dsh-free-web-search

dsh plugin --profile web add dsh-free-web-search

dsh-free-web-search

Free web search plugin for DeepSeek Harness. No API keys required — works out of the box with Bing, DuckDuckGo, and SearXNG. Optional paid engines (Exa, Tavily, Keenable, Perplexity, DeepSeek Official) activate when you add a key.

Features

• 10 search engines with automatic fallback — if one fails, the next one picks up
• Time-filtered search via advanced_search tool (last day/week/month/year, or custom ranges like 3d, 2mo, 2026-07-01)
• Platform search — GitHub repos and Reddit threads via platform_search tool
• Engine diagnostics — free_search_test tool to check which engines work
• Web Settings UI — engine selection, API key management, cache TTL config
• Result caching — LRU cache (50 entries, configurable TTL up to 5 min) to reduce rate limiting

Install

dsh plugin --profile web add github:delef/dsh-free-web-search

If pnpm blocks the build script, add the key it prints to allowBuilds in your profile's pnpm-workspace.yaml and retry.

Engines

Engine · Cost · Key required

Bing · Free · No

DuckDuckGo (HTML / Lite) · Free · No

SearXNG · Free · No

AnySearch AI · Free · No

Exa · Free tier / paid · Optional

Tavily · Free tier / paid · Optional

Keenable · Free tier / paid · Optional

Perplexity · Paid · Yes

DeepSeek Official · Paid · Yes

Default engine: Bing (most stable). Change it in Settings > Plugins > Free Web Search, or type /free-search-engine in chat.

Tools

web_search (built-in, powered by this plugin)

Standard harness web search. Uses the configured engine with automatic fallback.

advanced_search

query: "rust async runtime"
timeRange: "week"        # day | week | month | year | 3d | 2mo | 1y | 2026-07-01
engine: "exa"            # optional, override preferred engine
maxResults: 5

platform_search

platform: "github"       # github | reddit
query: "deepseek harness plugins"
maxResults: 5

web_fetch

url: "https://docs.example.com/guide"
maxLength: 50000                       # optional, default 50000 chars

Fetches a single page, strips HTML, returns plain text. For reading articles, docs, or any URL.

free_search_test

Tests engine availability. No arguments tests all engines.

Configuration

Settings are managed through the web UI (Settings > Plugins > Free Web Search) or in the free-web-search entry of the active profile (DSH 0.2+; earlier releases used the free-search section of settings.yaml):

- id: free-web-search
  name: dsh-free-web-search
  config:
    provider: bing
    bingMarket: en-US
    cache: true
    cacheTtl: 5
    platforms:
      - github
      - reddit
    searxngInstances:        # optional, overrides default public instances
      - https://your-instance.example.com
    # Optional API keys
    exaApiKey: ""
    tavilyApiKey: ""
    keenableApiKey: ""
    perplexityApiKey: ""
    deepseekApiKey: ""

Profiles that still use the old entry id web-search-free keep working, but the plugin logs a deprecation warning and the settings card shows a notice. Rename the entry to free-web-search to migrate.

Requires DSH >=0.2.0-rc.2 (developed against 0.2.1-rc.5).

License

Apache-2.0