Built-in Tools

Tools are the model's entry point for performing operations. DSH ships 21 @deepseek-ai/dsh-tool-* packages out of the box, grouped by capability domain below. They register through ctx.tools and automatically appear in the model's tool list.

Want to add a tool for the model? See writing a tool. This page only covers the built-in, out-of-the-box capabilities.

At a glance

Capability domain	Tool packages	In one sentence
Terminal	tool-bash / tool-bash-persistent / tool-terminal / tool-pwsh	run commands, long-lived sessions
Files	tool-fs / tool-fs-search / tool-str-replace-editor	read/write, search, precise editing
Network	tool-web	web_search / web_fetch
Code	tool-lsp	jump-to-definition, find references, hover
Delegation	tool-subagent / tool-subagent-control / tool-subagent-report	hand work to subagents
Scheduling	schedule	timed reminders
Goals	tool-goal	session-level goals
Jobs	tool-jobs	background job output/list/terminate
Todos	tool-todo	todo_write
Skills	tool-skill	load skills
Session query	tool-session-query	history search/traces
Questions	tool-ask-user	ask the user
Introspection	tool-cordis	query Host/Client contracts and manage versioned dynamic plugins
Orchestration	tool-workflow / tool-ralph	JS orchestration, Ralph iteration
Model-carrying	decided by each seam	presentation and scheduling

Terminal domain

Tool	Key usage	Description
bash	run shell commands, optional background jobs, sandbox escalation	general command execution
bash (tool-bash-persistent)	long-lived shell sessions (same name as tool-bash)	owner-isolated persistent Bash (PTY-based)
terminal	six persistent terminal tools	interactive terminals, owner-isolated, connected to background jobs
pwsh	execute PowerShell	the shell layer for Windows scenarios
Terminal tools all pass through ctx.sandbox.confine (see sandbox and security). The execution environment is uniformly provided by shell-env (ctx.shellEnv): every foreground/background shell call receives a freshly collected managed DSH_* environment snapshot, with built-in DSH_HOME, DSH_SHELL=1, DSH_SESSION_ID (agent calls also carry the DSH_SESSION_JSONL location hint); other plugins can register effect-scoped contributors to append facts; duplicate attribution or undeclared runtime keys fail loud. shell-env is mounted by default, and process.env is never rewritten.

File domain

Tool	Key usage	Description
fs	read / write / edit	goes through the ctx.fs capability seam
fs_search	glob / grep	bundled ripgrep, fast discovery
str_replace_editor	view/create/literal replace/insert lines	precise editing, small diffs, easy to review

Delegation and parallelism

Tool	Key usage	Description
subagent	dispatch one-shot subagents	goes through the ctx.subagents seam
subagent_control	send_message / interrupt_agent / list_agents	global control of continuable sub-sessions
report (tool-subagent-report)	the subagent reports back	available within subagent scope

The full delegation model is in Subagents and parallelism.

Goals / jobs / todos

Tool	Key usage	Description
goal	same-session long-term goals	execution-time permission checks
jobs	job_output / job_list / job_kill	background job registry
todo	todo_write	writes into the event-sourced session log

See Goals, Jobs, and Todos.

Search / query / questions

Tool	Key usage	Description
session_search (et al.)	history session search / traces / event reads	queries DSH's own sessions, opt-in (not mounted by default)
ask_user	ask the user a question	goes through ctx.userQuestions

dsh-tool-session-query registers session_search/session_trace/session_event_read and so on to query DSH's own history sessions; the package is opt-in and not mounted by default.

Network

What the model sees is the web tool (web_search / web_fetch), both going through the same ctx.web capability seam. The actual retrieval/forward-fetch is done by the provider backends registered into ctx.web; tool-web only handles presentation (tool name, schema, result format, HTML→markdown):

Backend	Type	Description	Mount
web-search-deepseek	search provider	Anthropic-compatible Messages API + native web_search tool, parses structured result blocks, reuses DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	mounted by default (searchProvider: deepseek-official)
web-fetch-http	fetch provider	anonymous public HTTP(S), same-origin redirects, byte/char limits, binary rejection; SSRF protection deferred	opt-in (base default fetch: false, no fetch provider mounted)
web-search-exa	search provider	Exa POST /search, auto/keyword/neural; no generated answer, content omitted	opt-in (requires EXA_API_KEY)
web-search-perplexity	search provider	OpenAI-compatible chat/completions, generated answer content + citations sources[]	opt-in (requires PERPLEXITY_API_KEY)

Providers register capabilities, not tools; tool-web's registration follows the product switch (fetch off by default), not backend availability — when a provider is missing/unavailable/ambiguous, the tool schema stays and a structured WebError is thrown at execution. Provider selection resolves within the seam at execution time (an explicit searchProvider/fetchProvider or automatic selection of the single available provider).

Code

Tool	Key usage	Description
lsp	goToDefinition / findReferences / goToImplementation / hover	read-only, based on ctx.lsp

Introspection and orchestration

Tool	Key usage	Description
cordis	inspect_list/query/self + define/run/stop/undefine	versioned dynamic Cordis toolset
workflow	run JS orchestration scripts	goes through ctx.workflowEngine
ralph	Ralph iteration loop with fresh Agents	combines workflow + subagent

See Workflow and Ralph.

Common combinations (how to chain them to get work done)

You want	Combination
search + read a file + change code	session_search to find history → fs/str_replace_editor to change
terminal running + background jobs	bash resident + jobs to collect background output
split a large task for parallel	subagent to dispatch + subagent_control to collect
scheduled progress	schedule to set reminders + goal/todo to record progress
stuck, ask a human	ask_user to confirm before continuing

Tools are atomic capabilities; fixing common sequences into reusable form is what skills or workflows are for.

Verify which tools are currently installed

dsh web --dump-config | grep -E "tool-" 
# each tool-* plugin and whether it's enabled is visible in the composition tree

Tool configurability

Every tool package can override config at the profile layer via a patch (e.g. whether it's off by default, timeouts, workspace authorization). A tool's presentation (native/code/both) is decided by ctx.tools.presentAs, not something a tool cares about itself.