---
title: "Helix: The internal tool powering our Shopify app's native migration (2026) - Shopify"
description: "Shopify’s internal tool Helix powers the native migration of its Shopify app, which has over 300 screens. The company previously rebuilt the Shop app in just 12 weeks using similar methods. Helix is a set of tools and skills that help LLMs migrate features and screens from the React Native app while following a highly opinionated architecture. Unlike most tools that gather information, create specs, and implement everything at once, Helix aims for consistent, high-quality, and maintainable results. The approach is now being applied to the larger Shopify App after its success with Shop."
---

# Helix: The internal tool powering our Shopify app's native migration (2026) - Shopify

[Shopify](https://yomu.fyi/company/shopify) · Talha Naqvi · Sep 21, 2026

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

Shopify’s internal tool Helix powers the native migration of its Shopify app, which has over 300 screens. The company previously rebuilt the Shop app in just 12 weeks using similar methods. Helix is a set of tools and skills that help LLMs migrate features and screens from the React Native app while following a highly opinionated architecture. Unlike most tools that gather information, create specs, and implement everything at once, Helix aims for consistent, high-quality, and maintainable results. The approach is now being applied to the larger Shopify App after its success with Shop.

## Context

Shopify is migrating its React Native app to a native architecture, having already rebuilt the Shop app in 12 weeks. The company is now applying the same approach to the larger Shopify App, which has over 300 screens. The challenge is achieving consistent, high-quality, and maintainable results from LLM-driven migration.

## Takeaways

- Helix is a set of tools and skills that help LLMs migrate features and screens from React Native to native apps, following a highly opinionated architecture.
- Shopify rebuilt and published the Shop app in just 12 weeks using the Helix approach, demonstrating its effectiveness.
- The Shopify App, with more than 300 screens, is the next target for migration using Helix, applying lessons learned from Shop.

## FAQ

### What is Helix?

Helix is a set of tools and skills that help LLMs migrate features and screens from the React Native app, following a highly opinionated architecture designed for the new native apps.

### How does Helix differ from other tools?

Most tools gather as much information as possible, turn it into specs and task files, implement the whole thing, and hope the first result works. Helix instead uses a more structured approach to ensure consistency and quality.

**Tags:** [AI Agents](https://yomu.fyi/topic/ai-agents), [React Native](https://yomu.fyi/topic/react-native), [Shopify](https://yomu.fyi/topic/shopify)

- Source: [Shopify](https://shopify.engineering/helix)
- Source URL: https://shopify.engineering/helix
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-22T03:00:10.299Z

[Read original post](https://shopify.engineering/helix)