Ask your database questions.
Keep control of the queries.
Helium lets you connect your database, ask questions in plain English, inspect generated queries, and get trusted answers from your own data. Start with MySQL today, extend to any database tomorrow.
Which customers generated the most revenue last month?
SELECT c.name, SUM(o.total_amount) AS revenue FROM customers c JOIN orders o ON o.customer_id = c.id WHERE o.created_at >= DATE_SUB(CURDATE(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH) GROUP BY c.name ORDER BY revenue DESC LIMIT 10;
| Customer | Revenue | Orders | Last Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acme Retail | $42,830 | 128 | Apr 29 |
| Northstar Labs | $31,420 | 96 | Apr 28 |
| BluePeak Co. | $18,905 | 51 | Apr 26 |
This query joins the customers and orders tables, filters for orders created in the last month, groups by customer name, sums the total amount as revenue, and returns the top 10 customers sorted by revenue descending.
Your database is powerful. Your team should not need to wait three days for every answer.
Dashboards answer known questions. Helium helps you explore the unknown ones.
Data-rich, analyst-poor
Teams have more data than ever but not enough analysts to answer every question.
Founders need fast answers
Operators cannot wait three days for a report. Decisions move faster than dashboards.
Analysts are the bottleneck
Every ad-hoc question becomes a ticket. Analysts become query concierges, not strategists.
Dashboards answer yesterday
Pre-built dashboards answer the questions you knew to ask last quarter.
AI tools lack context
Generic AI chatbots do not understand your schema, joins, metrics, or permissions.
Direct access is risky
Without query preview, validation, and read-only controls, database access is dangerous.
Ask in English. Review the query. Trust the answer.
Generated queries should be visible, explainable, and reviewable. Helium is building the full analyst stack, one layer at a time.
Natural-language questions
Ask questions in plain English and turn them into database queries.
MySQL adapter
Start with a production-quality MySQL adapter.
Query preview
See generated queries before anything runs against your database.
Read-only execution
Encourage safe database credentials and read-only queries.
Schema understanding
Read tables, collections, columns, relationships, and metadata automatically.
Result tables
Display clean, structured tabular answers from your data.
Query explanation
Explain what the generated query is doing in plain English.
Query validation layer
Check queries for correctness and safety before execution.
Adapter-first architecture
Every database integration follows a clean adapter contract.
Self-hosted deployment
Keep data and credentials inside your own environment.
PostgreSQL adapter
Add Postgres support through the same adapter interface.
Saved questions
Save and reuse recurring business questions.
Query history
Track past prompts, queries, and results for reference.
Chart generation
Turn result sets into visual charts automatically.
CSV export
Export result tables for downstream analysis.
Semantic metrics
Define revenue, churn, active users, GMV, retention, and more.
Business glossary
Map business terms to database fields for better accuracy.
Prompt context memory
Remember useful schema and query patterns across sessions.
Error-aware retries
If a query fails, explain the issue and suggest a corrected version.
Relationship discovery
Help the model understand how your tables and collections connect.
Dashboard builder
Create lightweight dashboards from saved questions.
Role-based access
Control who can ask what, at the question and table level.
Audit logs
Track questions, queries, execution time, and user activity.
Approval workflows
Require review before running sensitive queries.
dbt integration
Use dbt models and metrics as trusted context.
Slack / Teams bot
Ask database questions from your team chat.
API access
Use Helium as an analyst API in internal tools.
PII detection
Warn before exposing sensitive columns in results.
Model provider flexibility
Support OpenAI, Anthropic, local models, and other LLM providers.
On-prem enterprise mode
Run Helium fully inside private infrastructure.
From question to answer, safely.
Every step is visible. Every query is reviewed before execution. No hidden operations.
Connect database
Point Helium at your database with read-only credentials.
Introspect schema
Helium reads your tables, collections, types, and relationships.
Ask a question
Type a question in plain English about your data.
Generate query
The analyst engine creates a native query from your question.
Preview & validate
Review the generated query before it touches your database.
Run read-only query
Execute the validated query safely against your database.
View results
See clean tabular results with an explanation of the answer.
Save or export
Save the question, export to CSV, or generate a chart.
Built with safety before execution.
Every database is an adapter. New adapters implement a common interface. Safety and validation sit before execution. Semantic context improves accuracy over time.
Every database is just another adapter.
Helium is designed so every database integration follows a clean contract. Connect to MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and more through adapters.
interface DatabaseAdapter {
connect(config: AdapterConfig): Promise<Connection>
introspectSchema(): Promise<Schema>
validateQuery(query: string): ValidationResult
executeReadOnly(query: string): Promise<ResultSet>
explainQuery(query: string): Promise<Explanation>
}Designed for safety. Not an afterthought.
Business users need answers, but engineering teams need safety. Helium is designed so both can coexist.
Self-hostable by design
Run Helium entirely inside your own infrastructure.
Credentials stay local
Database credentials never leave your environment.
Read-only database users
Designed for read-only database credentials.
Query preview before execution
Every generated query is shown before it runs.
Query validation
Queries are validated for safety before execution.
No hidden queries
No query runs without explicit user action.
No training on your data
Your data is not used for model training by default.
Sensitive column warnings
Detect and warn before exposing sensitive columns.
Audit logs
Track every question, query, and execution.
Role-based access control
Control who can ask what questions.
Approval workflows
Require review before running sensitive queries.
Open-source because the analyst layer should belong to the teams running the data.
MIT-licensed, contributor-friendly, and built in public. The best data infrastructure is shaped by the people who use it.
MIT License
Free to use, modify, and distribute.
Built in public
Development happens in the open on GitHub.
Contributor-friendly
Clean adapter interface makes contributing straightforward.
High code standards
TypeScript-first, tested, linted, formatted.
Clear docs
Architecture and adapter guides for new contributors.
Testable architecture
Modular design that is easy to test and extend.
Roadmap shaped by users
Features prioritized by community feedback.
Good first issues
Tagged issues to help new contributors get started.
Ambitious vision, honest timeline.
We are building Helium one layer at a time. Here is what is available, what is next, and what is on the horizon.
Now
Foundation
Next
Expand & improve
Later
Scale & enterprise
Built for every team that needs answers.
Different roles, same need: fast, trusted answers from the database without waiting on analysts or query experts.
Founder
“Which customers, products, or channels are driving revenue?”
Operations
“Where are orders, payments, refunds, or shipments getting stuck?”
Product
“What features are users adopting, ignoring, or dropping off from?”
Support
“What customer patterns explain repeated complaints?”
Finance
“What changed in revenue, refunds, margins, or unpaid invoices?”
Data Analyst
“Generate first-draft queries faster, then inspect and improve them.”
Engineering
“Give internal teams safer access to analytical answers.”
Growth
“Find cohorts, conversion drops, and campaign performance insights.”
Engineers deserve clean infrastructure.
Helium is built with the same standards you expect from the tools you already trust.
Clean TypeScript codebase
Strict typing across the entire project.
Adapter contracts
Typed interfaces for every database adapter.
Modular packages
Organized into focused, composable modules.
Environment-based config
Configuration through environment variables.
Test-first adapters
Database adapters ship with test coverage.
Seeded demo database
Get started with a pre-populated demo dataset.
Local dev setup
Start developing with a single command.
Docker support
Containerized deployment support on the roadmap.
CI checks
Automated testing and linting pipeline planned.
Linting & formatting
ESLint and Prettier configured for consistency.
Error boundaries
Graceful error handling across the stack.
Observability hooks
Planned instrumentation for monitoring.
How Helium fits in.
Generic AI chat is flexible but unsafe. Traditional BI is great for recurring metrics but slow for new questions. Helium is for safe, inspectable, open-source ad-hoc analysis.
| Capability | Generic AI Chat | Traditional BI | Helium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Understands live schema | |||
| Shows query before running | |||
| Self-hostable | |||
| Adapter-based | |||
| Open-source | |||
| Good for ad-hoc questions | |||
| Good for recurring dashboards | |||
| Developer-extensible | |||
| Safety controls |
Start asking your database questions.
Open-source, self-hostable, and built for teams that need fast, trusted answers. Connect any database. Extend through adapters.