# Agent Note: Standalone sdk-minimal profile under dsh
Status: implemented
English | [中文](2026-08-24-standalone-sdk-minimal-profile.zh.md)
## Problem
A minimal SDK agent needs an explicit plugin roster. Expressing it as an overlay on the full `sdk` profile leaves every `dsh-base` service mounted and makes exclusion depend on filters and disable entries spread across unrelated plugins. A later base row can change runtime behavior even when the model-facing tools remain filtered.
A complete caller-supplied Cordis tree gives an exact roster but bypasses profile initialization, bundle resolution, persistent plugin management, home and invocation patch layers, and the `dsh`-owned process lifecycle. The minimal mode needs composition-level exclusion without creating another launcher or Python-owned application.
## Decision
### Launch and ownership
`dsh --profile sdk-minimal` is a shipped startup-only profile. Its manifest lists only `@deepseek-ai/dsh-sdk-minimal`; it does not list `@deepseek-ai/dsh-base`. The bundle inserts the complete Cordis tree over the launcher's empty profile root, while the profile patch, home patch, and ordered invocation patches retain their ordinary precedence above it.
The `dsh` CLI remains the only application launcher. The Python example selects `sdk-minimal` through the public `profile` field and an explicit Harness home. Python exposes no complete-config or arbitrary-argv path. The full Python and TypeScript SDK defaults remain `sdk`.
The bundle reuses `@deepseek-ai/dsh-sdk-app` for command help, stdin EOF, and bounded shutdown. The startup provider accepts a profile-name config so both SDK profiles render their actual command without duplicating process lifecycle code.
The bundle owns one DeepSeek adapter, SDK JSON-RPC serving, the explicit agent core, local subprocess and unrestricted filesystem providers, a platform-selected persistent shell, the string-replace editor, and uncompressed JSONL sessions under `$DSH_HOME/sessions`. Linux and macOS mount Bash; Windows mounts PowerShell. The SDK initialization request owns the model id; `DSH_CONTEXT_WINDOW` supplies fallback capacity for models outside the adapter's advisory catalog. The persona comes from `DSH_SYSTEM_PROMPT`, and the credential from `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`.
Harness identity, runtime context, workspace instructions, skills, model-facing job controls, compaction, settings, managed credentials, telemetry, Web tools, subagents, and every other base row are absent rather than hidden. The profile pins `danger-full-access`, `maxTokensAsSuccess: false`, and startup-only patch loading.
`dsh plugin --profile sdk-minimal add <package>` installs persistent dependencies and bundle layers. The profile's `cordis.patch.yml`, the home patch, and Python `patches` provide persistent, machine-local, and invocation-specific row changes. Customization can expand or replace the explicit tree, but it still passes through the same launcher and profile resolution.
The Python runtime continues to package `dsh-web-app` and the frontend assets. `dsh web` starts that separate browser application from the installed wheel; a Python SDK client cannot select `web` because it contains no JSON-RPC server row.
## Existing decisions and supersession
This decision partially supersedes the base-first and standalone-tree rejection in [one dsh launcher for application profiles](2026-08-22-single-dsh-application-launcher.md). Repository-owned, versioned standalone profile bundles are allowed when an explicit roster is the product behavior; caller-supplied complete trees and alternate executables remain rejected.
It also supersedes the minimal-overlay realization in [Python SDK runtime through the dsh profile launcher](2026-08-23-python-sdk-dsh-profile-runtime.md) and the base-first default-profile statement in [profile plugin bundles](2026-08-05-profile-plugin-bundles.md). Those notes retain independent authority for launcher ownership, Python packaging and home requirements, general profile layering, and plugin management. No active note is fully superseded or eligible for archival.
The bundle test pins the exact row and dependency roster. Profile-template and config-dump tests pin the one-bundle manifest, startup-only lifecycle, absence of `dsh-base`, and absence of module HMR. The keyless source test boots the real `dsh --profile sdk-minimal` process, completes a turn, and asserts the generated manifest. The installed-wheel minimal scenario owns the complete system prompt and two advertised tools in its committed model-visible snapshot while exercising persistent shell state, editor effects, and JSONL persistence through the packaged executable.
**Keep the minimal mode as an overlay on `sdk`.** Rejected because filtering model-visible tools does not remove base services, prompt contributors, persistence choices, or later runtime behavior. It also required root-tool filtering in the shared SDK server and a complete-persona shortcut in the system-prompt config; neither shared interface carries those composition controls.
**Restore a Python `cordis` argument or environment-selected complete config.** Rejected because it recreates a Python-owned application composition and bypasses profile plugin management and launcher lifecycle.
**Create a second minimal SDK startup plugin.** Rejected because profile-aware help is the only variation; the SDK startup provider can own that config while keeping EOF and shutdown behavior local.
**Remove Web packages from the Python runtime closure.** Rejected because the wheel distributes the ordinary `dsh` application and Python deployments may also need `dsh web`; profile selection, not packaging divergence, separates those applications.
## Consequences
The minimal model and runtime roster changes only when its owning bundle changes or a trusted higher patch expands it. The price is deliberate duplication of a small complete application tree and omission of shared settings, credentials, policy controls, telemetry, and Web capabilities from that profile. Users choose the full `sdk` profile when they need those services, while both choices keep one launcher, one profile vocabulary, and one packaged runtime.
