Open-Source REA Gives Coding Agents a Full Reverse-Engineering Toolkit
REA ships a local MCP server that lets coding agents decompile, trace and reconstruct features from binaries, Electron apps and websites.
- REA is an MIT-licensed MCP server that lets coding agents reverse engineer apps end to end
- Install with
npx rea-agents setup, connects to Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Gemini CLI and more - Routes to Hopper, Ghidra or IDA Pro for native binaries; all are bring-your-own licenses
- Covers Mach-O, ELF, PE, Electron, .NET, Android APK, firmware and passive browser inspection
- Every result ships with evidence, confidence and limitations rather than claiming source recovery
- Repo at github.com/morluto/rea, docs at morluto.github.io/rea
REA gives coding agents a reverse-engineering toolkit
REA, short for Reverse Engineer Anything, is a new MIT-licensed open-source project that exposes reverse-engineering tools to coding agents through one local Model Context Protocol server. MCP is the interface that lets clients such as Claude Code and Cursor call external tools. With REA, an agent can inspect an application without source access, trace how a feature behaves, cite supporting evidence, and generate an implementation for another stack.
The repository currently has 90 GitHub stars. Its pitch centers on a common development task: investigate a feature in an existing application, document the implementation details that can be recovered, and use those findings to build compatible behavior elsewhere.
One MCP, several analysis engines
REA ships as the npm package rea-agents. Running npx rea-agents setup registers the MCP server with selected agents and installs a matching workflow skill. Supported clients include Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Devin, OpenCode, Antigravity, GitHub Copilot CLI, Command Code, and VS Code. Other clients can connect through a manual local MCP configuration.
Deep native analysis runs through Hopper, Ghidra, or IDA Pro. REA can install Hopper during setup on macOS and Linux or record an existing Ghidra path. It does not bundle Ghidra, Java, or IDA. Static JavaScript and Electron analysis requires only Node.js.
| Target | Primary requirement |
|---|---|
| Native binaries | Hopper, Ghidra, or IDA Pro |
| JavaScript and Electron | Node.js |
| Android APKs | Headless JADX adapter |
| Web applications | A running Chrome instance with CDP access |
From clues to working code
REA organizes investigations around three stages: decompile, understand, and recreate. A developer might give an agent the following request:
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