The Free GitHub Repo That Lets Your AI Reverse Engineer Any App

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REA, short for Reverse Engineer Anything, is a free GitHub repo that lets your AI agent look inside an app and show you how its features work. You don't need the app's source code.

It plugs into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and other agents. Then it hands your agent real reverse engineering tools, like Ghidra, the NSA's own framework, plus analysers for JavaScript and Electron apps, .NET, Android and websites.

On 11 October 2026 it was the number one repo on GitHub's daily trending list, with over 25,000 stars in a single day. Below is what it does, how to set it up with one command, and every link.

What does REA actually do?

REA is an MCP server and command-line tool that connects your coding agent to reverse engineering tools. It isn't a decompiler itself. For native apps, it drives the ones you've got installed: Hopper, Ghidra or IDA.

You point it at an app and ask how a feature works. It maps it out with evidence, and keeps what it observed apart from what it inferred and what it still doesn't know. So nothing's a guess.

The analysis runs locally, on your machine.

How do you use REA?

1. Set it up with one command

You need Node.js (22.19 or newer, 24.11 or newer, or 26 and up) and npm. Then run:

npx rea-agents setup

Pick your agent, review the changes it plans to make, approve them, and restart your agent. For native apps, setup offers to install Hopper, or you can use Ghidra or IDA if you already have them. JavaScript and Electron apps don't need any of those.

2. Ask your agent how a feature works

Just ask in plain English. REA's own example is: "Understand how search works in the Notes app, show me the evidence, and build a similar feature for my project."

REA is free and MIT licensed, but not everything around it is. Claude Code is paid, and so are IDA and a full Hopper licence. Ghidra is free.

3. Only use it on apps you're allowed to

REA's own disclaimer says it's for lawful reverse engineering research, and that getting permission is on you. It also has no crypto token, so anything sold as an "REA token" is a scam.

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