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Overview

Helm is a native macOS hosts manager that helps you edit, validate, and switch hosts rules safely—without leaving your workflow.

Why Helm?

Editing /etc/hosts directly in Terminal is powerful, but also easy to break. Helm gives you a modern editor and project-based workflow so you can switch environments quickly and reduce mistakes.

Helm is built for:

  • Web and backend developers switching between local, staging, and production endpoints
  • QA and DevOps workflows that need repeatable hosts sets
  • Power users who maintain multiple host override profiles

What Helm helps you do

  • Organize hosts by project: Create folders and multiple .helm files instead of maintaining one giant hosts file.
  • Enable multiple files at once: Helm merges active files together (plus your Original File) and writes the final result to system hosts.
  • Edit with instant visual feedback: Built-in syntax highlighting for IPv4/IPv6, comments, domains, and invalid segments.
  • Validate host rules in-app: Run per-line or full-file verification, plus nslookup, dig, and TCP connectivity checks.
  • Subscribe to remote hosts sources: Add remote hosts URLs and sync them manually or automatically on an interval.
  • Catch conflicts early: Detect domains that are mapped to conflicting IPs and show file/line details.
  • Restore from snapshots: Hosts Time Machine automatically stores snapshots so you can preview and restore previous states.
  • Work from the menu bar: Quickly toggle active files without opening the full editor window.

Core principles

  • Native macOS experience: SwiftUI/AppKit UI, keyboard shortcuts, and familiar file behaviors.
  • Safe by default: Helm keeps an Original File baseline and highlights invalid entries before they cause trouble.
  • Fast iteration: Save, test, and switch host mappings in seconds.