strand wraps the real Helix editing engine — modal, selection-first, tree-sitter-powered — in a GPU-rendered native app, and adds the rails around it: file tree, tabs, quick-open, search, git and test panels. No Electron, no cloud, no accounts.
strand doesn't reinvent the editing model — it hosts the genuine Helix engine behind a native shell and builds the IDE rails around it.
Modal, selection-first editing with multiple cursors — helix-core itself, compiled from Rust to a static library and driven through a thin C ABI. Kakoune-style select-then-act, correct by the same engine you trust in the terminal.
Helix's grammars and queries do the coloring — accurate scope, not regex guesswork.
Pick from the Helix themes you already use — everforest and friends — applied across the whole shell, not just the buffer.
File-tree sidebar with live git status marks, per-project tab strips, and a ⌘P quick-open palette that jumps anywhere.
A native Metal renderer locked to your display, frame-times profiled and hot paths shaved — with an e2e harness that reports FPS/RAM timelines on every heavy session.
strand is a native macOS app today — Cocoa and Metal, no layers of emulation. Windows and Linux arrive when their platform bridges land, not as second-class ports.
strand is built around the loop you already run: open the project, drive the buffer with Helix motions, and let the rails — git marks, search, tests — keep up without leaving the keyboard.
Point strand at a folder; the project switcher remembers it. ⌘P jumps to any file in milliseconds.
Helix motions, multiple selections, tree-sitter feedback as you type — the terminal muscle memory transfers 1:1.
Git status marks live in the gutter and sidebar; the test runner panel reports without leaving the editor.
Pick your path. strand is free, runs entirely on your machine, and never phones home.
A drag-to-Applications DMG with the Helix runtime staged inside, so highlighting works out of the box.
Download .dmgNot notarized yet — if Gatekeeper blocks the first launch, right-click the app and choose Open.
Clone the repo and let the bundle script do the rest — it compiles the helix-core static library, builds the app, and wraps a signed bundle:
Needs ars and cargo on PATH; the helix-core Rust build is content-hash cached between runs.
strand is an offline native app: your projects stay on your disk, there's no account, no sync service and no telemetry. Uninstalling the app never touches a line of your code.
