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For local development, Helix ships a combined enterprise-dev image that runs a gateway and database together in a single container. The image supports two storage modes:
  • In-memory — fastest to spin up, but data is lost on container restart.
  • On-disk — backed by an S3-compatible object store such as MinIO, so data survives restarts and mirrors the production storage path.
In both modes:
  • If PATH_TO_QUERIES is unset, you can still use dynamic POST /v1/query requests.
  • If PATH_TO_QUERIES is set, the container loads stored queries from the mounted queries.json file during startup.

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Quick Start with the CLI

The fastest way to get started is the Helix CLI, which wraps the enterprise-dev image and handles container lifecycle for you: 
# Install the CLI
curl -sSL "https://install.helix-db.com" | bash

# Scaffold a new project (creates helix.toml and examples/request.json)
mkdir my-helix-app && cd my-helix-app
helix init local --name dev

# Start the local in-memory runtime on port 8080
helix run dev

# Or start with persistent local storage backed by MinIO
helix run dev --disk

# Send a dynamic query
helix query dev --file examples/request.json

# Stop the instance when you're done
helix stop dev
For installation details, V2 Cloud authentication, and the full command reference, see the CLI Getting Started guide.

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AI-assisted query authoring

If you’re developing with a coding agent, install the Helix skills bundle to get specialized agents for writing, optimizing, and translating HelixDB queries: 
npx skills add HelixDB/skills
This installs skills such as helix-query-authoring, helix-query-optimize, helix-query-json-dynamic, helix-query-from-cypher, and helix-query-from-gremlin. Once installed, Claude will load the relevant skill automatically when you ask it to write a query, tune a slow traversal, or translate a Cypher/Gremlin query into the Helix Rust DSL. Run the command from the root of your Helix project so the skills can inspect your local schema, edges, and existing queries when generating new ones.

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Configuring disk mode

To make disk mode the default for a local instance, initialize or add it with --disk: 
helix init local --disk
helix add local --name persistent --disk
The CLI-managed disk mode starts a MinIO sidecar, creates the helix-db bucket, and keeps the MinIO volume across helix stop. Use helix prune <instance> to delete the persisted local data. If you’d rather manage the containers yourself with Docker Compose, the in-memory and on-disk setups below show the raw image configuration that the CLI disk mode mirrors.

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In-Memory

In-memory mode is development-only. Stopping or restarting the container wipes all data.
You can add this service to a local docker-compose.yml: 
services:
  helix:
    image: ghcr.io/helixdb/enterprise-dev
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      PATH_TO_QUERIES: /workspace/queries.json
    volumes:
      - ./queries.json:/workspace/queries.json:ro
If you only want dynamic queries, omit PATH_TO_QUERIES and the mounted queries.json volume.

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On-Disk

For persistent local development, point the enterprise-dev image at an S3-compatible object store. The example below brings up MinIO, initializes the helix-db bucket, and configures the enterprise-dev container to read and write to it. Data persists across container restarts as long as the MinIO volume is preserved. 
services:
  minio:
    image: minio/minio:latest
    command: server /data --console-address ":9001"
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      MINIO_ROOT_USER: minioadmin
      MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD: minioadmin
    volumes:
      - minio-data:/data

  minio-init:
    image: minio/mc:latest
    restart: "no"
    depends_on:
      - minio
    entrypoint:
      - /bin/sh
      - -c
      - |
        until mc alias set local http://minio:9000 minioadmin minioadmin; do sleep 1; done
        mc mb --ignore-existing local/helix-db

  helix:
    image: ghcr.io/helixdb/enterprise-dev:v0.1.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      minio-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      PATH_TO_QUERIES: /workspace/queries.json
      S3_BUCKET: helix-db
      S3_REGION: us-east-1
      DB_PATH: db/
      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: minioadmin
      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: minioadmin
      AWS_ENDPOINT: http://minio:9000
      AWS_ALLOW_HTTP: "true"
    volumes:
      - ./queries.json:/workspace/queries.json:ro

volumes:
  minio-data:

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Environment variables

VariableDescription
S3_BUCKETBucket the database reads and writes to.
S3_REGIONRegion passed to the S3 client. Any value works against MinIO.
DB_PATHPrefix inside the bucket where the database keeps its files.
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_IDAccess key for the object store.
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYSecret key for the object store.
AWS_ENDPOINTCustom endpoint URL — required for MinIO and other non-AWS S3 providers.
AWS_ALLOW_HTTPSet to true when the endpoint is plain HTTP (e.g. local MinIO).
The same variables work against any S3-compatible store — MinIO, LocalStack, Ceph RGW, or AWS S3 itself. Drop AWS_ENDPOINT and AWS_ALLOW_HTTP to talk to real AWS S3.

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Next Steps

Working with Helix Cloud

Authoring queries.json, deploying stored queries, and the runtime workflow.

Querying

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

CLI Getting Started

Install the Helix CLI, scaffold a project, and send your first query.

Local Workflow

Iterate on dynamic JSON queries against a local v2 instance.