REA

Current upstream location

The active authored skill is at morluto/rea — reverse-engineer-anything. The source frontmatter retains the historical import location to preserve provenance identity; that old path is not a current installation URL. Use the active link for upstream inspection and retain the reviewed local reference bundle. A moving upstream branch is reference material, not approval to install or execute it.

When to Use

• Use when a claim depends on a shipped application, binary, package, or requested runtime evidence.
• Use for decompilation, evidence-backed feature traces, version comparisons, or investigation-guided reconstruction.
• Skip REA for ordinary source-code analysis of a complete repository.

Use REA when a claim depends on a shipped binary or package, decompilation, passive application runtime evidence, or comparison with behavior not established by available source. For ordinary analysis of a complete source repository, use normal repository tools and do not run REA readiness or provider commands.

Limitations

• The skill supplies investigation guidance; it does not register the REA MCP server or install analysis engines.
• Native-analysis availability depends on the selected provider, host, and target format. Hopper is separate licensed software; Ghidra and IDA are bring-your-own.
• Static analysis does not establish runtime behavior or recover original source code. Report provider-specific coverage, partial results, and unknowns.
• REA runs analysis locally, but the connected model provider may have separate data-handling policies.

Connect only when needed

Installing this skill supplies instructions; it does not register the REA MCP server, install analysis engines, or add tools to an already-running agent.

If REA tools are available and their registration is not known to be stale, proceed directly to the target. Do not run diagnostics or setup before every investigation. Use the connected server's actual tool list and input schemas; a skill installed from repository main may describe capabilities absent from an older npm release. Keep complete inline Evidence when that server does not advertise retained references.

When tools are absent or registration is stale:

1. Diagnose without changing files. For Codex, run npx -y rea-agents@latest doctor --client codex --json. Substitute the current supported client: claude_code, claude_desktop, codex, cursor, gemini_cli, windsurf, devin, opencode, antigravity, copilot_cli, commandcode, vscode, grok_build, omp, or grok_bot. grok_bot has no local file registration: doctor reports the Grok Bot chat step, and setup does not write mcp.json. If the client is unknown, use doctor --json and inspect its registration results before choosing a setup scope.
2. Distinguish the reason. Missing, malformed, or stale registration needs a scoped configuration repair. An aligned registration with no tools in the active session needs a restart/reconnection; doctor cannot prove that the current agent has connected. A missing provider affects only tasks requiring that provider: static JavaScript inspection needs neither Hopper nor Ghidra, and Android inspection has separate bring-your-own JADX/Java prerequisites.
3. For a configuration repair, prepare the read-only plan: npx -y rea-agents@latest setup --client codex --dry-run --json. Use the current client's ID, show its exact proposed paths, backups, and changes, and obtain approval before setup writes configuration or installs Hopper. Setup normally installs the matching bundled skill too; include that replacement in the reviewed plan. After approval, apply the same scope with npx -y rea-agents@latest setup --client codex --yes. Add --install-hopper only if that separate installation was needed and explicitly approved.
4. Restart/reconnect the affected agent. Verify that REA tools actually appear in the session, then resume the original investigation. If they remain absent, inspect the client's MCP launch error rather than repeating setup.

REA setup never installs or upgrades Node.js, npm, Homebrew, Java, Ghidra, IDA, JADX, Binwalk, or Unblob. Use existing prerequisites; do not install unrelated software to repair MCP registration. For an unsupported client, use manual stdio registration

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