CLI Reference

The helix command-line tool manages your HELIX Mission Control installation. It's installed automatically during setup and available system-wide.

Installation

If the CLI isn't installed:

cd /home/helix/helix-mission-control
bash scripts/install-cli.sh

This creates a symlink so you can run helix from anywhere.

Commands

Service Management

# Check status of all services
helix status

# Start all services
helix start

# Stop all services
helix stop

# Restart all services
helix restart

# Restart a specific service
helix restart backend
helix restart gateway
helix restart frontend

Logs

# View all logs (follow mode)
helix logs

# View logs for a specific service
helix logs backend
helix logs gateway
helix logs frontend
helix logs db

# View last N lines
helix logs backend --tail 100

Backup & Restore

# Create a backup
helix backup

# List available backups
helix backups

# Restore from a backup
helix restore backups/helix-backup-2026-03-17-020000.sql.gz

User Management

# Reset a user's password
helix reset-password admin@company.com

# This prompts for a new password and updates it in the database

Updates

# Update to the latest version
helix update

# This runs scripts/update.sh which:
# 1. Pulls latest code
# 2. Rebuilds containers
# 3. Runs migrations
# 4. Restarts services

Database

# Run database migrations
helix migrate

# Open a database shell
helix db-shell

# This opens psql connected to the HELIX database

Diagnostics

# Run full health check
helix health

# Show system information
helix info

# Output includes:
# - HELIX version
# - Docker version
# - OS version
# - Memory/disk usage
# - Service status

Environment

The CLI reads configuration from:

1. /home/helix/helix-mission-control/.env — environment variables
2. /home/helix/helix-mission-control/docker-compose.yml — service definitions

All commands operate from the HELIX installation directory, regardless of where you run them.

Examples

Daily Operations

# Morning check — verify everything is running
helix status
helix health

# View recent backend activity
helix logs backend --tail 50

# Before deploying changes
helix backup
helix update
helix status

Troubleshooting

# Service not responding — restart it
helix restart backend

# Check what's wrong
helix logs backend --tail 200

# Full health diagnostic
helix health

# Nuclear option — restart everything
helix restart

User Issues

# User forgot their password
helix reset-password user@company.com

# Check if a user can log in
helix logs backend | grep "login"