Installing Helix

+ +

Pre-built binaries
Linux, macOS, Windows and OpenBSD packaging status
Linux +
- Ubuntu
- Fedora/RHEL
- Arch Linux extra
- NixOS
- Flatpak
- Snap
- AppImage
+
macOS +
- Homebrew Core
+
Windows +
- Winget
- Scoop
- Chocolatey
- MSYS2
+
Building from source +
- Configuring Helix's runtime files +
  - Linux and macOS
  - Windows
  - Multiple runtime directories
  +
- Validating the installation
- Configure the desktop shortcut
+

+ +

To install Helix, follow the instructions specific to your operating system. +Note that:

+
To get the latest nightly version of Helix, you need to +build from source.
+
+
To take full advantage of Helix, install the language servers for your +preferred programming languages. See the +wiki +for instructions.
+

Pre-built binaries

Download pre-built binaries from the +GitHub Releases page. Add the binary to your system's $PATH to use it from the command +line.

Linux, macOS, Windows and OpenBSD packaging status

Linux

The following third party repositories are available:

Ubuntu

Add the PPA for Helix:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maveonair/helix-editor
+sudo apt update
+sudo apt install helix
+

Fedora/RHEL

Enable the COPR repository for Helix:

sudo dnf copr enable varlad/helix
+sudo dnf install helix
+

Arch Linux extra

Releases are available in the extra repository:

sudo pacman -S helix
+

Additionally, a helix-git package is available +in the AUR, which builds the master branch.

NixOS

Helix is available in nixpkgs through the helix attribute, +the unstable channel usually carries the latest release.

Helix is also available as a flake in the project +root. Use nix develop to spin up a reproducible development shell. Outputs are +cached for each push to master using Cachix. The +flake is configured to automatically make use of this cache assuming the user +accepts the new settings on first use.

If you are using a version of Nix without flakes enabled, +install Cachix CLI and use +cachix use helix to configure Nix to use cached outputs when possible.

Flatpak

Helix is available on Flathub:

flatpak install flathub com.helix_editor.Helix
+flatpak run com.helix_editor.Helix
+

Snap

Helix is available on Snapcraft and can be installed with:

snap install --classic helix
+

This will install Helix as both /snap/bin/helix and /snap/bin/hx, so make sure /snap/bin is in your PATH.

AppImage

Install Helix using the Linux AppImage format. +Download the official Helix AppImage from the latest releases page.

chmod +x helix-*.AppImage # change permission for executable mode
+./helix-*.AppImage # run helix
+

macOS

Homebrew Core

brew install helix
+

Windows

Install on Windows using Winget, Scoop, Chocolatey +or MSYS2.

Winget

Windows Package Manager winget command-line tool is by default available on Windows 11 and modern versions of Windows 10 as a part of the App Installer. +You can get App Installer from the Microsoft Store. If it's already installed, make sure it is updated with the latest version.

winget install Helix.Helix
+

Scoop

scoop install helix
+

Chocolatey

choco install helix
+

MSYS2

For 64-bit Windows 8.1 or above:

pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-helix
+

Building from source

Requirements:

Clone the Helix GitHub repository into a directory of your choice. The +examples in this documentation assume installation into either ~/src/ on +Linux and macOS, or %userprofile%\src\ on Windows.

The Rust toolchain
The Git version control system
A C++14 compatible compiler to build the tree-sitter grammars, for example GCC or Clang

If you are using the musl-libc standard library instead of glibc the following environment variable must be set during the build to ensure tree-sitter grammars can be loaded correctly:

RUSTFLAGS="-C target-feature=-crt-static"
+

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/helix-editor/helix
+cd helix
+

+
Compile from source:
+
```
cargo install --path helix-term --locked
+
```
+
This command will create the hx executable and construct the tree-sitter +grammars in the local runtime folder.
+

+
💡 Tree-sitter grammars can be fetched and compiled if not pre-packaged. Fetch +grammars with hx --grammar fetch and compile them with +hx --grammar build. This will install them in +the runtime directory within the user's helix config directory (more +details below).
+

Configuring Helix's runtime files

Linux and macOS

The runtime directory is one below the Helix source, so either set a +HELIX_RUNTIME environment variable to point to that directory and add it to +your ~/.bashrc or equivalent:

HELIX_RUNTIME=~/src/helix/runtime
+

Or, create a symbolic link:

ln -Ts $PWD/runtime ~/.config/helix/runtime
+

If the above command fails to create a symbolic link because the file exists either move ~/.config/helix/runtime to a new location or delete it, then run the symlink command above again.

Windows

Either set the HELIX_RUNTIME environment variable to point to the runtime files using the Windows setting (search for +Edit environment variables for your account) or use the setx command in +Cmd:

setx HELIX_RUNTIME "%userprofile%\source\repos\helix\runtime"
+

+
💡 %userprofile% resolves to your user directory like +C:\Users\Your-Name\ for example.
+

Or, create a symlink in %appdata%\helix\ that links to the source code directory:

+ + +

Method	Command
PowerShell	`New-Item -ItemType Junction -Target "runtime" -Path "$Env:AppData\helix\runtime"`
Cmd	`cd %appdata%\helix` `mklink /D runtime "%userprofile%\src\helix\runtime"`

+
💡 On Windows, creating a symbolic link may require running PowerShell or +Cmd as an administrator.
+

Multiple runtime directories

When Helix finds multiple runtime directories it will search through them for files in the +following order:

runtime/ sibling directory to $CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR directory (this is intended for +developing and testing helix only).
runtime/ subdirectory of OS-dependent helix user config directory.
$HELIX_RUNTIME
Distribution-specific fallback directory (set at compile time—not run time— +with the HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME environment variable)
runtime/ subdirectory of path to Helix executable.

This order also sets the priority for selecting which file will be used if multiple runtime +directories have files with the same name.

Note to packagers

If you are making a package of Helix for end users, to provide a good out of +the box experience, you should set the HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME environment +variable at build time (before invoking cargo build) to a directory which +will store the final runtime files after installation. For example, say you want +to package the runtime into /usr/lib/helix/runtime. The rough steps a build +script could follow are:

export HELIX_DEFAULT_RUNTIME=/usr/lib/helix/runtime
cargo build --profile opt --locked --path helix-term
cp -r runtime $BUILD_DIR/usr/lib/helix/
cp target/opt/hx $BUILD_DIR/usr/bin/hx

This way the resulting hx binary will always look for its runtime directory in +/usr/lib/helix/runtime if the user has no custom runtime in ~/.config/helix +or HELIX_RUNTIME.

Validating the installation

To make sure everything is set up as expected you should run the Helix health +check:

hx --health
+

For more information on the health check results refer to +Health check.

Configure the desktop shortcut

If your desktop environment supports the +XDG desktop menu +you can configure Helix to show up in the application menu by copying the +provided .desktop and icon files to their correct folders:

cp contrib/Helix.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
+cp contrib/helix.png ~/.icons # or ~/.local/share/icons
+

To use another terminal than the system default, you can modify the .desktop +file. For example, to use kitty:

sed -i "s|Exec=hx %F|Exec=kitty hx %F|g" ~/.local/share/applications/Helix.desktop
+sed -i "s|Terminal=true|Terminal=false|g" ~/.local/share/applications/Helix.desktop
+

+ +