rea-mcp

Reverse engineer anything from your terminal or agent — one CLI and one MCP server.

Attribution and disclaimer

This is an unofficial Python port of morluto/rea. The original project is a TypeScript implementation. This port exists because our Python-based AI agent products (aacode, fastclaw) need a native Python integration. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the original authors. Licensed under MIT.

See DISCLAIMER.md for responsible-use guidance and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for dependency and tool notices.

rea-mcp is a provider-neutral reverse-engineering engine that returns traceable, evidence-carrying, reusable results, exposed through a shared CLI and MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. Its design follows the ideas behind morluto/rea, including the Evidence model: every result carries its identity, confidence, authority, limitations, and unresolved unknowns, so an AI agent (or a person) can reason honestly instead of trusting a bare answer.

Status: alpha (0.1.1) — static-analysis MVP with built-in static providers, the Evidence model, snapshot caching, and the shared CLI/MCP surface.

What you can analyze

External-tool providers are caller-supplied: rea-mcp never installs them and reports an actionable reason when one is missing (rea-mcp doctor). Cross-cutting tools: compare (Evidence diff), capture-process (bounded runtime capture), doctor (readiness), setup, update, and evidence-export / evidence-import / inspect-analysis-view (portable Evidence).

All analysis runs locally. rea-mcp never uploads your target.

Quick start

pip install rea-mcp             # PyPI distribution name is "rea-mcp"
rea-mcp --help                  # "rea" and "rea-python" are installed as alias commands too
rea-mcp inspect-binary-layout /path/to/program --json

As an MCP server (stdio) — rea-mcp, rea, and rea-python are interchangeable, as are python -m rea_mcp, python -m rea, and python -m rea_python:

rea-mcp mcp     # or: rea mcp   |   rea-python mcp
rea mcp

Output is JSON by default; a bare --json flag is accepted (before or after the command) for compatibility.

Import names

The implementation package is rea_mcp. Compatibility aliases make import rea and import rea_python resolve to the same module objects, so all three import paths are interchangeable:

import rea_mcp      # implementation
import rea          # alias, same objects
import rea_python   # alias, same objects

Design principles

1. Dependencies flow inward: domain → contracts → providers → application → cli/mcp.
2. Evidence first: observations, derivations, inferences, and unknowns are distinguished.
3. Ownership and cleanup: resources are only cleaned by their owner; failures stay explicit.
4. Token-first performance: summaries, paging, and retained evidence keep agent context small.

Development

python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
ruff check .
mypy

License

MIT. rea-mcp is an independent, unofficial Python port; it is not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors of REA. See LICENSE and DISCLAIMER.md.