deepseek-harness/packages/client/ui-directory-picker-native/README.md

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description: "Native directory-picker surface: the browser half that drives the local Desktop or Host OS chooser for workspace-directory flows; for users and maintainers choosing a picking interaction."

kind: "package-reference"

@deepseek-ai/dsh-client-ui-directory-picker-native

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Summary

This package provides the native directory-picking surface for the Web GUI: when a workspace flow asks for a directory, a renderless browser occupant opens the operating system's own chooser on the local machine and reports the single outcome — a picked path, a cancellation, or a failure. It fills the two directory-flow slots declared by ui-workspace, composing the client side of the native picking interaction in one cordis.yml row. Choose it when the browser runs on the same machine as the Host; in-process and remote-browser deployments need the -browse surface instead.

Table of Contents

• Use this package
• Understand the implementation
• Further Exploration
• Model Experience
• Known Limitations and Deferred Work
• Dev Note

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Use this package

Mount this plugin alongside ui-workspace and the host backend dsh-host-directory-picker-native; one cordis.yml row then composes the whole native picking interaction. When a workspace add or picker flow opens a directory request, the user sees the operating system's folder dialog; the picked path is adopted by the workspace flow, and cancelling closes the dialog.

In the local Electron application, this flow uses the narrow preload directory-picker bridge. Cancellation and failure never retry through the Host chooser. Ordinary Web uses the Host call; the separate browse composition always lists Host directories.

When to choose it

Choose this surface when the browser runs on the same machine as the Host, so an OS dialog can open there. Choose the -browse surface when the browser is remote or in-process and no local chooser exists. The two surfaces fill the same slots, so switching is a composition change, not a code change.

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Understand the implementation

Implementation internals — click to expand

Both slot registrations install as one transactional effect through nested `ctx.slots.inject()` calls, because either declaring entry may activate later or replace its declaration. The occupant arms once per rising `open` edge, so re-renders never launch a second chooser; settlements ride a ref so the answer reaches the owner's latest handlers. An unmount (HMR replacing the occupant) discards the settlement wholesale: the wire carries no per-request abort, so the native chooser survives until answered and its answer lands nowhere. The node half is an empty `apply` that keeps the plugin on the host roster.

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Further Exploration

Read these pages when the picking surface is not enough. They move from the browser half to the host backend and the slots it fills.

• dsh-host-directory-picker-native — the OS chooser backend this surface drives.
• ui-workspace — declares the directory-flow slots and owns the picking conversation.
• ui-directory-picker-browse — the in-app browsing alternative for remote and in-process deployments.
• Web client architecture — how browser plugin rows load and register slots.

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Model Experience

None, as the directory chooser is browser chrome; nothing here reaches a model request.

KV Cache effect

None; this package neither assembles nor sends a provider request.

Known Limitations and Deferred Work

These limits define when the native chooser fits. They are current package constraints, not a general picker comparison or a task backlog.

• No cancellation of an open chooser — the wire has no per-request abort, so a chooser already on the local display cannot be closed from the browser; a discarded settlement is ignored.
• Local carriers only — the Electron dialog selects local paths; ordinary Web opens the Host chooser. Remote-browser and in-process deployments use the -browse composition. Platform failures surface through the owner's retryable folder dialog.
• Linux automatic selection — without zenity or kdialog, the Host selects browse even in Desktop; the Electron dialog is not used.

Dev Note

Working context for maintainers — click to expand

None.

Runtime invariant: No companion is published. The plugin registers a renderless flow occupant into two workspace holes as one transactional effect, whose disposal the HMR-safety spec proves, and it retains no state between picks.