Skills

HELIX publishes agent skills that mirror the CLI commands. Skills are the interface between AI agents and the HELIX workflow — each skill describes when to activate and what to do.

Installed Skills

Skill	CLI Command	Purpose
`helix-run`	`helix run`	Supervisory autopilot
`helix-build`	`helix build`	One bounded implementation pass
`helix-check`	`helix check`	Queue-health decision
`helix-frame`	`helix frame`	Requirements and feature specs
`helix-design`	`helix design`	Design document creation
`helix-evolve`	`helix evolve`	Thread changes through artifact stack
`helix-review`	`helix review`	Fresh-eyes post-implementation review
`helix-align`	`helix align`	Top-down reconciliation audit
`helix-polish`	`helix polish`	Issue refinement
`helix-triage`	`helix triage`	Create well-structured issues
`helix-next`	`helix next`	Show recommended next issue
`helix-experiment`	`helix experiment`	Metric-driven optimization
`helix-commit`	`helix commit`	Commit with build gate
`helix-worker`	`helix run` (background)	Launch and monitor background runs
`helix-backfill`	`helix backfill`	Reconstruct missing docs

Aliases

helix-implement -> helix-build
helix-plan -> helix-design

Skill Structure

Each skill lives in skills/<name>/SKILL.md with YAML frontmatter:

---
name: helix-build
description: 'Execute one bounded HELIX build pass.'
argument-hint: "[issue-id|scope]"
---

Skills reference shared workflow resources from workflows/ for action prompts, templates, and conventions.

Installation Modes

Plugin Mode (recommended)

claude --plugin-dir /path/to/helix

Skills are auto-discovered from skills/. No manual steps needed.

Symlink Mode (legacy)

scripts/install-local-skills.sh

Creates symlinks in ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/.

Naming Convention

Public skill names are helix-<command>
<command> must match the CLI subcommand exactly
Every published SKILL.md declares name and description
Skills accepting a trailing argument declare argument-hint

CLI Reference Glossary