ida-headless

ida-headless-mcp provides a headless binary analysis workflow powered by the Model Context Protocol. It allows you to analyze executables without a graphical user interface, enabling automation and batch processing of binaries across multiple architectures. Once installed, you can run analysis commands from the terminal to extract insights, signatures, and contextual information about the target binary, making it suitable for reverse engineering workflows, malware analysis, and firmware inspection. The tool is designed to work in command-line environments and can be integrated into scripts or CI pipelines for automated analysis tasks.

Prerequisites:

• A supported operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux) with a terminal or command prompt.
• Basic command-line knowledge.

Installation steps:

1. Download the latest ida-headless-mcp release from the official repository (zip archive).
2. Extract the contents to a preferred installation directory.
3. Ensure the ida-headless-mcp binary is executable:
   • Linux/macOS: chmod +x ./ida-headless-mcp
   • Windows: The executable should be usable as is after extraction.
4. Verify installation by listing the directory or running a help command if available, for example:
   • ls -l
   • ./ida-headless-mcp --help
5. Run a sample analysis (replace <path-to-binary> with your target binary):
   • ./ida-headless-mcp analyze <path-to-binary>

Note: If you plan to automate analyses, consider adding the executable path to your system PATH or invoking it with absolute paths in your scripts.

Tips and caveats:

• Ensure the target binary is accessible from the environment where ida-headless-mcp runs.
• The tool is designed for headless operation; there is no GUI interaction required.
• If analyzing large binaries or many samples, consider scripting the analysis and directing outputs to log files.
• Check for architecture compatibility (x86, x86-64, ARM, etc.) and any required auxiliary data/models the MCP may rely on.
• If you encounter permission issues on Linux/macOS, ensure the binary is executable and you have the necessary read/execute permissions for the target files.
• Environment variables can be used to configure paths to models, caches, or output directories if supported by your setup.