dsh-model-override

Override the DeepSeek Harness (DSH) default model via an environment variable — no settings.yaml edits required.

Problem

DSH has no --model CLI flag. Model selection lives in ~/.dsh/settings.yaml under agent-default-model:, which is a global user-settings layer that overrides per-profile composition config. The web UI model picker writes back to this same global key. Result: you can't have different models per profile without settings file gymnastics.

Solution

This Cordis plugin reads DSH_MODEL env var and overrides ctx.agentDefaultModel.currentSelection() at agent creation time. When the env var is absent, the plugin is a silent no-op.

Install

dsh plugin --profile headless add dsh-model-override

Then add the bundle to the profile manifest $DSH_HOME/profiles/<name>/package.json:

"dsh": {
  "profile": {
    "bundles": [
      "@deepseek-ai/dsh-base",
      "@deepseek-ai/dsh-headless",
      "dsh-model-override"
    ]
  }
}

Restart the profile for the new bundle to load.

Usage

# Switch model
DSH_MODEL=openrouter/stealth/ox-alpha dsh --profile headless "run the tests"

# Model with colon in the name (openrouter tier suffix)
DSH_MODEL=openrouter/poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free dsh --profile headless "do something"

# With reasoning effort (separated by @) — not all models support this
DSH_MODEL=openrouter/poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free@low dsh --profile headless "explain this code"

Format

DSH_MODEL=provider/model[@effort]

• provider — the registered provider route (e.g. openrouter)
• model — the provider-owned model id (may contain slashes and colons)
• effort — optional, after @. Passed through to the adapter as-is; effort names are adapter-specific (DeepSeek uses off/low/high/max, other adapters may differ or not support effort at all).

We use @ as the effort separator because some model ids contain : (e.g. poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free) and # is a shell comment.

When no effort is specified, the adapter picks its own default for the model — the default model's effort is NOT carried over.

How it works

The plugin monkey-patches ctx.agentDefaultModel.currentSelection() to return the env var's provider, model, and optional reasoning effort instead of the composition/settings default. The headless runner (and any other entry point that reads this service) picks up the override transparently.

Edge cases

DSH_MODEL value	provider	model	effort
Not set	— no-op —
openrouter/stealth/ox-alpha	openrouter	stealth/ox-alpha	(adapter default)
openrouter/poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free	openrouter	poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free	(adapter default)
openrouter/poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free@low	openrouter	poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free	low
foo (no slash)	error logged, no-op

Development

Local install without pnpm: symlink the checkout into the shared profile node_modules, then add dsh-model-override to the profile's bundle list.

ln -s "$(pwd)" "$DSH_HOME/profiles/node_modules/dsh-model-override"

License

MIT