dsh-caption-bar

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Reclaim a full row of vertical space in DeepSeek Harness. Instead of spending a separate row on conversation navigation and session utilities, this desktop layout plugin seats the view tabs in the Windows caption row and compresses the remaining utilities into a 42px right rail. More of the window is left for the conversation—especially valuable on laptops and other short displays.

It:

• places 对话 / 轨迹 / 上下文 / 编队 on the Windows caption row, immediately after the native 应用 / 编辑 / ⋯ menu, with matching spacing and hover treatment;
• centres the current session title in the room left between those tabs and the native window controls;
• keeps fullscreen immediately left of minimise / maximise / close;
• stacks the remaining header utilities in a compact 42px rail at the right edge;
• shows background-job and subagent status changes in a fixed bubble that never changes rail width.

Verified with Codex UI 1.1.49 and DSH desktop 0.2.1-rc.3+.

Final layout

Area	Contents
Caption row	application menu → view tabs / more-views → centred session title → fullscreen → native window buttons
Right rail	agent preset, subagent status/count/menu, background-job status/count/menu, file-manager split control, utilities menu, right-sidebar control
Conversation	gives up exactly --dsh-capbar-rail on the right, so the rail never covers messages

The tab row uses the preload menu's own dimensions and tokens: 28px controls, 10px horizontal padding, 6px radius, 2px gaps, 14px text, and --dsw-alias-interactive-bg-hover on hover. Codex UI's active-tab slider remains the selection indicator.

Compact rail

Compact mode is on by default:

--dsh-capbar-compact: 1;

Control	Compact representation
Agent preset	existing preset icon; full description remains in title
Subagent	existing state dot + extracted count + existing chevron
Background jobs	existing state dot + extracted count + existing chevron
File manager	existing primary button above its existing menu chevron
Utilities / right sidebar	unchanged icon controls

The compact rail is 42px wide with 30px controls (6px on each side). Set this on body to restore complete labels and the 104px rail; the layout sweep notices within two seconds:

--dsh-capbar-compact: 0;

All compact markers, replacement counts and titles added by this plugin are removed when compact mode is disabled or the plugin is unloaded.

Status bubble

Background jobs and subagents publish dynamic status without participating in rail layout:

• the latest change appears for three seconds in one fixed bubble to the rail's left;
• a newer status replaces the previous one;
• clicking the bubble opens the original control;
• the bubble uses only app background, border, radius and text tokens—no custom colour, shadow, blur or animation.

The plugin reads semantic DOM projections (aria-label, status dots and stable data attributes), not private jobs-store APIs.

Visual contract

The plugin is layout-focused. It does not add custom colours, fonts, icons, blur, opacity, shadows or animations. Its deliberate visual exceptions are narrowly tested:

1. remove the stock header's border-bottom hairline;
2. mirror the preload menubar's existing button dimensions, radius, label colours and hover token for the view tabs;
3. hide selected labels in compact mode while preserving existing iconography and dynamic counts;
4. style the transient status bubble exclusively with existing app tokens.

It never sets order or display: contents, and it does not replace app controls with custom replicas.

Compatibility notes

The plugin intentionally coordinates with Codex UI:

• sets body[data-dsh-title-bar-compat] and --dsh-title-bar-strip;
• preserves [data-dcu-tab-slider] by keeping the tab list as its positioned containing block;
• relies on semantic selectors where available (role, aria-*, data-open-target="directory"), with CSS-module class stems only for stable header layout seats;
• excludes [role="menu"] trees from rail text rules and from the layout sweep.

Hosts without Codex UI receive a minimal one-column fallback.

Install

dsh plugin --profile desktop add dsh-caption-bar

Restart the desktop app once after first installation. Uninstall:

dsh plugin --profile desktop remove dsh-caption-bar

Develop

pnpm install
node build.mjs
node test/client.smoke.mjs  # 118 assertions
pnpm exec tsc --noEmit
pnpm exec tsc -p tsconfig.types.json
pnpm compat               # Codex UI anchors; set DSH_CORE_DIR for extracted core packages

src/client/index.tsx contains the stylesheet, applier, title fallback, fullscreen button, compact-mode projection and status bubble. lib/ is committed because the host serves it directly.

The build refuses to run if a backtick appears inside the SHEET template literal, which turns an otherwise distant SWC syntax error into a precise message.

Diagnostics are compiled but silent by default; set DEBUG = true in the client source while investigating layout state.

Lifecycle

apply() returns its disposer to Cordis. Unloading the plugin retracts:

• injected stylesheet, body class and Codex UI compatibility marker;
• title fallback and status bubble;
• MutationObserver / ResizeObserver instances, intervals and pending timeouts;
• event listeners and slot occupants;
• measured CSS variables, semantic data markers and plugin-owned titles;
• inline layout overrides, restored to the values they displaced.

The smoke suite drives the real disposer and asserts this contract.

Tuning

Variable	Default	Meaning
--dsh-capbar-compact	1	1: compact 42px rail; 0: full-label 104px rail
--dsh-capbar-compact-box	30px	compact control target
--dsh-capbar-rail	104px	full-label width; compact mode overrides it to 42px
--dsh-capbar-rail-gap	6px	vertical gap between rail items
--dsh-capbar-button	28px	fullscreen button box
--dsh-capbar-gap	10px	gap before native caption buttons
--dsh-capbar-controls	measured / 138px floor	native caption-button reservation; 0 in fullscreen
--dsh-capbar-lead	measured	application menu's right edge plus band gap
--dsh-capbar-title-*	measured	title bounds, width cap and visibility

Troubleshooting history

The detailed five-part incident records live in the workspace's dev-troubleshooting.md (faults 27–36). They cover the tab overflow feedback loop, title visibility, app-region hit testing, containing-block drift, disposer loss, conditional title markup, rail redesign, active-slider containing block, dynamic status width, compact cascade order and menu-surface isolation.

License

MIT