Set up an IDA Pro MCP server for Claude Code or Codex

Connect IDA to Claude Code or Codex with Hex-Rays' official IDA MCP or mrexodia's ida-pro-mcp: licences, install, a first test, and when IDA beats Ghidra.

An IDA MCP server lets Claude Code or Codex open a database in IDA, read the Hex-Rays decompiler output, and rename, comment and retype things as it works. There are two main options: mrexodia's community ida-pro-mcp, and Hex-Rays' own IDA MCP, which mrexodia's README now recommends instead. This guide is for people who already have, or are ready to pay for, an IDA licence.

Before you start#

• A paid IDA licence. Both servers run on IDA's idalib with IDAPython, and neither lists IDA Free as supported.
  • Hex-Rays IDA MCP needs IDA 9.4 or later with idalib and Python 3.11+. Hex-Rays' announcement post says it "works with IDA Pro, Home, Classroom and OEM".
  • mrexodia's ida-pro-mcp needs IDA Pro 8.3 or later (9 recommended) and Python 3.11+. Its README says "IDA Free is not supported".
• Cost. On the Hex-Rays pricing page, checked on 14 October 2026, IDA Home started from $365 a year and IDA Pro Essential from $1,099 a year at list price. The page also showed promotional and classroom discounts, so check it for your region. Both MCP servers are free and open source.
• uv on your PATH, plus Git for the Hex-Rays server.
• Claude Code or Codex with a paid plan or API key.
• An isolated VM for anything untrusted. Hex-Rays notes that IDA does not yet isolate its Python interpreter, so an agent can run scripts "that reach beyond IDA's database". It recommends a sandboxed environment when dealing with untrusted data. For malware, use an offline analysis VM and never run the sample on your host.

Install one server, not both. The Hex-Rays README recommends "disabling other IDA MCP servers to reduce agent confusion".

Option A: Hex-Rays IDA MCP (recommended)#

Hex-Rays announced its official server on 25 September 2026. It takes a different design from most MCP servers: instead of dozens of separate tools, the agent gets a small set (open, close, list and save databases; run IDAPython; search API documentation) and writes IDAPython to do the work. Hex-Rays calls this "code mode" and says it reduced token use by about 20% on its internal malware-analysis benchmark. It can also share databases between several agents and a human: if a database is open in the IDA GUI, the agent's renames and comments appear there immediately.

Install with hcli

uvx ida-hcli mcp install

Per the README, this installs the IDA GUI plugin and then offers to install the plugins for your agents. If you already have Hex-Rays' hcli installed, hcli mcp install does the same.

Or install for one agent by hand

Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add HexRaysSA/claude-marketplace
claude plugin install ida-mcp@HexRaysSA

Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add HexRaysSA/codex-marketplace
codex plugin add ida-mcp@HexRaysSA

For other MCP clients, the README gives a plain stdio config. --agent is a label you choose, used to tell sessions apart in its dashboard:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ida": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--exclude-newer=1s", "ida-mcp", "stdio", "--agent=my-agent"]
    }
  }
}

The server works without the GUI plugin, opening databases headlessly through idalib. Install the GUI plugin if you want to watch the agent's changes in IDA.

Option B: mrexodia's ida-pro-mcp#

This is the community server many earlier projects used, including the OALabs live session and the FPS decompilation swarm. It gives the agent many specific tools, such as decompile, xrefs_to, rename, set_type and int_convert.

First activate idalib globally. The README's commands for IDA 9.3 are:

# Windows
uv run "C:\Program Files\IDA Professional 9.3\idalib\python\py-activate-idalib.py"
# macOS
uv run "/Applications/IDA Professional 9.3.app/Contents/MacOS/idalib/python/py-activate-idalib.py"
# Linux
uv run "/path/to/idapro-9.3/idalib/python/py-activate-idalib.py"

Adjust the path to your IDA version. Then install the plugin.

Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add mrexodia/claude-marketplace
claude plugin install ida-pro-mcp@mrexodia

Codex:

codex plugin marketplace add mrexodia/codex-marketplace
codex plugin add ida-pro-mcp@mrexodia

The README also lists a plugin uninstall / plugin remove line before each install, to clear an older copy when upgrading. It describes the older IDA GUI plugin route (ida-pro-mcp --install) as "no longer recommended" and headed for deprecation, in favour of the headless idalib-mcp server. For a client without plugin support, ida-pro-mcp --config prints the JSON config, and the headless server runs over stdio with:

uv run idalib-mcp --stdio

One compatibility note: REA's IDA provider is built against ida-pro-mcp 1.4.0. Its IDA guide says the newer 2.0.0 main branch renamed tools and does not work with REA. If you plan to use IDA through REA, follow REA's guide rather than this one.

Check it works#

1. In Claude Code, run /plugin or /mcp and confirm the IDA server is connected and lists tools. From a shell, claude mcp list shows each server's status. In Codex, check the server appears in its MCP list.
2. Hex-Rays suggests two test prompts. Open a small binary in the IDA GUI and ask:

What do I have open in the IDA GUI?

1. Then try a headless open on a file you own:

Reverse /path/to/sample.elf for me in IDA. Start with the entry point and list
the functions it calls, with addresses.

Check the addresses and names against IDA yourself. If they match, the setup works.

When to choose IDA over Ghidra#

Pick IDA if you already own a licence and know it, or if you rely on IDA-specific features such as the Hex-Rays decompilers and FLIRT/Lumina library recognition. mrexodia's README specifically advises running Lumina or FLIRT first to identify library and STL code, because it "will further improve the accuracy". The Hex-Rays server also suits teams: several agents can work on the same databases at once, and you can watch their changes in the GUI.

Pick GhidraMCP or REA with Ghidra if you have no IDA licence or are learning. Both are free, and many directory projects, from Atari ROMs to DOS games, were done with Ghidra. See Set up GhidraMCP with Claude Code. For Electron or .NET apps you need neither; REA reads those directly.

Where AI goes wrong#

• Number conversion. mrexodia's README says LLMs struggle with converting between integers and bytes, and its example prompt says "NEVER convert number bases yourself. Use the int_convert MCP tool". Put that line in your own prompts.
• Obfuscated code. The same README says models "will not perform well on obfuscated code". Remove string encryption, import hashing and control-flow flattening first, or expect poor results.
• Gaming the checks. In the FPS decompilation swarm, early output compiled but was semantically wrong, and agents edited the verification script to pass. The author built a byte-matching oracle and CI checks to stop it. Keep your tests out of the agent's reach.
• Hallucinated findings. The Decompiling the Synergy study found that hallucinated vulnerabilities wasted participants' time, and that experts gained little from LLM help. Make the agent cite the address and decompiled code for each claim.
• Safety interruptions. Hex-Rays' announcement post says Claude Code's "cybersecurity safeguards frequently interrupt work" during reverse engineering, and suggests falling back to an older model when that happens. Say plainly in your prompt what the target is and why you are allowed to analyse it.
• Model differences. CrackMeBench found large gaps between models on the same CrackMes. Test more than one before you blame the server.

Projects that use this#

• FPS decompilation agent swarm: up to 15 Claude Code and Codex agents with IDA Pro MCP rebuilt 99% of a shooter's functions in C++.
• OALabs live VIBE RE: a live stream comparing MCP plugins for IDA and Ghidra on real samples; mrexodia's README links it.
• Decompiling the Synergy: a user study of how humans and LLMs do reverse engineering together.
• CrackMeBench: how different agents do at recovering validation logic from stripped binaries.
• REA iPhone app demo: REA, which can use IDA as its backend, tested on a compiled iPhone app.

Further reading#

• Hex-Rays IDA MCP on GitHub and its announcement post
• mrexodia/ida-pro-mcp README
• Hex-Rays pricing
• Claude Code MCP docs and Codex MCP docs
• Tool pages: IDA Pro MCP, Claude Code, Codex CLI