pi-anchored-standard

DeepSeek Harness "Anchored Standard" as a pi package.

The DSH community finding: DeepSeek-V4-Pro's agent trajectory is decided by what the model sees on the first request — the Minimal preset's system prompt + its exact two-tool schema. Anchored Standard reproduces that first request, then widens the catalog after the first tool call. This package does the same thing inside pi, so you can run V4 Pro through pi (with pi's extensions, skills, subagents, web access…) without giving up the anchor.

Not affiliated with DeepSeek or with the upstream author. Experimental.

What it does

Request	System prompt	Tool catalog
#1 (bootstrap)	You are a helpful software engineer assistant.	bash (persistent) + str_replace_editor — byte-identical to DSH Minimal (name, description, JSON schema, key order; verified against a captured DSH request/header)
after first tool call / reply (promoted)	same	bootstrap pair + dev_tool_search, skill_search, skill_load + whatever the model unlocked
after a compaction (controlled)	same	bootstrap pair + compactionTools (default read write edit grep find ls) until a new promotion signal

Also, while engaged:

• no AGENTS.md digest, no skill catalog, no tool guidance, no pi identity in the system prompt — ever (DSH persona.complete: true);
• after promotion, ONE short user-role hint says which instruction files exist (AGENTS.md etc.) so the model reads them itself (DSH instruction-hint);
• every other installed pi tool (built-ins, web access, subagents, ask-user…) is discoverable/unlockable via dev_tool_search; unlocks persist for the session and survive resume/reload/compaction;
• max_tokens is pinned to 256000 (DSH's official adapter default — the measured anchor condition; pi would send 384000) and strict is stripped from the serialized function tools (DSH sends none);
• the phase is derived from the session branch, so /resume, /fork, reload and compaction keep it.

bash is a real persistent shell (cwd/env/functions survive across calls, stderr merged, 300 s timeout → partial output + reset, [exit code: N] marker, 16000-char clip with DSH's <response clipped> note). str_replace_editor is a straight port of DSH's editor (view / create / str_replace / insert, absolute paths, same messages).

Install

pi install npm:pi-anchored-standard                           # recommended
pi install git:github.com/Shiro-Legacy/pi-anchored-standard   # GitHub
pi install /absolute/path/to/pi-anchored-standard             # local checkout

Then run pi on DeepSeek:

pi --provider deepseek --model deepseek-v4-pro --thinking high

Auth: DEEPSEEK_API_KEY in the environment, or /login inside pi.

Provider gate

By default the anchor engages only when the session's provider is deepseek; on any other provider the extension stays passive (pi's normal prompt and tools), so one global install does not hijack your GPT/Claude/Grok sessions. Override with --anchored (force on for this session) or "providers": ["*"] in the config.

Note: activation registers a bash tool that overrides pi's built-in bash for the rest of that process; if you switch models mid-session to a non-listed provider the extension goes passive but the persistent shell stays. Start a fresh pi for other providers.

Configure

Optional JSON, later wins: ~/.pi/agent/anchored-standard.json, <cwd>/.pi/anchored-standard.json, env PI_ANCHORED_STANDARD='{...}'.

{
  "providers": ["deepseek"],           // "*" = all
  "persona": "You are a helpful software engineer assistant.",
  "bootstrapTools": ["bash", "str_replace_editor"],
  "residentTools": ["dev_tool_search", "skill_search", "skill_load"],
  "compactionTools": ["read", "write", "edit", "grep", "find", "ls"],
  "promoteOn": "either",               // "tool-call" | "assistant-message" | "either"
  "appendSystemPrompt": "message",     // what to do with --append-system-prompt:
                                       //   "message" = user-role message after the first prompt (default)
                                       //   "system"  = append to persona (breaks the byte-identical anchor)
                                       //   "drop"
  "maxTokens": 256000,                 // null = leave pi's value
  "stripStrictFromTools": true,
  "instructionHint": true,
  "shellTimeoutMs": 300000,
  "maxOutputChars": 16000,
  "bashPath": "bash",
  "notify": true                       // TUI notices on phase changes
}

/anchored inside pi prints the current phase, catalog, unlocks and config.

Verify

PI_ANCHORED_TRACE=/path/trace.jsonl pi … appends one JSON line per provider request (system prompt, tool names, max_tokens, full tool schemas) — the pi analogue of DSH's request/header events. For request #1 you should see:

{"seq":1,"phase":"bootstrap","model":"deepseek-v4-pro","max_tokens":256000,
 "system":"You are a helpful software engineer assistant.",
 "tools":["bash","str_replace_editor"],"messageCount":2, ...}

and from #2 on "phase":"promoted" with the resident set. npm test runs the unit tests, including a byte-for-byte comparison of the two tool schemas against the captured DSH header (test/fixtures-dsh-minimal-header.json).

Differences from the DSH preset

• DSH's bash rides a PTY; this one drives bash over pipes with the same marker protocol (exec 2>&1, per-command stdin /dev/null, set +H). Interactive/TTY-dependent programs behave differently. The model-facing schema and description are identical.
• DSH strips two specific injected messages on request #1; pi builds those into the system prompt instead, so replacing the system prompt achieves the same "only the user message + persona" first request.
• skill_load returns the skill body as the tool result rather than injecting it into the next request.
• Post-promotion tools come from whatever is installed in your pi, so the dev_tool_search index text is generic; an empty query lists the catalog.
• No Windows custom-bash; needs a bash on PATH.

Layout

extensions/
  index.ts                    package entry point
  anchored-standard/
    index.ts                  extension: gate, tools, phase wiring, provider hooks, /anchored
    schemas.ts                byte-identical persona + tool descriptions/schemas
    persistent-shell.ts       persistent bash over pipes
    editor.ts                 str_replace_editor port
    phase.ts                  bootstrap → promoted → (compaction) → controlled machine
    config.ts                 config layers + validation
test/                         node --test (Node ≥ 22.18, type-stripping)

Credits

Mechanism, measurements and the original DSH preset: xiaobright/dsh-anchored-standard and xiaobright/modeltest. MIT.