mrexodia/ida-pro-mcp

> [!IMPORTANT]
> **I recommend using the Official Hex-Rays IDA MCP Server instead!**
>
> See the announcement blog post for more information.
Simple MCP Server to allow vibe reversing in IDA Pro.
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6ebeaa92-a9db-43fa-b756-eececce2aca0
The binaries and prompt for the video are available in the mcp-reversing-dataset repository.
Prerequisites
- Python (**3.11 or higher**)
- Use idapyswitch to switch to the newest Python version
- IDA Pro (8.3 or higher, 9 recommended), **IDA Free is not supported**
- Supported MCP Client (pick one you like)
- Amazon Q Developer CLI
- Augment Code
- Claude
- Claude Code
- Cline
- Codex
- Copilot CLI
- Crush
- Cursor
- Gemini CLI
- Kilo Code
- Kiro
- LM Studio
- Opencode
- Qodo Gen
- Qwen Coder
- Roo Code
- Trae
- VS Code
- VS Code Insiders
- Warp
- Windsurf
- Zed
- Kimi Code
- Other MCP Clients: Run ida-pro-mcp --config to get the JSON config for your client.
**Note**: This requires having idalib activated globally and uv installed:
Installation (Claude Code)
To install the latest IDA Pro MCP in Claude Code:
Installation (Codex)
To install the latest IDA Pro MCP in Codex:
Installation (Kimi Code)
To install the latest IDA Pro MCP in Kimi Code, run this slash command in the chat:
This installs the idalib MCP server and the idapython skill. Plugins are copied to
$KIMI_CODE_HOME/plugins/managed/, so uv must be on your PATH. The first session after
installing is slower, because uv resolves the dependencies before the server responds.
Installation (GUI)
**Note**: the MCP plugin is no longer recommended and will eventually be deprecated. Use idalib-mcp instead.
If you want to configure the MCP server manually from the IDA GUI:
Configure the MCP servers and install the IDA Plugin:
**Important**: Make sure you completely restart IDA and your MCP client for the installation to take effect. Some clients (like Claude) run in the background and need to be quit from the tray icon.
Prompt Engineering
LLMs are prone to hallucinations and you need to be specific with your prompting. For reverse engineering the conversion between integers and bytes are especially problematic. Below is a minimal example prompt, feel free to start a discussion or open an issue if you have good results with a different prompt:
This prompt was just the first experiment, please share if you found ways to improve the output!
Another prompt by @can1357:
Live stream discussing prompting and showing some real-world malware analysis:
Tips for Enhancing LLM Accuracy
Large Language Models (LLMs) are powerful tools, but they can sometimes struggle with complex mathematical calculations or exhibit "hallucinations" (making up facts). Make sure to tell the LLM to use the int_convert MCP tool and you might also need math-mcp for certain operations.
Another thing to keep in mind is that LLMs will not perform well on obfuscated code. Before trying to use an LLM to solve the problem, take a look around the binary and spend some time (automatically) removing the following things:
- String encryption
- Import hashing
- Control flow flattening
- Code encryption
- Anti-decompilation tricks
You should also use a tool like Lumina or FLIRT to try and resolve all the open source library code and the C++ STL, this will further improve the accuracy.
Transports & Headless MCP
You can run an SSE server to connect to the user interface like this:
After installing idalib you can also run a headless MCP server. You can start with an initial binary:
Or start without a binary and open arbitrary files later with idb_open(...):
For stdio-based clients, use:
Database workers are persistent: each one runs as a detached process that
outlives the supervisor that spawned it. When a new supervisor (over stdio
or HTTP) calls idb_open for a binary that is already open under a worker
on this host, the supervisor adopts that worker transparently — there is
no separate "shared" mode to enable. Workers self-exit when no request has
hit them for an idle interval.