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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.helix-db.com/llms.txt

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For the complete documentation index optimized for AI agents, see llms.txt.
Helix Cloud is an object-storage-backed graph database with integrated vector search and full-text search. It combines a property graph engine with approximate vector search and BM25 full-text search on top of durable object storage, using SSD and in-memory caches for low-latency reads. Helix Cloud is a fundamentally different architecture and database compared to the opensource v1 version of HelixDB. That version used LMDB which was limited to sequential writes and could only handle a relatively small amount of data. Helix Cloud uses a new LSM based storage engine backed by object storage that can handle concurrent writes to the writer node and allows for virtually unlimited data storage.

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HelixDB Cloud System at a Glance

A gateway routes all traffic. A single writer serializes mutations for consistency. Readers auto-scale horizontally to handle query load. Object storage is the durable system of record. Caches reduce steady-state latency and accelerate cold starts.

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Key Properties

  • Graph, vector, and text storage on object storage. Nodes, edges, properties, vector indexes, and text index artifacts all persist durably in object storage. No local disk is required for correctness.
  • Tiered caching. Separate in-memory and SSD cache paths for graph data, vector data, and text search artifacts keep hot-path reads fast.
  • Full ACID transactions. Every query runs in a serializable snapshot isolation transaction. Concurrent reads and writes do not block each other.
  • Stored query model. Queries are authored in a Rust DSL, deployed as stored procedures, and invoked by name over HTTP. No query parsing at runtime.

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Next Steps

Working with Helix Cloud

Deploy-time and runtime workflow for stored and dynamic queries.

Architecture

Gateway, writer, readers, object storage, and the cache hierarchy.

Developing Locally

Run the enterprise-dev image in-memory or against MinIO.

Querying

Traversal DSL, stored queries, dynamic queries, and transactions.