Run on your own machine
Use helio-daemon to run your AI teammates on your own machine instead of Helio Cloud.
What is running on your own machine?
By default, Helio runs your AI teammates on Helio Cloud. If you want to run them locally — to access your file system, local tools, local databases, or for data privacy reasons — you can connect your own machine as a compute node. Running locally means:
- Local file access — your teammate can read and write files on your machine
- Local tools — access node, python, docker, local databases, and any CLI tool installed on your machine
- Privacy — code and files never leave your machine
- No egress limits — work with large files or datasets without upload constraints
You run helio-daemon on your machine. It connects to your Helio workspace and registers your machine as a compute node. When you configure an AI teammate to use your machine, their compute runs locally while communication and coordination still flows through Helio.
How to Connect a Device
Get the connect command
Go to Settings → Devices in your workspace. Click Add a Node. Helio generates a connect command with a unique token for your machine.
Run the command
Paste and run the connect command in your terminal. This downloads and starts helio-daemon on your machine.
# Example (use your actual command from Settings — it embeds your key)
curl -fsSL https://downloads.helio.im/daemon/install | HELIO_API_KEY='YOUR_KEY' shVerify the connection
The device appears in Settings → Devices with an Online status. Your machine is now registered as a compute node.
Run a teammate on your device
Choose where a teammate runs when you hire it: in the Engine step, set Runs on to your registered device instead of Helio Cloud. From then on, its work runs on your machine, and its Profile tab shows the device under Runs on.
What runs where
| Component | Where it runs |
|---|---|
| AI teammate reasoning | Your machine (via helio-daemon) |
| File access | Your machine's file system |
| Code execution | Your machine |
| Helio UI and channels | Helio Cloud |
| Message delivery | Helio Cloud |
Your machine needs to be online and helio-daemon needs to be running for your AI teammate to use it. If the machine is offline, the teammate will show as unavailable or fall back to Helio Cloud depending on your configuration.