DSH Mobile

A LAN-only Android client for DeepSeek Harness (DSH), with a native shell for the DSH web UI and a companion PC bridge for background alerts. It is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by DeepSeek.

Abstract

• Problem: DSH is designed around a desktop browser and a local web server. A phone can reach it over the LAN, but a plain mobile browser loses the PIN flow, clipboard, uploads/downloads, and reliable background notifications.
• Contribution: an Android WebView shell that performs the DSH Pocket LAN login natively, stores the PIN encrypted with Android Keystore, keeps the real DSH UI, adds Android file/clipboard integrations, and runs a foreground service fed by a read-only PC-side alert bridge.
• Approach: a Kotlin/Compose app loads DSH through the DSH Pocket LAN proxy; the bridge subscribes to DSH session events and exposes a read-only SSE feed authenticated by the Pocket LAN PIN. No command channel is exposed on the phone.
• Evidence: the release tree builds, app unit tests and lint pass, and the bridge test suite passes. A development build was exercised on an Android 15 phone with DSH Pocket 2.12.0: LAN login, DSH UI, keyboard/composer behavior, background notifications, and a live DSH question notification. Quantitative performance was not benchmarked.

Composition

Original components

Component	Path	Role
Android app	app/	Compose shell, DSH Pocket login, WebView host, PIN storage, local-only URL policy, QR/discovery, background alert service
PC alert bridge	bridge/	DSH plugin; subscribes to session events and serves a read-only SSE feed
Mock bridge	bridge/tools/mock-bridge.mjs	Test double for the bridge contract; supports POST /emit

App behavior

• One-tap reconnect to a saved LAN server; the PIN is stored with Android Keystore. A saved server can be reopened from the saved-server list.
• QR, gallery QR, manual address, or LAN discovery for first setup.
• The real DSH web UI: sessions, workspaces, plugins, model picker, streaming, approvals/questions, file picker and downloads.
• Native clipboard bridge, external-link handoff, system document picker, and DownloadManager downloads with the server cookie.
• Phone UI adaptations: Enter inserts a newline (the send button submits); opening a session does not raise the keyboard; the session header uses two rows on narrow screens; workspace menus render above the sidebar. These rules target DSH-generated class names and may need attention after a DSH update.
• Background alerts: an ongoing low-importance service notification, high-importance approval/question notifications, and finished/error updates. The service stops on Disconnect, alerts-off, or a recents swipe.
• Local-only policy: RFC1918 IPv4, IPv6 ULA/link-local, localhost, and .local/single-label names; public hosts, CGNAT, credentials in URLs, and non-http schemes are refused before any request.

External components

Nothing from the following is bundled as source or binary except the icon attribution described below:

• DeepSeek Harness (DSH) [1] is the MIT-licensed host and UI. The app loads its web UI over HTTP; the bridge uses its plugin API.
• dsh-pocket [2] is a separate GPL-2.0 program installed on the PC that provides the LAN proxy and the PIN/cookie login. It is not included here; the app implements its local HTTP login protocol and communicates with it at arm's length. The bridge reads the Pocket token file for authentication only. Installing or redistributing dsh-pocket is outside this repository.
• AndroidX, Compose, Kotlin, OkHttp, ZXing, CameraX, WebKit, kotlinx.coroutines, and kotlinx.serialization are unmodified dependencies installed from their official repositories; the pinned versions are in gradle/libs.versions.toml.
• Gradle, the Android SDK, the JDK, and Node.js are build/test tools, not distributed here. The Gradle wrapper is intentionally not vendored.

Platform and tools

Component	Requirement
Phone	Android 10+ (minSdk 29); tested on Android 15 with WebView 155
PC	Linux/macOS/Windows with dsh web and DSH Pocket 2.12.0; same LAN
Build	JDK 17, Android SDK 37, build-tools 36.0.0, Gradle 9.6.0 (or the Android Studio equivalent)
App dependencies	pinned in gradle/libs.versions.toml; AGP 9.4.0, Kotlin 2.4.20, Compose BOM 2025.08.00
Bridge tests	Node.js 18+
Network	Phone and PC on the same private LAN; Pocket proxy port 3081 and bridge port 3082 reachable

Build

The repository does not vendor the Gradle wrapper. Use Gradle 9.6.0 directly or let Android Studio use its bundled Gradle. To generate a local wrapper:

gradle wrapper --gradle-version 9.6.0   # optional; generated files are ignored

Set the SDK/JDK paths; local.properties is optional when ANDROID_HOME is set:

export JAVA_HOME=/path/to/jdk-17
export ANDROID_HOME=/path/to/Android/Sdk

gradle :app:assembleDebug
gradle :app:testDebugUnitTest :app:lintDebug

The debug APK is written to app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk and is signed with the standard Android debug keystore. No keystore, APK, or build output is committed.

The app targets SDK 36. Android 17's ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK runtime permission is declared but not requested; moving to target 37 requires implementing that request.

Connect

1. Install the APK.
2. Scan the Pocket LAN QR, or choose Enter address and use http://<PC-IP>:3081.
3. Enter the Pocket LAN PIN; Remember PIN is enabled by default.
4. Reopen the saved server to reconnect. If the PIN changed, enter the new one.

The app never sends a request to a public address. If the PC is unreachable it shows a setup/retry message rather than hanging.

Background alerts

DSH's event bus lives inside the PC process. The companion bridge is required for reliable alerts; without it the app works normally and shows "Bridge not detected".

1. From the repository root, install the bridge into the DSH web profile:

   bridge/scripts/install-into-profile.sh
   

   The script links the plugin into $DSH_HOME/local-plugins, adds it to the profile with pnpm, and appends an insert to cordis.patch.yml. It does not restart dsh web. The profile's live patch reload may load it immediately; if not, restart DSH when convenient (that ends the current DSH session).

2. Verify the bridge from the PC:

   PIN=$(tr -d '\r\n' < ~/.dsh/dsh-pocket/token-lan)
   curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $PIN" http://127.0.0.1:3082/health
   

3. On the phone: Menu -> Settings -> Background alerts, grant notification permission, and allow unrestricted battery use if the phone is aggressive.

The bridge exposes no command channel. It is read-only and local-only; see bridge/README.md for the event contract, install/uninstall, security notes, and tests.

Verification

All commands below were run from a clean release tree unless marked otherwise.

Check	Command / conditions	Result
Debug build	Gradle 9.6.0, JDK 17, SDK 37; gradle :app:assembleDebug	pass; APK produced
App unit tests	gradle :app:testDebugUnitTest	31 tests pass
Lint	gradle :app:lintDebug	pass
Bridge tests	cd bridge && node --test test/*.test.mjs	14 tests pass
Device smoke	development phone; connectedDebugAndroidTest	pass in development; not repeated in the clean tree because the runner uninstalls the app and its data
Live LAN E2E	Android 15 phone + DSH Pocket 2.12.0 + DSH web, development network	connect, DSH UI, drawer, composer, keyboard, PIN storage, notification permission/tap, recents-swipe stop, task-removal cleanup
Live alert	real bridge on the PC; one real DSH ask_user_question	high-priority question notification delivered and cleared after answering; the matching turn-done was intentionally suppressed by the question alert
Mock alert paths	mock bridge POST /emit	done, approval, question, error and clear notifications observed; recents swipe cancels the service notification
Icon licence	source/licence inspection	MIT; attribution and full notice included

The live tests used a private development network and a phone; the exact hardware/network prerequisites are listed above and are not needed for the software-only checks. No performance or battery benchmark was run.

Conclusion

The app provides a small, local-only Android access path to DSH with native authentication and background alerts. It deliberately adds no cloud relay, no account system, and no command endpoint. The main replication boundaries are the separate GPL-2.0 DSH Pocket proxy, the PC-side bridge install, and phone/network conditions that cannot be reproduced by a software-only checkout.

Limitations

• LAN only; it does not work over mobile data or a public tunnel.
• DSH Pocket 2.12.0 is a separate GPL-2.0 prerequisite; it is not distributed or linked by this repository.
• Alerts require the PC bridge, a saved PIN, notification permission, and Android battery allowances. There is no FCM or public push service.
• The service stops when the app is swiped from recents; no notification is delivered after that.
• A finish alert is suppressed when an approval/question already alerted for the turn; the question is the human alert.
• The UI adaptations target DSH's generated class names; a DSH update may return the stock layout until the selectors are updated.
• Downloading blob:/data: links is not supported by WebView's download callback.
• A notification opens the app but does not deep-link to a specific session.
• Android 17 target-SDK migration and the ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK runtime request remain future work.
• The debug APK is not committed; build it locally or attach it to a GitHub Release.

Acknowledgements

• DeepSeek Harness [1]: the MIT-licensed host, UI, and plugin API.
• dsh-pocket [2]: the separate GPL-2.0 LAN proxy used as a prerequisite.
• dsh-whale-musume / 鲸鱼娘 [3]: the MIT-licensed community whale-girl art used for the launcher icon, modified by cropping, resizing, and adding a blurred background. The unlicensed viral fan-art image was not used.
• AndroidX / Jetpack Compose [4], Kotlin [5], OkHttp [6], ZXing [7], and the other pinned dependencies: unmodified libraries installed from their official repositories.
• Gradle [8] and Node.js [9]: build and test tools.
• See THIRD_PARTY.md for complete attribution, licences, modification details, and the full MIT text for the icon.

References

1. DeepSeek, DeepSeek Harness, MIT License. https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness
2. shaobeichen, dsh-pocket 2.12.0, GPL-2.0. https://github.com/shaobeichen/dsh-pocket
3. Sutera-Diffusus, dsh-whale-musume / 鲸鱼娘, MIT License. https://github.com/Sutera-Diffusus/dsh-whale-musume
4. Android Open Source Project, AndroidX / Jetpack Compose, Apache-2.0. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx
5. JetBrains, Kotlin, Apache-2.0. https://kotlinlang.org/
6. Square, OkHttp 4.12.0, Apache-2.0. https://square.github.io/okhttp/
7. ZXing authors, ZXing 3.5.4, Apache-2.0. https://github.com/zxing/zxing
8. Gradle Inc., Gradle 9.6.0, Apache-2.0. https://gradle.org/
9. OpenJS Foundation, Node.js, MIT. https://nodejs.org/

Licence

The original source code, tests, build configuration, and documentation in this repository are released under the MIT License; see LICENSE. The launcher icon is a modified MIT-licensed work by Sutera-Diffusus and is excluded from that copyright claim; its notice is preserved in THIRD_PARTY.md and app/src/main/assets/THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt. Third-party dependencies remain under their own licences.