[Question] Native CLI/API attachment to an existing Desktop session (0.2.1-rc.3)

[joyrush-D]

Environment: macOS; DeepSeek Harness Desktop and dsh CLI 0.2.1-rc.3.

I need an external CLI/API client to connect to the same already-running Desktop Host and existing session, inspect its current state/queue, then submit a follow-up to that same session.

The requirements are to preserve the existing runtime, session, and workspace: no new session/runtime, no Desktop restart, and no UI automation.

Is this supported in 0.2.1-rc.3? If so, please point to the official commands/API and supported authorization or pairing flow for an external client. If not, is there a supported version or planned entry point?

I am not seeking cookie/token extraction or an authentication bypass. Thank you.

[dgesteves]

Not for Desktop in 0.2.1-rc.3, and master (22ddee3) doesn't add it. The Host inside Desktop serves the same authenticated API as dsh web, but there's no supported way for an outside client to get authorized against it:

• Desktop starts its Host with --no-open --host 127.0.0.1 --port 0 and sends the token-bearing URL only to the Electron shell over Node IPC (desktop-host L30, L103-L104). There's no pairing flow: remote-access only adds policies for non-owner principals, nothing registers one, so the only caller type is the owner, admitted by that process's launch token.
• The CLI has no attach/session/send command, only profile boot, --dump-config* and dsh plugin (args.ts). On rc.3, dsh session --help fails with profile "session" does not exist.
• A second Host can't drive the session either: a live session holds a cross-process flock on session.lock (session-persistence-jsonl).

The supported entry point for API callers is a dsh web Host. It prints dsh web: http://127.0.0.1:3080/?token=…, and that launch token is what you exchange at /connect (operator-connect guide, Connection README):

B=http://127.0.0.1:3080
curl -s -c jar.txt -o /dev/null "$B/connect?token=<launch-token>&interactions=none"   # 302 + API cookie
rpc() { curl -s -b jar.txt -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d "{\"type\":\"client-request\",\"rpcId\":\"$RANDOM\",\"method\":\"$1\",\"payload\":{\"args\":$2}}" "$B/api/$1"; }
rpc session/list '{"_request":{}}'   # rows carry running + the inbox (queue) projection
rpc session/prompt '{"request":{"requestId":"req-1","sessionId":"session-…","mode":"queue","content":[{"type":"text","text":"follow-up"}]}}'

session/page and session/follow give history, and session/updateQueue and session/cancel manage the queue (session-controller). Use interactions=answer if the client should answer approvals. The args keys are the TypeScript parameter names (literally _request for list), so treat this as an internal wire format that can change between rcs, not a documented API.

Desktop and the CLI share sessions under $DSH_HOME (Desktop README), so for an existing Desktop conversation this means quitting Desktop and continuing it in dsh web: the restart you wanted to avoid. From source only: the Desktop Host does print the same dsh web: …?token= line, but Electron pipes it to the app's own stdout (host-process.ts), so you'd only see it by starting the app binary from a terminal. The port and token change on every launch, and none of this is documented for Desktop.

I ran the dsh web path with the published 0.2.1-rc.3 CLI on macOS and an empty DSH_HOME. Without the cookie, session/list returned 401. /connect returned a 302 to ./api/remote.mux, then session/create and session/prompt returned {"accepted":true}, and the list row showed the turn with an empty inbox. A second dsh web on the same home listed that session, but session/prompt returned session/writer-held. I didn't run Desktop itself. External PRs aren't accepted, so a Desktop attach or pairing entry point would need an Ideas post people can upvote.

[dgesteves]

@joyrush-D a follow-up: the 0.2.1-rc.4 and 0.2.2-alpha.2 release notes don't add an attach or pairing path for Desktop either, so the answer above still holds. If it answers your question, could you mark it? Otherwise an Ideas post is still the way to ask for it.