Director Mode agent preset for DeepSeek Harness: two-layer delegation — a high-value model steers, low-cost models execute.
dsh-director is an agent preset for DeepSeek Harness (DSH) that implements Director Mode: it splits one agent session into strictly two layers —
- Director layer (high-value model): the main agent runs on the strong-reasoning model you pick in the session and handles only judgment, planning, requirement clarification, task decomposition, contract locking and acceptance — it never writes code itself.
- Executor layer (low-cost model): all subagents (spawn / fork / workflow workers) are pinned to a low-cost model (default
opencode-go/deepseek-v4-flash, reasoning MAX) viaagentOptionsand do the concrete work: implementation, batch edits, research, audits, tests.
The two layers differ in more than model choice — each has its own hard-coded protocol:
| Director protocol (top) | Executor protocol (bottom) | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | high-value model chosen in the session | low-cost model pinned by agentOptions |
| Duties | judge / plan / decompose / accept | execute directly / verify output / report |
| Forbidden | writing the subagents' implementation code | delegating, asking, or pestering the user |
| Tool layer | full toolset + delegation tools | delegation & asking tools stripped |
Structural guarantees (what a persona alone cannot enforce, locked at the configuration layer):
maxDepth: 1— only the Director (depth 0) may delegate; calls from depth ≥ 1 are rejected at spawn.toolFilter.deny— removessubagent/subagent_fork/send_message/list_agents/interrupt_agent/workflow/ralph/ask_user_questionfrom the executors' tool layer, structurally preventing sub-subagents and user interruptions from below.- Executor persona — an identity that only does the task, verifies its output, and reports.
- Director persona — the full two-layer discipline: contract first, parallel delegation, self-contained prompts, no polling, personal acceptance, rework on failure.
-
Copy the two files under
preset/into~/.dsh/.agent-presets/director/:mkdir -p ~/.dsh/.agent-presets/director cp preset/agent.cordis.yml preset/preset.yml ~/.dsh/.agent-presets/director/
-
In the DSH Web UI, create a new session, pick the Director Mode preset, and select a high-value model for the session (e.g.
deepseek-v4-pro,qwen3.7-max, GPT-5.x family). -
Start delegating: tell the Director your goal — it will present a plan first, delegate to subagents in parallel, and accept the results personally.
To change the executor model: edit the two
agentOptions.modelrows inpreset/agent.cordis.yml(andproviderif needed). To change the Director model: use the session model selector — never the preset.
docs/ ships with the full build & validation record:
docs/director-test-task.md— the ducheck validation task with an 8-point acceptance checklist (plan first / parallel delegation / self-contained prompts / model layering / tool sanitization / accept-and-rework / contract-driven output / cost layering). All 8 points passed in real runs.docs/director-preset-notes.md— architecture decisions mapped to DSH mechanisms, lessons learned, model price cheat-sheet.
All executor tokens are billed at flash rates; the Director spends premium tokens only on planning, integration and acceptance. In practice: all coding work is done by low-cost models, and the interrupt-and-rework loop (via send_message) is a designed-in mechanism that keeps low-value models in bounds.