What's New in Helium 3.0

Helium 3.0 brings significant improvements to performance, developer experience, and reliability.

1. Modern Build Tooling

Tool	Update
Vike (formerly vite-plugin-ssr)	Updated to vike 0.4.195 — better docs, improved error messages, more active development.
Vite 5	Faster builds, better HMR, improved caching, enhanced TypeScript support.

2. Performance Improvements

• Manifest Caching — Manifest parsed once at server startup instead of every request. Faster response times for all pages.
• Memory Management — Apollo Client automatic cleanup prevents memory leaks. Proper disposal of unused clients ensures consistent performance.

3. Developer Experience

• Centralized Vite config via createVikeConfig() — less boilerplate, can't break production settings
• Better error messages with troubleshooting steps for Vike loading, missing dependencies, and build failures
• Enhanced TypeScript support with better type definitions and autocomplete

4. Security Improvements

Dependencies updated to mitigate security vulnerabilities:

• GraphQL: 16.6.0 → 16.11.0
• universal-cookie: ^4.0.4 → ^7.2.2
• Vite: 3.x → 5.4.11
• Storybook: v7 → v8.6.14

5. Enhanced Client Routing

Enable client routing for instant page transitions:

// In renderer/_default.page.client.tsx
export const clientRouting = true;

6. Backward Compatibility

Helium 3.0 maintains backward compatibility for:

• All GraphQL queries and mutations
• Component APIs (no breaking changes)
• Routing patterns (file-based routing unchanged)
• Deployment process (same commands)
• ti-config.json structure

Only import statements and vite.config.ts need updating. See the Migration guide for step-by-step instructions.