Installation

The runtime is a Python package with a command-line tool. It installs into any virtual environment and needs no service, database or network access to evaluate.

Requirements#

Requirement	Details
Python	3.9 to 3.13. Tested on 3.11. Python 3.14 is not yet supported.
Operating system	macOS (Apple silicon, Intel), Linux (x86_64, aarch64), Windows through WSL.
Dependencies	Installed automatically: `pydantic` 2, `cryptography`, `pyyaml`, `numpy`, and `fastapi`, `uvicorn` and `websockets` for the HTTP service.
Optional	`torch`, only for the GPU batch constraint solver. Not needed for evaluation.

Changes in the next release

The distribution is named helixor-runtime and takes its version from helixor_runtime.__version__. numpy is no longer a core dependency: it moves, with torch, to a gpu extra (pip install "helixor-runtime[gpu]") that only the GPU batch solver needs. Importing helixor_runtime no longer loads either library, which cuts import time; see Benchmarks. Without torch, creating the GPU solver raises a HelixorRuntimeError that names the extra. A wheel built from the source on 2026-09-28 was checked: it is named helixor-runtime 0.2.1, and the check under Verify runs from it with neither library loaded. The package is still not on the public index.

Install the package#

Not on the public package index yet

Publishing helixor-runtime to the public index is Planned. Until then you install the wheel you receive with your account; verify its checksum first (see SDK downloads). The package name, import paths and CLI are the same either way, so nothing in these docs changes when the public package ships.

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install ./helixor_runtime-0.2.1-py3-none-any.whl

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install helixor-runtime

The install provides two import packages and two commands:

Name	What it is
`helixor_runtime`	The public API: `HelixorEngine`, the service helpers and the generated models. Import from here.
Implementation modules	Other packages installed alongside `helixor_runtime` are internal. Do not import them; they can change without notice.
`helixor-pack`, `helixor`	The same CLI under two names: inspect licenses, compile playbooks, run and serve packs. See the CLI reference.

Verify#

python -c "import helixor_runtime as h; e = h.HelixorEngine(); print(h.__version__, e.pack_id, e.tier)"

0.2.1 compliance.regulatory_pii_guard.v1 COMMUNITY

Place your license file#

The Community tier needs no license file. For Developer and higher tiers, the runtime and CLI look for your .hxlic in this order and use the first one they find:

A path you pass explicitly (--license, or the license_file argument).
The HELIXOR_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.
./helixor.lic in the working directory (CLI only; the Python loader skips this step).
~/.helixor/helixor.lic.

mkdir -p ~/.helixor
cp ~/Downloads/acme.hxlic ~/.helixor/helixor.lic
chmod 600 ~/.helixor/helixor.lic
helixor-pack inspect-license

Treat the license as a secret

A license file contains the key that decrypts the packs issued for it. Store it the way you store a database password: file mode 600 on hosts, a secret manager in containers. See Security.

Install the CLI only#

On a machine where you only need the CLI (a build agent that compiles packs, for example), the install script puts helixor and helixor-pack in ~/.helixor/bin and links them into ~/.local/bin if it exists. It uses your existing Python 3 and the installed package.

bash scripts/install_runtime.sh
helixor-pack --help

Uninstall#

pip uninstall helixor-runtime
rm -rf ~/.helixor/bin

Your license in ~/.helixor/helixor.lic is left in place. Delete it separately if you no longer need it.