Helide

Helix, with the workspace built in. Everything Helix does works the same way, and its own documentation still applies. This page covers what Helide adds.

install

From a release. Download the tarball from the latest release, unpack it anywhere and run the hx inside. It finds the runtime folder next to it. Linux x86_64 only for now.

tar xf helide-v0.1.0-x86_64-linux.tar.xz
./helide-v0.1.0-x86_64-linux/hx .

From source, with Rust installed:

git clone https://github.com/ujjwalvivek/helide-rs
cd helide-rs
cargo install --path helix-term --locked
ln -Ts "$PWD/runtime" ~/.config/helix/runtime
hx --grammar fetch && hx --grammar build

Helide reads your Helix config in ~/.config/helix. The agent panel needs claude or opencode on your PATH, the code stats need scc, and a Nerd Font makes the file icons show.

opening a project

Without a saved workspace, Helide starts on a welcome screen: o open folder, f find file, t file tree, n new file, c config, q quit, and 1–6 for recent projects.

panels and keys

A panel key shows and focuses its panel, focuses it if it is shown, and hides it if it is focused. Every panel edge can also be dragged.

file tree

The tree follows the disk as files change. Under it, when it is tall enough, are code stats for the folder in view (the selected folder, or the selected file's): lines of code by language, and the COCOMO and LOCOMO estimates of what the code would cost a team or a model to write. They come from scc.

git panel

Changes, staged files, untracked files and stashes, then the commit graph, with a summary of the selected commit (or HEAD) at the bottom. Its file list scrolls on its own.

With the mouse: a click on a file opens its diff, a double click lists its hunks, a right click opens the file. A diff tab shows the whole file with added lines tinted green and removed ones red, and stays current as the file changes.

tabs and splits

Each side-by-side split has its own row of file tabs on the border above it. A file joins a row when that split shows it, and stays until you close it there or drag it away. A file open in two splits has a tab in both.

Rows of tabs are saved with the workspace. Layouts are whole arrangements of splits, like separate screens: :tab-new makes one, and when there is more than one they are numbered on the right of the border under LAYOUTS.

terminal

Tabs come back with the workspace, with their panes, names, folders and programs. A file path printed in the terminal can be clicked to open it.

agents

Agent tabs reopen on the conversation they were in, including after /clear or /resume in Claude and /sessions in OpenCode. A tab shows ● while the agent works and ✓ when it finished while you were elsewhere, with a desktop notification for long runs. Claude Code connects to Helide the way it does to its VS Code extension, so it sees your selection and proposes edits as diffs in a tab.

time travel

Helide keeps a private copy of every file as you open it, each time you save it, and every half minute while it has unsaved edits. :history (or :time-travel) lists the versions with how they differ from now, and previews each one: a green bar marks lines that would come back, a red mark where lines of now would go. Enter puts the version back as one edit, so u undoes it.

:history git does the same through the commits that changed the file. Copies older than a day are thinned to one an hour, older than a month to one a day; files over 1 MB are not kept.

markdown preview

Space m, :preview, or PREVIEW on the border renders a Markdown file in the pane beside it, with headings, lists, tables, code blocks and quotes.

model commands

These use the local model from your OpenCode config. :ask can search the web through SearXNG when SEARXNG_URL is set. The helide-rs-mozilla branch routes them through Otari instead, with secrets masked before anything leaves the editor.

scripting

Each editor listens on a socket, and hx msg talks to it. Programs started inside Helide find their editor through HELIDE_SOCKET.

where things live