rea/docs/installation.md

Installation and setup

REA separates installing its CLI from configuring external software and agents.

Start setup

Start setup with:

npx rea-agents setup

If npm asks to download and run REA, that approval applies only to downloading the package. REA shows its own plan and asks before changing agent configuration or installing Hopper.

The short command can use a REA version installed in the current project. To request the latest release explicitly, use:

npx rea-agents@latest setup

REA runs the version npm selects. To update older agent registrations, run the latest-version command and review its setup plan. For unattended package downloads, add --yes before the package name; this does not approve REA's setup changes.

For an intentional rollback, make the package request explicit:

npm exec --yes --package=[email protected] -- rea setup

Setup continues to pin persistent MCP registrations to the exact version that performed setup. Running current setup later migrates unversioned or older managed registrations through the normal reviewed setup transaction.

REA supports Node.js 22.x (>=22.19), 24.x (>=24.11), and 26+. Node.js 23, 25, and prereleases are unsupported. It uses the npm already paired with that runtime and never upgrades Node.js, npm, or Homebrew.

Running npm install rea-agents without --global installs the executable only in the current project's node_modules/.bin; it does not make rea available on the shell PATH. Use the setup command above for the guided setup journey, npx -y rea-agents@latest for unattended one-off commands, or install globally with npm install --global rea-agents for a shell-visible rea command.

The optional curl wrapper installs only the global npm package:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morluto/rea/main/install.sh | bash

It prints the version, runtime, npm command, and destination before installing. When a controlling terminal exists it starts rea setup; otherwise it prints the command to run later.

Pass options with bash -s --:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/morluto/rea/main/install.sh |
  bash -s -- --dry-run

Supported options are --version <semver>, --dry-run, --no-setup, --no-prompt, and --verbose. Neither --no-prompt nor a non-interactive shell grants permission to install external dependencies.

Released package and main

Repository main documents its current code and generated catalog. @latest selects the npm release, and persistent MCP registrations are pinned to the version that performed setup. Installing newer instructions does not update a running server or its registration.

The release checked on 2026-10-07 was 5.0.0 (133 MCP tools), published from the fixed checkpoint b33236ec. The public CLI, MCP catalog and target-free session, and isolated update from 4.1.0 to 5.0.0 were verified through npm. The artifact includes Windows native controls, Android/JADX and firmware tools, Ghidra function annotations, and retained application-Evidence references.

Main's catalog describes the current code. A source build or a subsequent release containing changes after this checkpoint is required for newer functionality. Package startup alone does not verify a provider's real platform workflow.

To check the published version, run npm view rea-agents dist-tags.latest. Use the connected server's actual tool list and advertised input schemas for feature selection. The same package version string in a development checkout does not establish that its bytes match the npm tarball. Update a registration through a reviewed, scoped setup plan, then restart/reconnect the agent.

Skill-only installation

npx skills add morluto/rea --skill reverse-engineer-anything

This installs agent instructions and bundled references, not REA MCP registration or analysis engines. Follow the skill's conditional connection guide. Working tools can be used immediately. If tools are missing, inspect the current client's registration with doctor --client codex --json (substitute its client ID), then plan repairs with setup --client codex --dry-run --json. Show and approve the exact changes before applying that scope. An aligned registration with tools absent from the active session needs a restart/reconnection; doctor checks files and prerequisites, not the live agent connection.

Guided setup installs the package's matching skill by default. The skills.sh route can select newer repository instructions, so follow actual server schemas and the release boundary above. Static JavaScript CLI inspection can proceed while MCP is unavailable:

npx -y rea-agents@latest analyze-javascript-application /absolute/path/to/app --json

It returns the complete Evidence record directly and requires no native engine. Provider failures in doctor do not prevent unrelated target-free tools. To check readiness for one task instead of auditing every integration, see Check readiness for the task at hand.

Supported agents

Setup can configure these clients for REA's local MCP server:

Client	--client value
Claude Code	claude_code
Claude Desktop	claude_desktop
Codex	codex
Cursor	cursor
Gemini CLI	gemini_cli
Windsurf	windsurf
Devin	devin
OpenCode	opencode
Antigravity	antigravity
GitHub Copilot CLI	copilot_cli
Command Code	commandcode
VS Code	vscode

For OpenCode, setup writes the V1 mcp.rea entry, which OpenCode V1 and V2 both load. If the configuration already uses OpenCode V2's native mcp.servers table, setup registers REA there instead and replaces any earlier mcp.rea entry from REA.

Review setup changes

rea setup first offers the supported agents in a multi-select. Existing REA registrations are selected by default. Newly detected clients remain available but unselected: detection gives setup context, not permission to add a new registration. Clients without a detected configuration can still be selected. Explicit --client flags skip this question.

Setup adds MCP access for selected clients. It installs REA's bundled workflow with those integrations by default; use --skill=false to omit it. If no agent is selected, setup offers the workflow separately for CLI use, with No as the default. Hopper is a separate optional choice: setup shows its proposed installation or connection and requires its own explicit approval. It can also save verified paths for an existing Ghidra installation.

After selection, review the plan's exact paths and changes and approve before REA writes files or installs Hopper. You can cancel at any prompt.

Before applying changes, REA checks your current configuration. The plan lists:

• an existing Hopper installation, a verified existing Ghidra installation, or the official Hopper package it proposes to install;
• each detected agent configuration path;
• the REA skill destination;
• external software, network origins, integrity evidence, and package-manager commands.

Malformed or unsafe existing configuration blocks the whole transaction before Hopper installation or any file write. Declining or pressing Ctrl-C makes no changes. Agent configuration writes preserve unrelated entries, create backups, use atomic replacement, and verify their result.

After setup, REA reports which agents, analysis tools, and workflow files passed its final checks. Restart any agent named in the completion message, then begin your investigation. Failed steps and diagnostics remain in terminal history.

Select exact clients in scripts with repeatable --client flags. Each explicit client skips interactive selection. Use --all-detected only when you intend to configure every detected supported client. --skill=false omits the workflow, and --dry-run returns a read-only plan with status planned and exit code 0:

rea setup --client codex --client cursor --skill=false --dry-run

Prompt UI and progress are written to stderr so stdout remains available for structured results and pipelines. NO_COLOR=1 disables color. Use --accessible for sequential, vertically rendered yes/no prompts. Implicit interactive setup requires stdin, stdout, and stderr to all be terminals; when any stream is redirected, setup stays non-interactive. Declining or cancelling returns status cancelled with exit code 0.

For automation, rea setup --json reports the plan and a compact .doctor readiness projection without applying it. Use rea doctor --json for full health diagnostics and canonical tool catalog details. Pair --yes with explicit scope such as --client codex, or use --all-detected when the broad scope is intended. Without a scope flag, --yes is limited to existing REA-owned registrations; it does not select all detected clients. An unapproved actual apply reports needs_confirmation and exits 1. Installing missing Hopper non-interactively additionally requires --install-hopper:

rea setup --yes --all-detected --install-hopper --json

Setup pins package-runner MCP registrations to the exact installed REA version, installs the matching skill and on-demand references in the same plan, and adds startup_timeout_sec = 30 for Codex. rea update installs the exact resolved release into the npm prefix that owns the running package, then checks the new executable's version before reporting success. It does not reopen onboarding. Release lookup and installation both use npm's configured registry. Its maintenance plan selects only existing REA registrations and an already installed REA skill. Run the returned scoped setup command to review and approve those changes, then restart affected agents. The plan is returned in terminal, non-TTY, and JSON modes without applying configuration changes.

Hopper

Hopper is separate commercial software with its own license. Its free demo has vendor-defined limits, and a paid license is optional. REA reuses any detected installation and preserves Hopper during uninstall.

On macOS, approved setup downloads the official DMG, checks its published size and digest, validates the application bundle, and atomically installs it to ~/Applications/Hopper Disassembler.app. REA then opens Hopper so the operator can choose its demo mode or activate an existing license. Homebrew and administrator access are not used.

The Hopper launcher action used by REA creates a document from an executable; its supported command-line interface does not attach to an already-open document. While another live REA session owns the same target and loader profile, a second session reports the owning run ID instead of opening a duplicate document. Closing the owning REA session releases this guard; Hopper keeps its document open. A later REA session can therefore open another document for the same target. REA does not currently identify, focus, or reuse that existing GUI document, and the supported launcher exposes no attach or reuse action for it.

On supported Linux distributions, approved setup verifies Hopper's official .deb, .rpm, or Arch package before invoking the native package manager. REA runs the supported demo build on a private Xvfb display and selects Hopper's offered demo mode for each analysis session; it does not require the user's desktop display. Unattended package-manager access requires --yes --install-hopper. If the host exposes /tmp/.X11-unix as an immutable mount, REA first verifies the conflict and then uses an unprivileged user and mount namespace with a private mode-1777 tmpfs over that directory only. The host mount and the rest of /tmp remain unchanged; this fallback never invokes sudo. rea doctor --provider hopper --json reports the selected strategy and both host and effective mount facts.

Hopper in CI

REA's unattended Linux path is validated against Hopper's offered demo mode. A paid license is not required for that path, and REA does not read, install, or automate license credentials. Licensed Hopper installations remain supported, but license activation is an operator-owned prerequisite rather than part of REA setup.

macOS requires Hopper's first-run UI to be completed in the same user session that will run REA: choose the demo mode or activate an existing license before starting an unattended job. Ephemeral macOS runners therefore need a pre-provisioned user session or a deliberate interactive bootstrap step.

When Hopper cannot start in CI, run rea doctor --provider hopper --json in the failing runner. Structured failures distinguish private-display dependencies, an unsupported demo dialog or build, process-ownership conflicts, and an early lifecycle exit. Apply the reported remediation rather than exposing the runner's desktop, copying license secrets into logs, or killing unrelated Hopper processes.

Ghidra

REA connects to an existing Ghidra installation on Linux x64, macOS x64/arm64, or experimental Windows x64 P0. It accepts Ghidra 12.1.x and the 64-bit full JDK declared by that installation's application.java.min and application.java.max. Current 12.1 releases require JDK 21 or newer and set no maximum. The bridge is verified with Ghidra 12.1.4 and JDK 21. On macOS, the installation must include the native decompiler for the host architecture; REA does not build it or change Gatekeeper quarantine settings.

The adapter exposes 25 read-only operations: thirteen inventory/name/search operations and twelve function-analysis operations. These cover metadata, decompilation, assembly, resolved calls, typed references, xrefs, function dossiers, instructions, recovered data types, measured load mappings, loaded memory bytes, and observed file offsets. Independent load-image attestation supports DOS MZ and explicitly selected COM; PE returns its measurements with that limitation. On Linux and macOS, annotate_native_function also edits a function name and/or entry comments atomically and returns refreshed analysis. These session metadata edits leave executable bytes unchanged and are discarded on close. GUI controls require Hopper; Windows P0 remains read-only.

Windows P0 admits native x86-64 PE applications on fixed local NTFS volumes. The npm package bundles native Job Object ownership, protected private runtime DACLs, and handle-based path admission; no separate addon installation is needed. See the Windows Ghidra P0 guide for verified scope and limitations.

Extract Ghidra and install the JDK outside REA, then export absolute paths:

export GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR=/absolute/path/to/ghidra_12.1.4_PUBLIC
export JAVA_HOME=/absolute/path/to/jdk-21 # optional if java/javac are on PATH
rea doctor --json
rea setup

On Windows, configure the existing installation in PowerShell:

$env:GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR = "C:\tools\ghidra_12.1.4_PUBLIC"
$env:JAVA_HOME = "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21"
rea doctor --json
rea providers --json

rea setup can configure supported Windows agents and install the bundled REA skill after approval. Direct registrations use Node to launch REA's entry script; package-runner registrations use the pinned npx command. Hopper installation remains unavailable on Windows. Setup never installs Ghidra, Java, or Python. It preserves valid detected Ghidra/JDK settings in agent registrations. See Windows Ghidra P0 for provider diagnostics.

Doctor validates the platform, architecture, Ghidra 12.1.x application version, support/analyzeHeadless or support/analyzeHeadless.bat, the installation's Java major range, 64-bit JDK bitness, and the presence of javac/javac.exe. When Java is found through PATH, setup records its observed JDK home so GUI MCP clients do not depend on an incidental shell path. Setup shows every exact environment entry in its plan, writes only after approval, and never downloads, installs, upgrades, or modifies Ghidra or Java.

Each verified session uses an ephemeral temporary project and isolated home/cache/config/temp paths. REA passes -readOnly, -deleteProject, uses Ghidra's default analysis and resource settings, and loads its packaged Java bridge via -scriptPath; it never opens an existing user project. Linux and macOS use a current-user-only local bridge socket and descriptor. The experimental Windows transport uses authenticated IPv4 loopback with a private native-owned bearer descriptor and Job Object process ownership.

Operations begin only after default auto-analysis completes. open_binary selects and validates the target/provider binding; it does not wait for Ghidra import and auto-analysis. The first Ghidra-backed query starts that work lazily. The provider startup deadline is 330,000 ms for import, analysis, bridge, and health readiness; a startup failure is returned by the query that triggered it, without exposing partial analysis. This deadline is separate from MCP transport initialization and the client's deadline for that individual tool call. A client can time out earlier even when Ghidra would complete within its startup deadline. See Ghidra first-query deadlines and recovery for client options and the close/reopen recovery flow.

One session contains exactly one imported Program; use provider_id: "ghidra", --provider ghidra, or REA_ANALYSIS_PROVIDER=ghidra when both Hopper and Ghidra support the target. One persistent decompiler is owned by the Program, and a serial queue keeps Ghidra API calls on the owning Program thread without a fixed queue length. Operations run until a result, caller cancellation, or provider shutdown; there is no fixed per-operation or response-size ceiling. Unresolved computed calls remain unknown, reference-kind provenance is preserved, and provider-specific pseudocode is never treated as original source or Hopper-equivalent text.

Unexpected request failures retain their original internal cause. CLI and MCP errors expose Error names, messages, and available codes under details.diagnostics.failure_cause; other rejection values retain their primitive value or an explicit type. Shutdown warnings include the failure kind, message, and diagnostics, while process and temporary-project cleanup continues. These messages redact known bridge authentication tokens and preserve local paths and other analysis context.

Run GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR=... npm run verify:ghidra from a source checkout to compile and analyze debug and stripped host-native fixtures (ELF on Linux x64 or Mach-O on macOS), plus a native DWARF 4 type-layout object. This lane needs a host C compiler in addition to Ghidra and its JDK.

Run GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR=... npm run verify:ghidra:cross-format to add AArch64 ELF, x86-64 PE, and x86-64 Mach-O fixture coverage. This separate lane needs clang, LLD, and lld-link on PATH; REA_CLANG and REA_LLD_LINK select alternate command paths. Missing cross-target tooling does not block the host-native Ghidra acceptance lane.

On a controlled Windows x64 runner, use npm run verify:ghidra:windows. The verifier generates a deterministic native PE fixture from source bytes and requires the Windows native authority before opening the provider. The controls are implemented on main; see the release boundary. The lane verifies all 25 admitted read-only operations, digest identity, and runtime cleanup. The separate verify:ghidra:windows:package lane checks the packed CLI/MCP boundary with an ordinary user. It requires the built Windows native bundle and an existing Ghidra/JDK installation; neither is inferred from startup alone.

Diagnose, update, and remove

rea doctor --json is strictly read-only. rea update updates only the npm installation that owns the running CLI. Source checkouts and package-runner copies must be updated through the mechanism that owns them; a fresh package-runner invocation can use npx rea-agents@latest. rea uninstall removes only REA-owned agent registrations and skill files; --purge-data additionally removes REA cache and state paths.

MCP Registry

REA is published in the official MCP Registry as io.github.morluto/rea. Registry clients can discover the server and install the existing public rea-agents npm package; the Registry entry does not introduce a second distribution artifact.

For a client that supports Registry discovery, search for io.github.morluto/rea and select the npm package. The published metadata launches the existing stdio server through npx with the mcp command.

For a client that requires manual configuration, use:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rea": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "[email protected]", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Persistent registrations should use one exact package version. rea setup writes the same package-runner shape and pins it to the exact version that performed setup. Run current setup to refresh an older registration, then restart the client.