dsh-turn-budget

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Advisory turn step-budget reminders for DeepSeek Harness.

Opt-in advisory step-budget reminders: when an agent turn exceeds a configured step count, the plugin appends a source-attributed reminder telling the model to wrap up. Advisory only — it never rejects or rewrites a step, so it cannot deadlock the loop. Default compositions leave it disabled; opt in through a profile overlay.

Companion to @deepseek-ai/dsh-turn-meta (per-step metadata); a second first-plugin-style example in the guard group.

Config

- id: turn-budget
  name: '@deepseek-ai/dsh-turn-budget'
  config:
    maxSteps: 12    # optional step budget per turn; default 12
    remindEvery: 4  # optional cadence after the budget; default 4
    enabled: true   # optional master switch; default true

maxSteps and remindEvery must be positive safe integers; any other value fails plugin load. With defaults, steps 13, 17, 21, … get one reminder each.

Reminder semantics

The plugin prepends an agent/pre-step listener and delegates first. It derives the current step from the durable session log (turn/start + step/start), so reminders survive resume and replay. When the derived step exceeds maxSteps by a multiple of remindEvery, it appends one sourced UserMessage; rejection or an in-budget step records nothing.

Each reminder uses the exact snapshot source { kind: 'plugin', plugin: 'turn-budget', form: 'snapshot', sections: [{ name: 'turn-budget', text: <same text> }] }. The ./invariant companion validates that shape, checks the named step against the open step boundary, and fails any reminder at or below its budget.

Model Experience

What the model sees

One line per cadence step past the budget:

[turn-budget] turn=<turn> step=<step> exceeds the <maxSteps>-step budget. Wrap up the remaining work now: prefer one decisive action and finish the turn.

Token effect

One short line per cadence step accumulates until compaction shadows it.

KV Cache effect

None: the reminder carries no state that later preparation steps depend on.

Known Limitations and Deferred Work

• The budget is per turn; there is no per-session budget yet. Add one by scanning turn/start counts the same way dsh-turn-meta counts prior turns.
• Reminders are advisory text only; a hard stop would need a separate guard policy.