OpenHX is a community-driven tool for managing Line 6 HX series devices (HX Stomp, HX Stomp XL, and Helix family) from any operating system. It ships as both a command-line interface and a graphical interface, with no dependency on HX Edit or any official Line 6 software.
HX Edit — the official companion software for Line 6 HX devices — is only supported on Windows and macOS. Linux users, BSD users, and anyone running an unsupported OS are left without a way to manage their presets, update settings, or interact with their hardware programmatically.
OpenHX was built to close that gap.
⚠️ OpenHX is in early development. Features marked 🚧 are planned but not yet implemented.
- ✅ List presets
- ✅ Select preset
- 🚧 Rename preset
- 🚧 Import and export presets (
.hlxfiles) - 🚧 Reorder blocks
- 🚧 Toggle individual effect blocks
- 🚧 Manage Impulse Responses (IRs)
- 🚧 Configure Global EQ
- 🚧 Full GUI with preset browser and editor
- 🚧 Support for multiple HX devices
| Device | Status |
|---|---|
| HX Stomp | 🚧 Planned |
| HX Stomp XL | ✅ Validated |
| HX Effects | 🚧 Planned |
| Helix Floor | 🚧 Planned |
| Helix LT | 🚧 Planned |
You can find pre-built binaries, installers (.msi), and automated installation scripts (.ps1, .sh) on the Releases page.
Windows Users: If you encounter a "SmartScreen" warning when running the MSI, click "More info" → "Run anyway". This is normal for unsigned open-source tools.
Or install from source (Cargo)
Prerequisites: Rust toolchain (rustup), libusb 1.0+.
git clone https://github.com/allansomensi/openhx
cd openhx
cargo build --releaseThe binary will be at target/release/openhx.
# List all presets
openhx-cli preset list
# Select a specific preset by its index and bank
openhx-cli preset select --preset <PRESET> --bank <BANK>openhxOpenHX communicates with HX devices over USB bulk transfers using the same vendor-specific protocol as HX Edit.
The protocol was reverse-engineered entirely black-box — by capturing and analyzing USB traffic between an HX Stomp XL and the official HX Edit software. No Line 6 source code, firmware, or proprietary SDKs were accessed or used at any point. The reverse engineering was done strictly for the purpose of interoperability with a platform not officially supported by Line 6.
The full protocol is documented in docs/protocol/.
Contributions are very welcome, especially:
- Protocol research for additional devices or operations
- Testing on different hardware and operating systems
- GUI development
- Documentation improvements
Please open an issue before starting work on a large feature so we can coordinate.
OpenHX is an unofficial, community-driven, open-source project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or associated with Line 6 or Yamaha Guitar Group, Inc. in any way.
"Line 6", "HX Stomp", "HX Effects", "Helix", and "HX Edit" are trademarks of Yamaha Guitar Group, Inc. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here strictly for descriptive and nominative purposes.
The reverse engineering performed in this project was conducted entirely black-box — by observing USB communication between the device and the official software — and is intended solely to enable interoperability on platforms not officially supported. No proprietary code, firmware, or trade secrets were accessed or incorporated.
OpenHX is released under the MIT License.