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Installation and setup

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

Install the CLI

The recommended installation is:

npm install --global rea-agents
rea setup

REA supports Node.js 22.19+ and 24.11+ (including newer releases). It uses the npm already paired with that runtime and never upgrades Node.js, npm, or Homebrew.

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.

Review setup changes

rea setup discovers the current state, prints one plan, and asks Continue? [Y/n]. The plan identifies:

  • an existing Hopper installation, a validated bring-your-own Ghidra environment, or the official Hopper package it proposes to install;
  • each detected agent configuration path;
  • the REA skill destination;
  • external software and package-manager effects.

Declining makes no changes. Agent configuration writes preserve unrelated entries, create backups, use atomic replacement, and verify their result.

For automation, rea setup --json reports the plan without applying it. rea setup --yes applies user-owned registrations and the skill. Installing missing Hopper non-interactively additionally requires --install-hopper:

rea setup --yes --install-hopper --json

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.

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.

Ghidra

REA's Ghidra provider is bring-your-own and supports Linux x64 with the exact official Ghidra 12.1.2 release and a 64-bit full JDK 21. An experimental Windows x64 P0 supports approved native x86-64 PE applications. It supplies discovery, analysis-profile commitment, an isolated read-only headless session, ten bounded inventory/name/search operations, and eight function-analysis operations covering metadata, decompilation, assembly, resolved calls, typed references, xrefs, CFG, and dossiers. GUI state and analysis mutations remain unavailable through Ghidra.

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

export GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR=/absolute/path/to/ghidra_12.1.2_PUBLIC
export JAVA_HOME=/absolute/path/to/jdk-21 # optional if java/javac are on PATH
rea doctor --json
rea setup

PowerShell configuration for Windows uses the same non-secret paths:

$env:GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR = "C:\tools\ghidra_12.1.2_PUBLIC"
$env:JAVA_HOME = "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-21"
rea doctor --json
rea providers --json

rea setup does not mutate Windows client configuration or install Hopper, Ghidra, Java, Python, or another package. Register the built rea mcp command manually in the intended client and preserve the two environment variables. See Windows Ghidra P0 for a complete example.

Doctor validates the platform, architecture, application version, support/analyzeHeadless or support/analyzeHeadless.bat, Java version/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, a per-file analysis timeout, CPU and heap bounds, and its packaged Java bridge via -scriptPath; it never opens an existing user project. Linux uses a current-user-only local bridge socket and descriptor. Windows P0 uses token-authenticated IPv4 loopback, a token-free endpoint record, and bounded process-tree termination. It does not yet prove private DACL, reparse-point-safe, or Job Object semantics; use only approved non-sensitive fixtures.

Operations begin only after default auto-analysis completes. A timeout fails the open rather than exposing partial analysis. 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, Ghidra API calls cross a bounded 32-request serial queue, and each native decompile is limited to 30 seconds. Unresolved computed calls remain unknown, reference-kind provenance is preserved, and provider-specific pseudocode is never treated as original source or Hopper-equivalent text.

Run GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR=... npm run verify:ghidra from a source checkout to compile and analyze source-owned x86-64 debug/stripped ELF, AArch64 ELF, x86-64 PE, and x86-64 Mach-O conformance fixtures. The verifier expects cc, clang, and lld-link on PATH; REA_CC, REA_CLANG, and REA_LLD_LINK can select alternate command paths.

On a controlled Windows x64 runner, use npm run verify:ghidra:windows. The verifier generates a deterministic native PE fixture from source bytes, exercises every admitted Ghidra operation, checks target/snapshot/import digest identity, and requires complete runtime cleanup.

Diagnose, update, and remove

rea doctor --json is strictly read-only. rea upgrade updates only the npm installation that owns the running CLI. rea uninstall removes only REA-owned agent registrations and skill files; --purge-data additionally removes REA cache and state paths.