Did it use REA? Checking viral AI reverse-engineering demos

An audit of 39 cases described as "built with REA" found 26 confirmed uses of the reverse-engineering tool, 3 partial uses, 4 unverified claims and 6 cases that did not use REA at all, according to the awesome-reverse-engineer-anything project's check against each linked repository's README, agent instructions (AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md) or official showcase, first checked on 2026-10-14 and re-checked on 2026-11-10 with no changes. The same list reports that the two controlled comparisons it tracks, rea-lab (482 preregistered runs) and leanrea (36 runs), found no significant gain in solve rate from REA, at higher time and cost, though both are small. The 6 non-REA cases used other AI tools, mostly Claude Code or Codex with Ghidra or IDA, or manual reverse engineering.

English · 简体中文 https://github.com/AIshihzong/awesome-reverse-engineer-anything/blob/main/docs/is-it-rea.zh-CN.md ⭐ Star the list on GitHub https://github.com/AIshihzong/awesome-reverse-engineer-anything to find it again, or Watch → Custom → Releases for the weekly digest https://github.com/AIshihzong/awesome-reverse-engineer-anything/releases . Many cases are described as "built with REA". This page checks each one against the project's own README, the author's post, or the official showcase, and records what we found. First checked on 2026-10-14; the "README says REA?" column was re-checked against every linked repository's current README and agent files on 2026-11-10, with no changes. X posts could not be opened from our environment, so for them we rely on the third-party case records named in the table. Summary 39 rows, 2026-11-10 : - 26 confirmed: the README, the agent instructions AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md or the official showcase says REA was used. - 3 partial: REA was used for part of the work only. - 4 not verified: 2 claimed only in the author's post, 2 with no source naming the tool. - 6 not REA: other AI tools mostly Claude Code or Codex with Ghidra or IDA or manual reverse engineering. Whether REA helps is a separate question. The two controlled comparisons in this list, rea-lab https://github.com/pablodiazjorge/rea-lab 482 preregistered runs and leanrea https://github.com/aicodeking/leanrea 36 runs , found no significant gain in solve rate from REA, at higher time and cost. Both are small. See Does REA help? The evidence https://github.com/AIshihzong/awesome-reverse-engineer-anything/blob/main/README.md does-rea-help-the-evidence . | Case | README says REA? | Other source | Result | |---|---|---|---| | DX-Ball https://github.com/N0zoM1z0/dx-ball | Yes | Official showcase | Confirmed. One function is byte-matched; the full game is not finished. | | TH04 https://github.com/N0zoM1z0/th04 | No | Official showcase | REA only for the showcase inspection. The reconstruction is agent-produced with ReC98 as a base. | | Other Touhou repos th08, th09, th10, th095, th105, th08-web, factory | No | Author's AGENTS.md uses IDA MCP / Ghidra | Not REA. Tagged AI-RE. | | rec-rs https://github.com/michaelshimeles/rec-rs | Yes | — | Confirmed. OBS is GPL; the README says only the architecture was studied. | | paper-rs https://github.com/michaelshimeles/paper-rs | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | terminal-rs https://github.com/michaelshimeles/terminal-rs | Yes | — | Confirmed. Public TradingView pages only. | | wispr-flow-rea-teardown https://github.com/az9713/wispr-flow-rea-teardown | Yes | — | Confirmed. It follows a tutorial video. | | ledger-reborn https://github.com/lxistired/ledger-reborn | Yes | Discussion 2198 | Confirmed. | | AdamTerm https://github.com/AdamLinCodes/AdamTerm | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | hexgrab https://github.com/iammukeshm/hexgrab | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | baocut https://github.com/JimLiu/baocut | No | Author's X post; commit b8585e0 | Claimed by the author, not in the README. The REA part is one commit, not the whole repo. | | zee-rp https://github.com/LilZeeCN/zee-rp | No | Author's reply on X | Claimed by the author. Validated only on macOS. | | cameo https://github.com/wquguru/cameo | No | Follow-up X post | Not confirmed. The linked repo is the original app, not REA output. | | vd-streamer-linux https://github.com/cudanexus/vd-streamer-linux | Yes | — | Confirmed. Not yet tested on a real headset. | | GunZRs https://github.com/OpenRsG/GunZRs | Yes | — | Confirmed. REA's role in the port is limited the executable is packed . | | OpenBattlefield2 https://github.com/Moxnatiy/OpenBattlefield2 | No in CLAUDE.md and tools/rea.sh | — | REA is used, but not in the README. | | desktop-games-nostalgia https://github.com/ucodia/desktop-games-nostalgia | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | rea-ski-or-die-reconstruction https://github.com/tuunanet/rea-ski-or-die-reconstruction | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | netcat-openbsd analysis https://github.com/NullLabTests/OpenBSD netcat REA | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | REA-demo https://github.com/az9713/REA-demo | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | rea-groundtruth https://github.com/UnknownHacker1/rea-groundtruth | Yes | — | Confirmed. | | rea-safe-agents https://github.com/dagoSte/rea-safe-agents | Yes | — | Confirmed. Pins REA 6.7.0 and ships it inside a restricted container. The contribution is the containment, not the analysis. | | blender-agent-sdk https://github.com/yazzang-homelab/blender-agent-sdk | Yes | — | Confirmed. REA with the Ghidra provider over the stripped Blender 5.2.2 binary; the write-up and its stated limits are in the repo. | | calendar-reconstruction https://github.com/E2-Veera/calendar-reconstruction | Yes | — | Confirmed. REA rea-agents 6.5.0 for static analysis and UI capture of Calendar.app; summaries in evidence/rea/ . | | mucrab https://github.com/soyrochus/mucrab | Yes | — | Partial. REA inventories the JARs and checks class fingerprints; method recovery uses CFR and javap . | | feature-heist https://github.com/devtechedge/feature-heist | Yes | — | Confirmed. Each rebuild names the REA command it used; the REA records are stored with SHA-256 pins. | | bla https://github.com/qybaihe/bla | Yes | — | Confirmed, as a target. BLA is not built with REA; its red-team script runs real REA against hardened samples. | | quicken-2002-dumper https://github.com/bitwisecook/quicken-2002-dumper | Yes | — | Confirmed, unlinked. README and format note credit reverse-engineer-anything without linking morluto/rea. | | agent-sandbox https://github.com/lalbers/agent-sandbox | Yes | — | Confirmed. REA is the MCP server it sandboxes. | | papertrade-research https://github.com/KoNit-K/papertrade-research | Yes | — | Confirmed. A research note documents the REA frontend and contract cross-check. | | xid8300-linux https://github.com/Shirozo/xid8300-linux | Yes | — | Confirmed. README's "How it was made" says Claude Code drove REA over the Windows driver. | | a6000-fw-decomp https://github.com/nicolvus/a6000-fw-decomp | Agent instructions only | — | Confirmed in AGENTS.md. "REA first", with Ghidra as backup; the README does not say. | | VSL-DSP https://github.com/grisuno/VSL-DSP | Yes | — | Partly. REA helped with some vendor findings only; the repo predates REA. | | plx-native https://github.com/GLinnik21/plx-native | No | Relayed post says Ghidra + Claude Code | Not REA. Tagged AI-RE. | | rea-video https://github.com/JuneYaooo/rea-video | No | — | Not REA. Same prefix, unrelated project: it breaks down videos, not software. Tagged AI-RE. | | open-appleremote https://github.com/a-funk/open-appleremote | No | Author's post does not say which tool | Not confirmed. | | universal-modder https://github.com/rehan-remade/universal-modder | No | Post predates REA 4.0 | Not REA. Tagged AI-RE. | | OpenGHub https://github.com/Slyvan25/OpenGHub | No | No AI or REA mention anywhere | Not REA. Manual RE from captures. | | Firefighter X | — | Relayed record | Not REA. Tagged AI-RE. | | Modern Warfare 2 decompilation X | — | Relayed record | Not REA. Tagged AI-RE. | If you find a case that is wrong here, open an issue using the case form.