Fix: “dsh: command not found” after installing @deepseek-ai/dsh

The install printed success, and the shell disagrees. Three causes account for nearly all of these, and one command distinguishes them.

Step 1 — did it actually install?

npm ls -g --depth=0

Look for @deepseek-ai/dsh in the output.

Not listed? The install failed despite what scrolled past. Re-run it and read the tail of the output rather than the last line:

npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh

Listed? The package is on disk and this is a PATH problem. Continue.

Step 2 — is npm's global bin on your PATH?

npm bin -g

That prints the directory npm puts global executables in — something like /usr/local/bin, /opt/homebrew/bin, or ~/.npm-global/bin. Check whether it is in your PATH:

echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n' | grep -F "$(npm bin -g)"

No output means the directory is missing from PATH. Add it to your shell profile — ~/.zshrc on modern macOS, ~/.bashrc on most Linux:

export PATH="$(npm bin -g):$PATH"

Then open a new shell, or source the file. An already-running shell will not re-read your profile on its own.

Step 3 — are you on the Node version you installed into?

This one catches people who did everything right.

nvm, fnm and volta give each Node version its own global package directory. A global install performed under Node 20 does not exist under Node 22. If you installed dsh, later switched or upgraded Node, and the command vanished — this is why.

node -v
nvm ls        # or: fnm list

Two ways out. Reinstall under the version you now use:

npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh

Or, with nvm, migrate your globals when upgrading:

nvm install 22 --reinstall-packages-from=20

The EACCES variant

If the install itself fails with EACCES: permission denied, your npm prefix points at a root-owned directory. The tempting fix is sudo. Don't — it writes root-owned files into your npm cache and global tree, and the next non-sudo install fails in a much less obvious way.

Point the prefix somewhere you own:

mkdir -p ~/.npm-global
npm config set prefix ~/.npm-global
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"   # add to your shell profile
npm install -g @deepseek-ai/dsh

Or install Node through a version manager, which puts everything under your home directory and makes the problem structurally impossible.

The escape hatch

While you sort out the shell, you are not blocked:

npx @deepseek-ai/dsh web

npx resolves and runs the package without touching your PATH at all.

Still nothing?

Confirm the binary exists where npm says it should:

ls -l "$(npm bin -g)/dsh"

If the file is there but does not run, check it is executable (chmod +x) and that you are not shadowing it with a shell alias or function:

type -a dsh

type -a shows every dsh your shell can see, in resolution order — including an alias defined in a profile you forgot about.