# Helio [Health: Active]

**Category:** 🤖 Coding Agents  
**Repository:** https://github.com/gethelio/helio  
**GitHub Stars:** 14  
**npm Downloads (last month):** 1254  
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**Directory Page:** https://allmcps.com/mcp/helio

## Description
Open-source governance for MCP agents: useful autonomy without unlimited authority

## Claude Desktop Quick Installation
Install path detected from listing signals. Uses `npx` (confidence: high):

```json
"mcpServers": {
  "helio": {
    "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y","@gethelio/proxy"]
  }
}
```

## Documentation

## What Helio does

The Helio MCP server governs tool calls between an AI agent and one or more MCP servers. It can allow or deny operations, request approval for selected actions, require an earlier tool call to succeed, and apply limits to rate or cumulative spend. Calls and policy activity are recorded in an audit trail, including the configuration hash associated with each decision.

The proxy is intended for controls that should not depend on instructions remaining in the model context. Session identity, budgets, and evidence remain outside the agent, so the agent cannot directly rewrite those governance values through normal tool-call state. Helio can also expose a dashboard and provides a scan command for inspecting an upstream server's tools before policies are written.

## How it works

The Helio MCP server supports two integration paths. With proxy-only use, an MCP client connects to Helio instead of connecting directly to the upstream server, requiring no changes to the agent or MCP server. With the proxy and SDK path, a thin Python SDK can add evidence context and action dependencies to calls.

For stdio MCP servers, Helio owns the child process it starts and can provide structural enforcement on that path. For HTTP MCP servers, enforcement is network-based when the upstream's egress is controlled. Hook adapters can support frameworks that run tools in-process; these use a cooperative host-enforced grade in which the framework's hook gate enforces the decision while Helio supplies it.

The default local installation runs as the same user as the agent. In that arrangement, a same-user process may restart the proxy or alter its configuration and audit file. Running Helio under a separate user or in a container addresses that boundary described by the project documentation.

## Setup and configuration

Install the runtime and bundled dashboard assets with `npx @gethelio/proxy init`. The command creates a `helio.yaml` file. Configure either a single `upstream` or a named `upstreams` list, then set the upstream URL and transport. Named upstreams are exposed through separate `/mcp/<name>` paths rather than merging their tool sets.

Initialization starts in audit-only mode: policies are commented out, the default is allow, and no calls are blocked. Add policy rules to enable enforcement. Use `npx @gethelio/proxy scan --upstream <url>` to list available tools, destructive-operation metadata, and arguments that can be matched by rules. The `--sandbox` option creates a sidecar layout for container-based deployments, while `--demo` creates sample traffic for exploring the interfaces.

## Tools and capabilities

- Match policy rules against tool-name globs.
- Deny operations or route selected calls for approval.
- Require prerequisite tool actions before dependent actions.
- Set shared budgets across matching paid tools.
- Apply rate and spend limits.
- Attach evidence and dependency context through the optional Python SDK.
- Record decisions, configuration hashes, and policy reload attempts.

## Limitations and notes

The Helio MCP server does not automatically make a default installation restrictive; initialization records traffic but blocks nothing until policies are enabled. Enforcement strength depends on the transport or adapter path and on keeping the proxy configuration, secret, and audit store outside the agent's reach. The project documents the same-user local setup as a weaker boundary than an isolated deployment.

_Full upstream README: https://allmcps.com/mcp/helio/readme_