HELIX Actions

Actions are bounded supervisory commands that drive HELIX execution. Each action does one thing and exits. The helix run supervisor chains them based on queue state.

Execution Actions

These actions do work or decide what work to do next.

build

Execute one ready tracker issue end-to-end.

Claims a ready issue, loads governing artifacts, implements the work, runs verification (including concern-declared quality gates), commits with traceability, and closes the issue. The core execution primitive.

check

Inspect queue health and recommend the next action.

Decision codes: BUILD, DESIGN, POLISH, ALIGN, BACKFILL, WAIT, GUIDANCE, STOP. The supervisor uses this to route the loop.

run

The supervisory autopilot. Chains check, build, review, and other actions until human input is needed.

Runs the loop: check queue state, select action, execute, optionally review, repeat. Stops on WAIT, GUIDANCE, or STOP.

status

Report the current run-controller state.

Shows current issue, blockers, cycle timing, token usage, and next recommended action.

Steering Actions

These actions shape the work before or after execution.

frame

Create or refine product vision, PRD, feature specs, and user stories.

Operates at authority levels 1-3. Also bootstraps principles and concerns if missing.

design

Create a comprehensive design document through iterative self-critique.

Produces architecture decisions, interface contracts, data models, error handling, security considerations, test strategy, and implementation ordering. Default 5 refinement rounds with convergence detection.

evolve

Thread a requirement change through the entire artifact stack.

Takes a new requirement, detects conflicts with existing artifacts and concerns, updates documents top-down (highest authority first), creates tracker issues for implementation.

polish

Refine tracker issues before implementation begins.

Deduplicates issues, verifies plan coverage, sharpens acceptance criteria, fixes dependencies, enforces area labels for concern matching, and checks that acceptance criteria reference the correct concern tools.

triage

Create tracker issues with proper governing artifact references.

Assembles a context digest and prepends it to the bead description.

Quality Actions

These actions verify and improve completed work.

review

Post-implementation fresh-eyes review.

Four passes: correctness, integration, concern-aware quality (security, tech-stack drift, observability), and operational learnings. Files actionable findings as tracker issues.

align

Top-down reconciliation review of plan vs. implementation.

Reconstructs intent from planning artifacts, validates traceability, detects concern drift across all layers (docs, designs, code), classifies gaps, and creates execution issues for follow-up work.

experiment

Metric-driven optimization within a bounded iteration.

Hypothesize, edit, test, benchmark, keep or discard. Tracks results in JSONL with confidence scoring. Squash-merges kept changes on close.

backfill

Reconstruct missing HELIX documentation from existing evidence.

Research-first reconstruction: inventories evidence, extracts findings bottom-up, drafts artifacts top-down with confidence levels. Gates low-confidence content on user confirmation. Also discovers and proposes active concerns if concerns.md is missing.

Utility Actions

commit

Commit with HELIX-compliant message format and pre-push build gate.

Auto-stages, runs the full quality gate, commits with issue traceability, pushes, and closes the tracker issue.

next

Recommend the next issue to work on.

Examines the ready queue and suggests the best candidate based on dependency ordering, governing artifact clarity, and critical path position.