IDA Colors

Parser for color tags in IDA.

Usage

$ uv run ida-colors <path-to-idb>
...
    "LDR             X8, [X19,#0x10]"
        Insn("LDR")
        Opnd1(Reg("X8"))
        Opnd2(Symbol("["), Reg("X19"), Symbol(",#"), Number("0x10"), Symbol("]"))
...

The CLI needs IDA 9+ and the ida extra (idapro). The parser itself has no dependencies.

Development

$ uv run ruff check && uv run ruff format --check
$ uv run ty check
$ uv run pytest

tests/test_ida_constants.py checks the constants copied from IDA against a local IDA install, and is skipped when idapro can't load one.

Why?

IDA's disassembly isn't just the decoded instruction. Between decode_insn and the line you see, the processor module's printer applies a lot of heuristics and user annotations: offsets, stack variables, struct offsets, enums, chars, @PAGE/@PAGEOFF pairs, hidden implicit operands. The printed line is the only place where all of that comes together, and IDA marks it up with color tags. Parsing the tags gets you what IDA decided, without reimplementing its printer for every processor.

The textbook alternative, decode_insn and op_t.type (o_imm, o_mem, o_displ, ...), tells you what the bytes encode, not what they mean: