sluminositys/dsh-nested-followups

dsh-nested-followups

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Branch from any answer. Keep branching at any depth.

A DeepSeek Harness plugin for isolated follow-ups that can keep branching recursively, with no plugin-defined depth limit. Start a side trail from any answer, then turn any answer anywhere in that trail into the next isolated fork point. Repeat for as many levels as the question needs. Every level inherits only its ancestor path, while the main task stays linear and untouched.

Recorded in an unmodified DeepSeek Harness 0.1.1-rc.2 web profile. The UI and sessions are real; the captions and cursor are added in post.

MAIN TASK → SIDE QUESTION → NESTED SIDE QUESTION → NEST AGAIN → …

• Start a side trail anywhere. The first branch receives exactly the history that existed at the selected answer.
• Keep branching at any depth. Every answer in every side trail can become another isolated fork point. Apply the same action again at every new level.
• Keep the main task clean. Nothing asked or answered in a branch flows back into the main conversation.

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-nested-followups

Restart the DeepSeek Harness web profile if it is already running, open a conversation, and select Tree View.

git clone https://github.com/sluminositys/dsh-nested-followups.git
cd dsh-nested-followups
pnpm install
pnpm run check
dsh plugin --profile web add .

Why not a new chat or a sidebar thread?

The distinguishing feature is not the canvas. It is that any answer at any depth can become another isolated fork point, and the same rule keeps applying to every descendant. The tree is only the map that keeps those recursive detours visible and attached to the root session.

The diagram draws two nested levels and then an ellipsis: the same fork action remains available on every answer at every later depth.

Use it

1. Chat normally. The standard DSH chat, sidebar, composer, and message rendering remain unchanged.
2. Select Tree View, choose an earlier completed assistant answer, and select Ask follow-up. The question grows to the right in a new branch.
3. On the latest answer in a branch, use Continue this branch to add the next turn downward. Use Ask follow-up to create another isolated branch to the right. Repeat Ask follow-up on any descendant answer to keep nesting as deeply as needed.
4. Return to Chat whenever you want to continue the main task. Its history contains no branch messages.

Continue this branch appears only on the latest completed answer in a branch. Main-line nodes never offer it, so the two operations cannot be confused.

Why every level is a real branch

This is not a prompt that asks the model to pretend later messages do not exist, and it is not a line drawn between unrelated chats.

• Every branch, including a branch created inside another branch, is a real DeepSeek Harness session with durable history.
• The same fork rule applies recursively at every level; the plugin does not impose a nesting-depth limit.
• Its seed is the exact ancestor path through the selected completed answer, using the same event-boundary semantics as DSH's session fork path.
• Later messages from the main task, parent side trail, and sibling branches are absent unless they are ancestors of the new branch point.
• Messages never flow upward to a parent session or sideways to a sibling.
• Branch tools are enforced read-only when they execute, protecting the shared workspace from side-question activity.
• The request prefix remains byte-for-byte compatible with the parent at the fork point, so the model provider can reuse its prefix cache.

What Tree View includes

• One card per user message and assistant answer, with the main conversation running downward and isolated branches growing to the right.
• Unlimited nested follow-ups and linear continuation within each branch.
• Search that reveals collapsed ancestors before centering a match.
• Focus mode, pan, zoom, fit-to-view, and a minimap for large trees.
• Progressive dot → capsule → card expansion, plus one-action collapse.
• Cascading branch deletion with an exact branch and message count.
• Durable branch metadata and per-conversation view state across restarts.
• No branch entries in the normal sidebar session list.

Progressive collapse

A tree opens fully folded on first visit: the main conversation plus one dot per answer that has branches. Select ⊕ to reveal one capsule per branch, then select a capsule to restore that branch's cards. Child anchors stay folded until you open them, so one expansion never floods the canvas with every descendant.

Alt-select ⊕ or a capsule to expand all descendants. Collapse all returns top-level groups to dots. A pulsing blue marker means a folded descendant is generating; red means one failed. The layout is restored per conversation after a restart.

Read-only branch execution

Branches share the main conversation's working directory, so allowing a side question to write would be unsafe. The plugin therefore checks tools when they actually run. Read operations are permitted; writes and unknown tools are refused by default.

Allowed tools are read, read_image, glob, grep, lsp, the session_* query tools, job_list, job_output, terminal_list, terminal_read, list_agents, and get_goal. Code Mode's run_code remains available because every tool it invokes is checked individually.

Provider prefix-cache reuse

A branch joins the same preset as its parent and does not rewrite tool definitions, prompt sections, or presentation format. Its request therefore starts with the same bytes as the parent request at the branch point. Providers that cache request prefixes can reuse that context instead of reading the inherited conversation again.

Requirements

Compatibility notes

This release is verified against an unmodified @deepseek-ai/dsh 0.1.1-rc.2 and keeps 0.1.0-rc.7 as its compatibility floor. DeepSeek Harness is still in developer preview, so later prereleases may require an adapter update.

Branches cannot be continued from the standard chat view. DSH currently rejects user messages sent from the normal chat UI to a subagent-origin session. Reading and continuing a branch therefore happen in Tree View. The plugin probes for a future host capability that could safely restore native continuation, but enables it only when DSH explicitly guarantees message delivery.

Branches may appear in the built-in Subagent menu as disabled diagnostic rows. They cannot be selected, are skipped by keyboard navigation, and do not count as active child agents. This does not affect the root conversation or the sidebar, where branch sessions remain hidden.

Uninstall

dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-nested-followups

Uninstalling removes the plugin UI and services. It does not modify the main conversation or delete persisted branch history.

Development

pnpm install
pnpm run check

pnpm run check runs linting, host and browser type checking, 156 unit and integration tests, a production build, a smoke test, and package validation.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md and run pnpm run check before submitting a pull request.

License

MIT