REA
Open-source MCP server that gives coding agents reverse-engineering tools.
About
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is an open-source MCP server and CLI that gives coding agents the tools to analyze software without its source code. It connects agents like Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex to analysis engines including Ghidra, Hopper, and IDA, plus built-in static readers for JavaScript and Electron apps, .NET assemblies, Android APKs, and saved network captures. Analysis runs locally, and every result includes the evidence and the limitations behind each finding. The MIT-licensed project passed 115,000 GitHub stars in its first week of October 2026, one of the fastest climbs GitHub has seen, and held 285,600 stars on 2026-10-16.
What it can do
- MCP server plus CLI (`rea-agents`) exposing reverse-engineering tools to coding agents or directly in the terminal
- Native binary analysis (Mach-O, ELF, PE): pseudocode, assembly, strings, symbols, calls and references via Hopper, Ghidra, or IDA
- Built-in static inspection of JavaScript/Electron apps: modules, imports, source maps, routes, IPC, native add-on relationships
- .NET assembly inspection: metadata, CIL instructions, declared native dependencies (static only, no engine required)
- Android APK analysis: manifest declarations, classes, decompiled methods and references (headless JADX plus a full JDK)
- Network capture reading: HAR files, Fiddler SAZ archives, and mitmproxy captures — requests, responses, exposed payloads
- Go and Rust binary inspection: embedded compiler version, modules, crate names and dependency edges from static ELF/PE/Mach-O parsing
- Website analysis through a Chrome DevTools endpoint: page structure, scripts, network observations, screenshots
- Evidence model: every finding ships with its evidence (file summaries, byte ranges) and explicitly lists what the analysis could not determine
- All analysis runs locally; target binaries are not uploaded anywhere
Setup
- Install Node.js 22.19 or newer (24.11+ and 26 also supported) with npm.
- Run
npx rea-agents setupin your terminal. - Select the agent clients you use, review the exact config changes shown, and approve them. Existing configs are backed up first.
- Restart your agent so it picks up the REA MCP server and matching workflow instructions.
- For native binary analysis, configure an existing Hopper, Ghidra, or IDA installation; setup can optionally install Hopper with your approval. Static JavaScript/Electron analysis needs no extra engine.
- For a one-shot CLI check with no agent setup:
npx -y rea-agents@latest analyze-javascript-application /absolute/path/to/app --json.
Prerequisites
Node.js 22.19+ (or 24.11+/26+) with npm; macOS 12+ or Ubuntu 24.04+ (Windows x64 experimental); optional Hopper/Ghidra/IDA for native analysis.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 9/10
One of the fastest-growing repositories GitHub has recorded, with an MIT license, 3,411 commits and 36 releases from active development, and a listing in the official MCP registry as io.github.morluto/rea. One point deducted because deep native analysis depends on third-party engines (Hopper is commercial, IDA is commercial) and the README warns of unofficial copycat repos, so users must install only from official sources.
★ 285,600 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 10.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 10.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · 285,600 stars, 71,917 forks; #1 GitHub Trending for 5 of 7 days, Oct 6-12, 2026
- · MIT licensed; listed in the official MCP registry as io.github.morluto/rea
- · 3,411 commits, 36 releases; README warns about unofficial copycat repos — install only from official sources
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.