Installation

One command installs everything.

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/koalazub/nothelix/main/install.sh | sh

The installer supports macOS on Apple Silicon and Linux on x86_64. It downloads a prebuilt tarball and lays it out under ~/.local/bin and ~/.local/share/nothelix, then adds (require "nothelix.scm") to ~/.config/helix/init.scm so Helix loads the plugin on startup. The bundle carries everything nothelix needs, namely the Helix fork, libnothelix, the plugin sources, and a demo notebook.

Once it finishes, open the demo notebook.

nothelix

Requirements

Requirement	Detail
Platform	macOS arm64 or Linux x86_64. Other targets are not shipped yet.
Terminal	A Kitty-protocol terminal for inline plots and math. Run :graphics-check in Helix to confirm.
Julia	1.9 or newer on your PATH. Install via juliaup.

Nothelix runs whatever julia your PATH resolves. It does not vendor a copy and it does not create per-notebook environments. The first cell run adds the kernel’s dependencies to your default environment.

Julia code intelligence such as hover, completion, and go-to-definition is optional. Run nothelix setup-lsp, then follow Language server to wire it up.

Subcommands

Subcommand	What it does
nothelix <file>...	Open notebooks in the bundled Helix fork
nothelix new [path]	Create a new .jl notebook from a template and open it
nothelix doctor	Run environment checks. Add --smoke to spawn a Julia kernel end to end
nothelix setup-lsp	Install the Julia packages the language server needs
nothelix config [show\|edit\|path]	Inspect or edit the effective config
nothelix reset [--lsp\|--kernel\|--all]	Clear runtime state such as caches, kernel env, and LSP
nothelix upgrade	Re-run the installer to upgrade in place
nothelix uninstall	Remove every file the installer placed
nothelix version	Print version and Julia information

Uninstalling is surgical. nothelix uninstall leaves ~/.julia/, your Helix config, and your notebooks untouched, and it removes only the nothelix require line from init.scm. Add --purge to also clear ~/.cache/helix/helix.log.

Install with Nix

The repository is a flake, so you can build the pieces directly instead of fetching a tarball.

nix build github:koalazub/nothelix#hx-nothelix   # the forked Helix binary
nix build github:koalazub/nothelix#libnothelix   # the Rust FFI library

The default package builds the same release bundle the installer ships. Build it, then run its local installer.

nix build github:koalazub/nothelix
sh result/nothelix-*/install-local.sh

When something breaks

Start with the doctor. It runs environment checks and reports what is wrong.

nothelix doctor

Add --smoke to exercise the full execution pipeline, which spawns a Julia kernel end to end. If the checks do not point you at the fix, see Troubleshooting.

You now have nothelix running with the demo notebook open. Read Notebooks next to learn the core loop of writing cells, running them, and moving around. To work on nothelix itself, see Contributing.