Glossary

One definition per concept. Use these terms consistently throughout your work with Helix.

Agent — A general term for any AI that uses tools to accomplish tasks. In Helix, "agent" is the broad category; "code agent" and "assistant" are the two specific types. When something is ambiguous between the two, say "code agent" or "assistant" explicitly.

Assistant — A Helix agent configured as a conversational tool: it responds to user messages, calls APIs, queries knowledge bases, and sends outputs to Slack, Discord, or webhooks. Assistants are defined in YAML and accessed via the Helix chat interface. Distinct from a code agent.

Code agent — The software that runs inside a sandbox and does software development: reads files, edits them, runs tests, commits code, and opens pull requests. Four engines are available: Claude Code, Goose, Qwen Code, and Zed Agent. Distinct from an assistant.

Code intelligence — Helix's structured understanding of your codebase, powered by Kodit. Provides semantic search, keyword search, an auto-generated wiki, and a changelog. Exposed to agents via MCP during implementation sessions.

Hydra — The multi-tenant isolation layer inside the Helix sandbox. Each concurrent agent session gets its own Docker daemon and network bridge via Hydra, so sessions can't see each other.

Kodit — The open-source code indexing library Helix uses for code intelligence. Builds a structured, searchable index of repositories, exposed to agents and humans via MCP.

Project — A Helix workspace linking a set of repositories to a set of spec tasks and a configured code agent. All work in Helix is scoped to a project.

Recipe — A reusable, parameterised task playbook used by the Goose code agent. Recipes are YAML files in your repository; Helix renders a parameter-capture form for each one on the spec task creation screen.

Sandbox — An isolated Linux desktop environment provisioned per spec task session. Contains Zed IDE, a terminal, a browser, and the code agent. Streamed to the user's browser as H.264 video.

Spec branch — The helix-specs branch that Helix creates in your primary repository. The agent pushes execution plans and implementation artifacts here. Never merged to main.

Spec task — A discrete unit of work in a Helix project. You describe the desired outcome; the agent plans and implements. Spec tasks are not the same as tickets — they represent active execution, not intent.

Zed — The IDE that runs inside agent sandboxes. Connects to the code agent via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), surfacing tool calls, file edits, and approvals in a streaming thread.