I Tested The Viral Github Repo That Reverse Engineers Anything (REA + Claude)

REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) went from under 10,000 GitHub stars to over 330,000 in October. I set up this mcp server, had Claude use it to look inside Raycast, and then had it rebuild Raycast from what it found. The setup prompt I used (paste it into Claude Code; for Codex, swap "Claude Code" for "Codex"): Set up REA (npx rea-agents setup) for Claude Code on this Mac. Install Ghidra with Homebrew if it's missing, and point REA at it with GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR. Show me the setup plan with --dry-run and wait for my OK before applying it. Then apply it and tell me when to restart. Tip: if you're taking apart a big app, raise Ghidra's startup timeout. I had Claude set REA_GHIDRA_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 (15 minutes). In this video: • What REA is, and why the app you download isn't its source code • Where the tools came from: IDA in the '90s, Stuxnet, and Ghidra from the NSA • Setup: one prompt to your agent, or npx rea-agents setup by hand • Raycast, the launcher I use every day • How I built the clone: dig through Raycast with REA, build from the notes, fix bugs from the notes • The clone demo: app search, clipboard history, the ⌘K action menu, snippets, file search and built-in AI What would you point REA at? Tell me in the comments. Links: REA: https://github.com/morluto/rea Raycast: https://www.raycast.com Ghidra: https://github.com/NationalSecurityAg... IDA: https://hex-rays.com/ida-pro Only reverse engineer software you're allowed to. Check the app's license first. Chapters: 0:00 REA's rocket-ship month 0:38 What is REA? 1:24 Where IDA and Ghidra came from 2:25 Setup 3:07 Tip: Ghidra's startup timeout 3:39 Meet Raycast 4:47 How I built the clone 6:21 The wrong-monitor bug 6:45 The clone demo 8:43 Where REA runs out 9:04 Wrap-up #ReverseEngineering #ClaudeCode #AIAgents