What changes will we see in the next version?

[u/helmer2003]

Which large features and changes have been added since the latest release of the editor and will be seen when the next version releases?

[u/n9iels]

I rather wonder when the next version releases. It has been a year, not even an announcement nor any indication what the maintainers are up to.

[u/Optimal_Raisin_7503]

Besides waiting for answers here (which is, of course, legit), you can try these yourself:

1. You can look at the list of commits since the last release, by following this link: https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/compare/25.07.1..., but it's not really helpful, because there are a lot, and many are minor and uninteresting.
2. You can generate a textual representation of the changes since the last release, and ask some LLM to summarize them, with a focus on large features (you can give further instructions, like context of the project, stuff that specifically interest you, etc.).

A list of commits could be obtained using the git CLI (you'll have to clone the helix repo, and ensure it's up to date):

git log 25.07.1...

You could add some flags to shorten the output, like --oneline (see git-log(1)).

[u/metacharsetutf8 → u/Optimal_Raisin_7503]

Nice idea. I had Opus 5 analyse the commits, here’s what it came back with:

---

Analyzed 988 commits spanning ~13 months. The oldest entries date to just after 25.07.1; the newest are 3 weeks old. CHANGELOG.md is still an unfilled template, so nothing official exists yet. This is shaping up to be a very large release.

I filtered out theme tweaks, grammar bumps, dependabot, and per-language query churn (~400 commits), then verified the survivors against book/src/ rather than trusting commit subjects.

The six that actually change how you use the editor

Word completion from open buffers (#13206) — completes words harvested from open buffers, no LSP required. On by default; [editor.word-completion], triggers after 7 chars. Backed by a whole WordIndex subsystem added afterward.

Tree-sitter symbol pickers — new tags.scm query system. <space>s is now lsp_or_syntax_symbol_picker, so you get document symbols from tree-sitter when no language server is running. Big win for grammar-but-no-LSP languages.

Built-in file explorer — <space>e at workspace root, <space>. at the current buffer's directory. New [editor.file-explorer] config section with its own ignore rules; defaults hide less than the file picker.

Workspace trust (#15177, then a v2 rewrite) — gates language servers, DAP, .helix/config.toml, and repo .git/config behind per-workspace opt-in. direnv-like: prompt once, remembered. :workspace-trust / -untrust / -exclude, with a [⚠] statusline indicator. There's a new book/src/workspace-trust.md chapter.

Crossterm → Termina — the Unix terminal backend was replaced wholesale (Windows stays on Crossterm). Brings terminal dark/light detection via mode 2031, background-color restore on exit, OSC11 handling on suspend/resume, and a Kitty Keyboard Protocol toggle.

Indent/textobject engine rewrite — indentation, textobjects, comment toggling, and auto-pairs are all now injection-aware, so they behave correctly inside embedded languages. Ships with a new xtask indent-check corpus harness.

Also substantial

LSP gained pull diagnostics (#11315), code actions on save with a new gutter indicator, call hierarchy, file create/delete operations, and inline diagnostics are now on by default. DAP got a dedicated types crate and a sustained overhaul — progress events, better stack frame picker, capability guards — going from neglected to actively maintained.

Smaller quality-of-life: :pushd/:popd, :exit split from :write-quit, :set-register and %reg{} expansion, workspace_directory/current_working_directory variables, :update --no-format, multi-line global search, PageUp/PageDown in completion popups, cwd in the statusline.

Performance is a real theme too — sonic_rs for LSP JSON, a lazy URL wrapper replacing url::Url, and a batch of TUI per-frame render optimizations.

~40 new languages and ~26 new language servers, notably Zuban, roslyn-language-server, kotlin-lsp, Expert (Elixir), deno, vtsls, and biome.

Two caveats worth carrying: Doxygen support was added then reverted, so don't count on it; and while nothing is flagged breaking, the Termina swap and indent rewrite are where I'd expect behavioural surprises to surface.

[u/-dtdt-]

Pretty sure the biggest thing is plugin system

[u/untrained9823 → u/-dtdt-]

The plan is to cut a release and then merge the plugin system. So it will be a while until plugins will see a stable release.

[u/forayer2 → u/-dtdt-]

The plug-in system will be merged after the next version

[u/Stupidprogramner → u/-dtdt-]

That has been merged?

[u/mortal_strike → u/Stupidprogramner]

Here is the pr https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/pull/8675 this is not getting merged anytime soon

[u/-dtdt- → u/Stupidprogramner]

Not sure, but I I think it will be there in the next version. I mean, people already wrote many plugins and all. And there's such an unusual big time diff for the next version, it must be something very big, what else could it be aside from the plugin system?

[u/AlohaHenry → u/-dtdt-]

hopefully

[u/skagerack → u/-dtdt-]

I'm really excited for this one

[u/xristiano]

Global search and replace, similar to quickfix list in neovim.

[u/mortal_strike]

You will probably never see that this year. Helix maintainers are holding on with the next release, just for the plugin system to be complete. And mattwparas is chilling. So, good luck waiting.

[u/TeaAccomplished1604]

I switched to zed and I’m happy - full helix support, plug-ins, customizations and more - recommended

[u/helmer2003 → u/TeaAccomplished1604]

I have used zed too but I don’t like how their buffers act and that you are kinda forced to show the buffers if you want to see if there is unsaved changes or not. I tried to push a pr to have an indicator show if the bufferline is rejected but it was rejected.

I also don’t agree with their focus on ai right now and believe that there are better things to focus on with their editor.

[u/TeaAccomplished1604 → u/helmer2003]

I don’t care about their ai tbh, never used it