Use IDA Pro or IDA Free with REA

Unofficial guide. This site is an independent community guide and is not affiliated with the REA project. For authoritative docs see the official REA website and the morluto/rea GitHub repository. Commands here are taken from the official README/docs (checked 2026-10-13); REA changes quickly, so verify against the official docs.

REA doesn't talk to IDA directly; it adapts an existing IDA MCP server: mrexodia/ida-pro-mcp for IDA Pro, or the optional ida-free-mcp plugin for IDA Pro and IDA Free. You need your own IDA license.

Attached mode (IDA GUI already open)

Copy your working upstream registration into a JSON file, e.g.:

{
  "command": "python",
  "args": ["/absolute/path/to/ida_pro_mcp/server.py", "--ida-rpc", "http://127.0.0.1:13337"]
}

export REA_IDA_MCP_CONFIG=/absolute/path/to/ida-mcp.json
export REA_ANALYSIS_PROVIDER=ida
rea function /absolute/path/to/program main --json
rea decompile /absolute/path/to/program main --json

Open the original input binary in REA, not the .idb/.i64; its SHA-256 must match IDA's recorded input hash.

Headless mode (idalib)

{ "command": "idalib-mcp", "args": ["--stdio", "--max-workers", "1"], "mode": "headless" }

IDA Free (native plugin)

{ "mode": "attached", "protocol": "native", "url": "http://127.0.0.1:13337/mcp" }

The docs warn ida-free-mcp 1.1.2 binds 0.0.0.0 — firewall it. IDA Free's cloud decompiler needs network access.

Connect your agent

Set REA_IDA_MCP_CONFIG before rea setup --client <client> so setup keeps it in the registration. Validate with rea doctor --provider ida --json.

Known issue: ida-pro-mcp 2.0.0

Issue #2301 reports REA 6.4.0 rejecting ida-pro-mcp 2.0.0 (current upstream main) in both modes: attached mode expects the 1.4 tool names, and headless mode lacks idb_close. Until fixed, the attached profile accepts the 1.4.0 tagged release.

Related guides

• REA vs Ghidra vs IDA
• Set up Ghidra for REA
• REA CLI command cheat sheet

Sources: ida-provider.md · issue #2301

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