Welcome! Why This Project & How It Compares

[bethington]

Welcome to ghidra-mcp 👋

Thanks for checking out this project! This post explains what ghidra-mcp does, how it compares to alternatives, and how to get started.

Why This Exists

Reverse engineering software across multiple versions is painful. You spend hours annotating functions, then a new version drops and every address has shifted. All your work — gone.

I built ghidra-mcp to solve three problems:

1. AI-assisted analysis — Give LLMs full access to Ghidra's analysis engine via MCP
2. Cross-version documentation — Transfer annotations across binary versions automatically
3. Scalable workflows — Batch operations and headless/Docker deployment for pipelines

Feature Comparison

Feature	ghidra-mcp	LaurieWired/GhidraMCP	GhidrAssist	13bm/GhidraMCP	pyghidra-mcp
MCP Tools	110	~15	~31	~15	~10
Cross-Binary Docs	✅ Hash index	❌	❌	❌	❌
Batch Operations	✅ 93% API reduction	❌	❌	❌	❌
Docker Deployment	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Headless Server	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Data Type Management	✅ 16 tools	Limited	Limited	❌	❌
Security Analysis	✅ 8 tools	❌	❌	❌	❌
Ghidra 12.0.2	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Codebase	28K LOC	~2K LOC	~5K LOC	~2K LOC	~1K LOC

The Xebyte RE Toolkit

This project is part of a connected reverse engineering ecosystem:

• 🔬 ghidra-mcp — Static analysis (110 MCP tools)
• 🎮 cheat-engine-server-python — Dynamic memory analysis via MCP
• 🔍 re-universe — Binary similarity at scale (BSim + PostgreSQL)

Together, they provide comprehensive AI-powered coverage of both static and dynamic reverse engineering.

Quick Start

GUI Mode (standard Ghidra plugin)

git clone https://github.com/bethington/ghidra-mcp.git
cd ghidra-mcp

# Build the plugin
cd GhidraMCP && mvn package && cd ..

# Install in Ghidra: File → Install Extensions → select the .zip
# Enable via: File → Configure → Miscellaneous → GhidraMCPPlugin

# Start the MCP bridge
cp .env.template .env  # Edit paths as needed
pip install -r requirements.txt
python bridge_mcp_ghidra.py

Docker / Headless Mode

cp .env.template .env  # Edit paths
docker compose up

Claude Desktop Config

Add to your Claude Desktop MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ghidra": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/path/to/bridge_mcp_ghidra.py"]
    }
  }
}

Resources

• 🚀 v2.0.0 Release Notes: GitHub Release
• 💬 Questions? Open an issue or start a discussion!

Contributing

PRs welcome! The areas where contributions would be most valuable:

• Additional analysis tools
• Function hash improvements
• Documentation and examples
• Testing across different binary types

Star the repo if it's useful — it genuinely helps others find it. ⭐