HELIX(1)

💖 HELIX(1) — the manual, but make it make sense ✨

hey bestie, welcome to the man page for helix, which lives in the User Commands corner of the manual-page universe. yes, that's the same helix you've been hearing about. it's a text editor. it's modal. it's everything. let's get into it 🦋

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🌸 NAME

helix — efficient command-line modal text-editor

literally what it says on the tin. efficient, command-line, modal, text-editor. four for four. no notes. 💅

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✨ DESCRIPTION

so here's the whole vibe, straight from the source:

helix-term 25.07.1 — Blaž Hrastnik <blaz@mxxn.io> — A post-modern text editor.

that's it. that's the description. short, iconic, main character energy 👑

🌈 USAGE:

okay so if you actually wanna run this thing, here's the shape of it:

hx [FLAGS] [files]...

flags go first, then however many files you're chaotic enough to open at once. yes, plural. yes, it can handle it. 🫶

🎀 ARGS:

• <files>... — tell helix which input file to use, queen. and the fun part? you can also point at a position inside it, using the format file[:row[:col]]. so like, file, then optionally a row, then optionally a column. slay. 📍

🧚 FLAGS:

every flag, in order, no skipping, no cap:

• -h, --help — print help information. the classic. your "wait what was I doing" button 🆘
• --strict — bail on error for commands that can fail. like, no forgiveness mode. if something can fail and it does, we're out. 💀
• --tutor — load the tutorial. this is your training arc, bestie. highly recommend.
• --health [CATEGORY] — check for potential errors in your editor setup. and you can hand it a CATEGORY, which can be a language, or one of 'clipboard', 'languages', 'all-languages', or 'all'. important lil detail: 'languages' gets filtered according to your user config, whereas 'all-languages' and 'all' do not get filtered. if you don't specify anything at all, the default behaves the same as 'all', but with that languages filtering applied. iykyk 🔍
• -g, --grammar {fetch|build} — fetch or builds tree-sitter grammars listed in languages.toml. pick fetch or pick build, those are the two options, thank you for coming to my ted talk 🌳
• -c, --config <file> — specify a file to use for configuration. your custom rules, your custom world ✨
• -v — increase logging verbosity, and every single use stacks it, for up to 3 times. so -v, -vv, -vvv — and then bestie, that's the ceiling 🗣️
• --log <file> — specify a file to use for logging. and heads up, the default file is /sbuild-nonexistent/.cache/helix/helix.log 📝
• -V, --version — print version information. quick lil proof of identity 🪪
• --vsplit — split all given files vertically into different windows. side by side, like a lil squad ⬅️➡️
• --hsplit — split all given files horizontally into different windows. stacked, one on top of the other ⬆️⬇️
• -w, --working-dir <path> — specify an initial working directory. set the stage before anything begins 🏠
• +[N] — open the first given file at line number N. and if you don't bother specifying N? you get dropped at the last line instead. always the last stop 🎯

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reminder bestie: that +[N] jumps to the last line when N is missing. not the first, not the middle. the last. remember it 💜

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and that's the whole page, fr fr. this gem of a manual comes to you from helix 25.07.1, dated July 2026 🌈✨ go open a file, run --tutor, become unstoppable. periodt. 💅👑🎀