Pre-GA
Helix is in Design Partner and Early Access. Early Access opens in the second half of August
2026.
Design Partner and Early Access only.Request access
This page is the single index of what Helix can do today. Much of this documentation covers the platform as designed, and several whole subsystems described elsewhere on this site are not in the product yet. When you’re unsure whether something is available, check here first and trust this page over any other.
Runtime defaults and limits
Functions
Item
Value
Production runtime
Node.js 20+ on AWS Lambda, one Lambda per project with internal routing
CLI requirement
Node.js 24.18.0 or later
Function timeout
30 s default, configurable per function; the maximum is not yet published
Streamed response size
20 MB maximum (Lambda response streaming; first byte can arrive before the function finishes)
Buffered response size
6 MB maximum
Memory
Managed by the platform, not configurable per function
Scaling
Lambda concurrency; scales to zero when idle, no configuration required
Return a Response with a ReadableStream body to stream; the runtime handles the Lambda streaming setup. Note that the output schema is not applied to streaming responses. See the function definition reference.
Storage
Item
Value
KV getKeys page size
100 keys per page by default (limit option)
Files list page size
100 files per page by default (limit option)
Signed URL expiry
3600 s (1 h) by default (expiresIn option)
File size via signed URLs
No limit on individual files; uploads and downloads bypass Lambda
File size via ctx.files.put()
Bounded by Lambda memory and execution time
Queues
Defaults for defineQueueConsumer; all are configurable per consumer.
Option
Default
retries
3
backoff
'exponential'
backoffDelay
1000 ms
timeout
30000 ms (30 s)
concurrency
1
rateLimit
Off unless set (maxPerSecond)
fifo
false
AI gateway
Item
Value
Prompt cache lifetime
1 h by default, scoped to project, model, and prompt hash
Budget warning (80%)
Email notification to project admins
Budget critical (95%)
Email plus Slack notification, if configured
Budget exceeded (100%)
All AI requests blocked until the budget resets or is increased
Data retention
Item
Value
Execution logs
30 days
The 30-day figure comes from the July 2026 launch material. Retention for the org-wide activity trail, whether either is exportable, and any redaction policy for execution payloads are all still being confirmed with engineering; see audit and compliance.
What ships today
The whole surface you can build against right now:
Capability
What you get
CLI
11 commands: auth, deploy, dev, env, init, login, logout, whoami, mcp, project, deployment, workspace. See the CLI reference
Build loop
Claude Code driving the project through the CLI’s MCP server, which the workflow requires
These are real platform direction, which is why you will meet them in design material and in conversation, but none of them exist in the product today. This site documents them only here, in this table, until they ship.
Subsystem
Status
What to do instead today
Managed Postgres, Drizzle, pgvector
Design
Use the key-value store, or call an external database through an authenticated HTTP API
Queues
Design
Do the work inline in the request
File storage
Design
No substitute; the key-value store caps values at 250 KB
AI gateway (ctx.ai())
Design
Create an API Token authentication for the provider and call it with ctx.http.authed()
Scheduled and cron triggers
Planned
Call an HTTP function from an external scheduler
Project-exposed MCP tools
Design
The CLI’s own MCP server ships and is unaffected
Custom domains and SSL
Design
Apps are served on their generated Helix app URL
SSO and IdP configuration
Design
Access is org membership plus per-project Access Control
In-code role rules, org policies, org middleware, agent guardrails, AI budgets
Design
The Admin console gives visibility; enforcement controls are not there yet
