An open-source project called Reverse Engineer Anything (REA) has passed 200K GitHub stars by connecting coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex to reverse-engineering tools including Ghidra, Hopper and IDA. The setup lets an agent inspect compiled binaries, trace function calls and test how an application implements a specific feature. This matters because binary analysis, once a specialist task, becomes accessible through a standard agent workflow.
How REA connects agents to disassemblers
REA exposes reverse-engineering instruments through MCP servers that an agent can query during investigation. The agent can ask a disassembler for functions and cross-references, follow program behavior and iteratively check hypotheses against the binary. Static analysis of JavaScript and Electron applications and. NET assemblies is also supported, with findings used to guide the next steps. JavaScript and. NET inspection can run without a native analysis engine, while native binaries use Ghidra, Hopper or IDA.
The project runs locally and does not claim to recover original source code from a compiled program. Ghidra is an open-source analyzer developed by the NSA, Hopper is a native macOS disassembler, and IDA is a disassembler and debugger covering multiple processor architectures and platforms. The agent therefore works with disassembly, references and observed behavior rather than a restored codebase. That design keeps the output at the level of reconstruction and analysis instead of a one-click decompilation.
GitHub showcases illustrate the approach on three different targets. One example traces the Electron clipboard implementation in Notion, another reconstructs a sound-panning function from the classic game DX-Ball. The DX-Ball case reports tests matching all 3205 original x86 cases and all 63 compiled function bytes. A third example recovers bullet-ring angle calculations from the 16-bit code of the DOS game Touhou 4.
What wider binary access means for business
For companies that buy, audit or integrate third-party software, agent-assisted inspection lowers the cost of answering concrete questions about closed binaries. A team can check how a feature is implemented, trace calls around a suspect routine or document behavior before migration and integration. Small firms gain access to methods that previously required dedicated reverse engineers, while larger organizations can add such checks to security review and procurement. The work still needs authorization and legal review, since REA is released under the permissive MIT license with responsibility placed on users.
Independent developers on Reddit voice a different consequence: easier copying of games and applications, bypassing of paid features and commercial reuse without permission. Practitioners on Hacker News are split, with some asking what REA adds beyond telling an agent to install Ghidra, and others reporting better results than earlier attempts. One commenter argues that stronger client-side analysis could push big tech to move more apps to the cloud and remove binaries from reach. AMD director Sreekanth Pannala frames the shift as hardware becoming central while proprietary software grows more replaceable.
The marker to watch is whether vendors change distribution in response to cheaper binary inspection. If desktop and downloadable releases give way to cloud-hosted functions, or license checks move server-side, the concern about copying will have proved material. The author behind REA, known as morluto, also maintains Awesome Reverse Engineering, a list of tools and learning resources for binaries, firmware and protocols. LinkedIn commentator Cleverson Santos describes the boundary as murky and expects such dual-use tooling to keep spreading.
