it works

anchor click
  → capture-phase listener in the browser half
  → POST /external-link/open            (only off-origin http/https/mailto/tel)
  → connection trust fence              (unauthenticated callers get 401)
  → platform opener                     (open / start / xdg-open)
  → your default browser

The click never reaches the Electron shell's window handler, which is what keeps http://localhost out of an in-app window.

Why not the built-in setting?

DSH ships a preference — Settings → General → Open chat links in (ui-chat.linkOpening) with In-App Sidebar and Default Browser. It is only rendered when the in-app browser sidebar plugin (@deepseek-ai/dsh-client-ui-sidebar-browser) is loaded, and the Default Browser option still goes through the shell's own window handler, so http://localhost lands back in an in-app window.

Approach	Covers localhost	Needs the in-app browser	Where the link opens
ui-chat.linkOpening = new-tab	No	Yes	Shell window handler (external for https, in-app for http://localhost)
dsh-pathlink	No	No	Adds Ctrl+click for paths and links
dsh-browser	—	Ships one	Its own in-app browser
dsh-external-links	Windows only	No	Windows WebView2 shell (DSH EAC)
dsh-external-link	Yes	No	OS default application, on every platform

Safety boundary

• The route accepts four schemes and nothing else; file:, javascript: and malformed values are rejected with 400.
• Requests are checked by the DSH connection trust fence, so an unauthenticated caller cannot make the host spawn an opener.
• No configuration, no telemetry, no network access of its own — the plugin's only side effect is handing one URL to the OS.
• Same-origin links are never intercepted, so the application's own navigation cannot be broken by a click interceptor.
• Not covered: window.open calls that do not come from an anchor click.

Files

index.js          host half — POST /external-link/open + platform opener
client.js         browser half — capture-phase anchor click interceptor
cordis.patch.yml  bundle layer — inserts the external-link row
package.json      dsh.bundle + dsh.client manifest
examples/         real verification transcripts

Verification

# install into a throwaway profile and boot it — a plugin that throws on load
# makes the boot fail, which is the only real activation check
dsh plugin --profile <scratch> add github:d0ublecl1ck/dsh-external-link
dsh --profile <scratch> --dump-config | grep -A3 '== dsh-external-link'
dsh --profile <scratch>

In a real profile, mount the route and probe it:

dsh plugin --profile web add github:d0ublecl1ck/dsh-external-link
curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' -X POST -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"url":"http://127.0.0.1:9/x"}' http://127.0.0.1:43129/external-link/open; echo   # 401 = mounted and fenced

Real transcripts (manifest / shape / install / compose / activate ladder, route probes, scheme rejection) are in examples/verification.md.

License

MIT