reverse-engineering-anything/docs/managed-code-analysis.md

Managed-code analysis

REA inspects .NET PE/CLI artifacts without loading or executing their code. It can identify an assembly, inspect metadata and CIL, compare members across builds, and connect declared native calls to supplied native-analysis evidence. CIL is Common Intermediate Language, the instruction format used by managed assemblies.

The seven shipped tools are:

Task	MCP tool
Identify an artifact and its managed deployment form	inspect_managed_artifact
Inspect types, signatures, method bodies, calls, and field access	inspect_managed_members
List declared native calls and native implementation indicators	inspect_managed_native_boundaries
Compare members across builds and map build-local tokens	compare_managed_members
Check native call declarations against supplied export or function evidence	verify_managed_native_boundaries
Import decompiled code against verified static member identities	import_managed_reconstruction
Add managed findings to an application graph	project_managed_application_graph

Each has a matching CLI command: replace underscores with hyphens and prefix the name with rea, for example rea inspect-managed-artifact. Native-body bridge mapping and managed runtime execution are outside the current tool set.

The canonical tool inventory is the build-generated catalog.

Inspect an assembly

rea inspect-managed-artifact /absolute/path/Assembly.dll --json
rea inspect-managed-members /absolute/path/Assembly.dll --json

Use the artifact result to identify the assembly and its metadata coverage. Member results retain build-local tokens, signatures, CIL bodies, and decoded relationships. Use an exact reported full_name with --type when a focused inspection is needed; see selected member inspection. Compare separate builds with member comparison, preserving their paths, digests, and selection scope.

Field constant defaults

inspect_managed_members reads field-owned values from the ECMA-335 Constant table without loading the assembly. Each selected field's constant contains the declaration's row offset, element-type code, blob index and exact raw_hex, plus its decoded element_type and value. For example, an i4 declaration with bytes 865d0000 returns 23942.

Boolean, character, signed/unsigned integers, floating-point, UTF-16 strings and class-null declarations are supported. i8 and u8 values are decimal strings to avoid JSON integer precision loss. Floating-point negative zero, NaN and infinities are the strings -0, NaN, Infinity or -Infinity; raw_hex preserves their original bits. UTF-16 code units, including embedded NULs and unpaired surrogates, are preserved.

constant: null means neither a Constant declaration nor HasDefault was observed. Historical Evidence can omit the field entirely; omission does not prove that the artifact has no default. Missing or duplicate declarations, inconsistent flags, malformed values and unsupported element types return state: "unavailable", a limitation and partial coverage while retaining other member facts. This decoding shares the existing metadata representation budget and only decodes blobs for the selected fields.

Retained managed-members field pages can select fields: ["constant"] while keeping original field identity and source offsets. These values are metadata declarations, including enum members' encoded underlying constants, not observed runtime state or inferred enum-name mappings. Parameter/property defaults are not exposed by this field-focused reader. Member comparison still covers field names, flags and signatures; it does not compare constant defaults.

The encoding follows ECMA-335, Partition II, sections 22.9 and 23.1.16.

Metadata overview and retained rows

The existing CLI and omitted/complete MCP detail return complete metadata inventories. For identity and classification questions, select inspect_managed_artifact with {"path":"/absolute/path/Assembly.dll","detail":"summary"} on the first call. This keeps the complete source in the session and returns a distinct linked inspect_analysis_view overview with complete PE/CLI, classification and its evidence, metadata status, module/MVID, assembly, frameworks, returned-row counts, coverage/issues and limitations. No assembly is loaded or executed.

ECMA-335 permits empty metadata streams to be omitted. An absent #Blob stream therefore does not prevent module or assembly identity from being read when all blob indexes are zero; a nonzero reference to that missing heap is reported as a missing-stream issue.

Use normalized_result.parent_evidence_id to page original rows:

{
  "source": {
    "kind": "retained-evidence",
    "evidence_id": "<parent_evidence_id>"
  },
  "view": {
    "kind": "managed",
    "collection": "attributes",
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 16
  }
}

Collections are references, resources and attributes; rows retain their original values, nulls, order, metadata tokens and offsets. Pages retain source metadata status and coverage. Exhaustion covers the returned parent collection, not all possible metadata, and empty rows under partial/unavailable metadata do not establish absence. Tokens are build-local and require the recorded artifact SHA-256 and known module MVID for cross-observation matching.

Retained views do not repeat the parser or require the source file to remain available. Portable views use the authenticated original Evidence inline, including the existing inspect-analysis-view CLI. Session record lifetime and export/import semantics remain unchanged. A server without Evidence retention rejects selected summary before analysis; complete delivery remains available.

Member summary and retained member rows

Complete inspect_managed_members delivery always includes the assembly-wide member_refs and exported_types, which type_names does not narrow, so even one selected or unmatched type can return megabytes. In MCP, select {"path":"/absolute/path/Assembly.dll","type_names":["Namespace.Type"],"detail":"summary"} to keep the complete source in the session and receive identity, metadata status, the selection with its unmatched names, coverage/issues, the separate user-string coverage, limitations and per-collection counts. Then page original rows with view kind managed-members:

{
  "source": {
    "kind": "retained-evidence",
    "evidence_id": "<parent_evidence_id>"
  },
  "view": {
    "kind": "managed-members",
    "collection": "call_edges",
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 64
  }
}

Collections are types, exported_types, fields, methods, member_refs, call_edges, field_accesses and user_strings (the literals). Each page names its collection, retains original rows, order, tokens, signatures and body facts, and carries the source selection and coverage; user_strings pages carry the literal pool's own coverage. Older Evidence that never examined exported types or user strings reports a null count and refuses those pages rather than returning an empty one.

To find specific retained members without returning their IL anchors, select exact names and defining types, then project columns:

{
  "source": {
    "kind": "retained-evidence",
    "evidence_id": "<parent_evidence_id>"
  },
  "view": {
    "kind": "managed-members",
    "collection": "methods",
    "names": ["ParseNumber", "ParseReadNumber"],
    "declaring_types": ["Newtonsoft.Json.JsonTextReader"],
    "fields": ["name", "declaring_type", "signature"],
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 64
  }
}

Filters are exact and case-sensitive; lists are alternatives and filters intersect. An empty list matches nothing. Names select name in types, exported types, fields, methods and member references; in call edges they select target_name, and in field accesses field_name. Declaring-type filters select declaring_type in fields/methods, parent_name in member references, target_declaring_type in call edges and field_declaring_type in field accesses. Types, exported types and user strings do not accept a declaring-type filter; user strings do not accept a name filter. No display strings are reparsed.

fields accepts only columns of that collection. Omitting it preserves full rows, including method bodies. Selecting body explicitly returns the full recorded body and anchors; selecting no columns ([]) returns identity fields. Projected or filtered rows add their original source_index; tokens and source byte offsets remain, with defining/parent tokens or IL-site endpoints where applicable. The page retains module/MVID, artifact digest, parent Evidence, producer selection and source coverage. Full facts remain in the parent.

Paging offsets and totals count known matches in original order. source_count counts the producer-returned collection; unresolved_filter_rows counts rows that could match but lack a requested name/type. Those candidates remain unknown and are excluded from the matched total. Exhausting the known matches does not prove absence among unresolved or unexamined source rows.

CLI summary and saved member rows

The CLI accepts the same complete and summary detail choices. Omitted or --detail complete returns complete Evidence. To receive a summary, choose a new Evidence bundle destination so its original complete parent remains available after the command exits:

rea inspect-managed-members /absolute/path/Assembly.dll --type Namespace.Type \
  --detail summary --evidence-bundle /absolute/path/evidence/members.json --json

--evidence-bundle writes the complete original Evidence in REA's canonical bundle format. Its parent directory must exist, and it never replaces an existing path. Relative paths resolve against the command's working directory. The option also works with complete delivery when a saved bundle is useful. Summary without a destination is rejected before analysis. A publication failure returns a typed error with the completed Evidence under details.partial_observation; it does not report successful summary delivery. Cancellation before publication prevents the new output. Once atomic publication has started, it can complete despite cancellation; a cancelled delivery then retains the committed path and byte count under details.diagnostics.evidence_bundle.

Copy normalized_result.parent_evidence_id from the summary into the source.evidence_id field of the managed-members request above, then save that small request as members-page.json and run:

rea inspect-analysis-view /absolute/path/evidence/members-page.json \
  --evidence-bundle /absolute/path/evidence/members.json --json

The view command authenticates the selected bundle and resolves that exact parent ID. It does not reopen the assembly, so the original target may have been moved or removed. Subsequent calls can select another collection or use the returned coverage.next_offset to continue the same collection. An inline source already includes its parent and cannot also select --evidence-bundle.

Summary changes delivery, while type selection still controls decoding and the same inspection resource limits apply. Each separate CLI page reads and authenticates the saved bundle; the full source is retained on disk.

Shipped scope

The canonical parser admits PE/CLI bytes and their metadata/CIL without loading an assembly. It reports observed implementation markers and unavailable facts; it does not itself unpack .NET single-file hosts or infer a NativeAOT identity from an ordinary native PE. It does not decode IL2CPP; use IL2CPP metadata for the image, type and method names in a Unity global-metadata.dat. Inputs without admitted CLI metadata do not become managed assemblies through naming or routing guesses. Inspect separately obtained components explicitly and preserve their identities.

For ordinary .NET single-file hosts, use the existing artifact tools to inventory and extract bundle members, then inspect the extracted assembly explicitly with the managed tools.

A valid implementation marker establishes a candidate native boundary, not recovered native semantics or runtime behavior.

An assembly targeting .NET Standard declares API compatibility across multiple .NET implementations. REA preserves that target in target_frameworks and leaves runtime_family as unknown unless independent markers identify a runtime family, such as a ReadyToRun signature. When ReadyToRun is observed, runtime_family remains modern-dotnet even if Unity or target-framework hints are also present; the separate hint evidence is retained in the classification evidence list.

Resource admission

The static provider admits regular input files up to 128 MiB before retaining their bytes. Reads remain bounded if a file grows after admission. Metadata, CIL decoding, and projected inspection records have a separate conservative 64 MiB representation budget; shared heap strings are cached, but repeated output occurrences still consume that budget. These are inspection resource policies, not PE format limits or a hard bound on total V8 heap use.

Path-based member comparison uses the same per-input snapshot policy and inspects its two selected paths sequentially, retaining each inspection rather than both full byte snapshots. The limit therefore remains a per-file resource admission rule, not an aggregate comparison limit. Comparison Evidence keeps the caller-selected paths as its parameters and artifact locations.

Input overflow returns a resource constraint. Decode or projection overflow reports resource-limit with unavailable or partial coverage; omitted facts do not become empty observations. Ambiguous PE section mappings are rejected rather than interpreted according to section order.

Minimal Edit-and-Continue metadata marked by #JTD is not a standalone assembly inventory. The pinned .NET 9 reader uses different reference widths for this mode, and delta handles require the baseline and prior generations. The released metadata serializer emits this marker with #-; the PE writer can embed that metadata root. REA reports unsupported-metadata at the marker header before interpreting table rows, preserving the selected path, artifact digest, parsed metadata version and stream names, and admitted PE/CLI facts. Metadata status is partial; member and native declaration inventories are unavailable. Empty collections do not establish absence, and a requested type name is not declared unmatched. Ordinary standalone #~ and #- metadata keep their existing interpretation. This does not add raw .dmeta input, baseline attachment or delta reconstruction. Regression coverage uses authored metadata in a generated PE shell; it does not establish naturally emitted application PEs, CLR loadability or a real Edit-and-Continue execution.

Selected member inspection

Member inspection admits type names, tokens, list ranges/counts, nesting facts, module identity and their output representation before decoding members. If later decoding or projection reaches the 64 MiB representation budget, the result retains this type inventory with coverage.state: "partial" and the original resource-limit coordinate. It does not return partially admitted member collections: empty fields, methods, references and edges are unexamined, not proof of absence; exported types, user strings and signature-resolution attestation remain null. Summary and retained pages keep this partial coverage. The capacity limit is unchanged. If metadata or the type inventory itself cannot be admitted, the result remains unavailable.

Use the returned types[].full_name values to select declaring types before their signatures and CIL bodies are decoded:

rea inspect-managed-members /absolute/path/Assembly.dll --type Example.Parser

MCP uses inspect_managed_members with {"path":"/absolute/path/Assembly.dll","type_names":["Example.Parser"]}. Repeat --type or supply multiple unique type_names for several types. Names match the reported full_name exactly. Top-level names require that namespace-qualified spelling. Nested declarations also accept their bare name, including when their own namespace is nonempty; this can select several types with that name. Selection uses the parsed TypeDef facts and comparison uses the returned declaring types, rather than reconstructing scope from the caller's spelling. Each type's enclosing_type_token records its enclosing TypeDef. nesting_read distinguishes complete source rows (true), incomplete current rows (false), and historical Evidence (null). A null enclosing token alone does not establish that a type is top-level. Each selected type also retains name_sha256, a framed digest of its namespace, name and enclosing names. It uses the same bounded, cached owner as signature type operands and remains available when selection omits the enclosing types. It adds one fixed-size digest per returned type rather than repeated name paths.

The result preserves the requested names in selection.type_names and reports unmatched names separately. If metadata names are unreadable, limitations retain that uncertainty. With no selection, selection is null and whole-assembly inspection keeps its existing resource policy. Selection restricts types, fields, methods, call edges, field accesses and user strings; member references remain an assembly-wide inventory, so output size is not guaranteed to be small.

Coverage describes the selected members. Comparisons leave members outside the opposite observation's selection unknown, and application graphs report their selected scope as partial. Neither makes an absence claim about the whole assembly. Older member Evidence without selection remains readable. The comparison resolves a member's declaring TypeDef token in its own source, then checks that nominal name_sha256 against the opposite selected type set. Pairing, absence and aggregate selected-scope agreement share these retained facts, including enclosing names, rather than requested spellings or display labels. Equivalent requests can cover the same types, while the same display name can select different nested owners. Such disjoint selected owners cannot establish a member pair or added/removed status even when both inventories are complete. Missing nominal identities cannot establish selected membership, including historical selected Evidence that retains only display names; the explicitly limited historical whole-inventory comparison remains available. Incomplete selected inventories or missing identities leave aggregate agreement unknown and coverage partial; known observed member pairs remain available. Complete empty selected inventories agree even if their unmatched request names differ. Whole-assembly and selected inventories remain distinct scopes, and each source retains its exact request. The method_rows interval records the examined zero-based MethodDef offset, row count and full table total before type selection. A complete observation can cover only that interval. Comparison keeps omissions from a method page unknown: build-local row positions cannot prove member absence across builds. Historical Evidence without this interval also cannot establish method absence; observed pairs and field inventory comparisons remain available.

For MCP callers, request detail: "summary" and page the types collection using the returned parent Evidence ID. Select one or more returned full names in a subsequent inspect_managed_members request. Selection is a recovery path, not a guarantee: a single type or the assembly-wide member references can still exhaust the representation budget. A successful command exit means the Evidence was returned; inspect coverage.state and coverage.issues before treating any collection as complete.

User strings

ldstr anchors keep their build-local 0x70 tokens. user_strings.literals lists each distinct token loaded by an inspected method body once, in token order, with its #US file offset and decoded value. Values keep their stored UTF-16 code units, including unpaired surrogates. Token 0x70000000 names the heap's empty entry at offset 0 and reads as ""; any other item there is malformed. The terminal flag is checked against ECMA-335 II.24.2.4, and the length prefix against the width II.23.2 assigns. A difference is reported with its byte offset as a user-string issue while preserving the readable literal. Toolchain conventions can differ; this conformance observation does not establish runtime rejection. A missing #US stream is one stream-level issue; a malformed item is reported against its token. User strings carry their own coverage: any of these makes user_strings.state partial and lists the issue in user_strings.issues, while the member coverage and metadata.status are unaffected, and readable literals remain. The state is also partial when an inspected method's CIL was not fully decoded (a malformed exception section alone does not count) or a method that may belong to the inspected types was not inspected (its row could not be read, or its type's name could not be read under a type_names selection), because ldstr instructions there were not observed. Normalized CIL digests do not include decoded values. compare_managed_members does not decode or compare literals: an unchanged method does not establish unchanged strings, and the comparison says so in its limitations. Older member Evidence without user_strings reads as null: not examined.

Edge target declaring types

member_refs[].parent_name, call_edges[].target_declaring_type, and field_accesses[].field_declaring_type name the type that declares each target. Referenced spec signatures validate encoded type coordinates against the metadata tables, including nested type arguments and custom modifiers. TypeRef resolution scopes are checked transitively with cycle detection; readable names survive malformed scopes as partial evidence. TypeDef and TypeRef names use the namespace-qualified full_name form, and nested types keep bare names. A generic-instantiation TypeSpec parent names its generic type, such as System.Collections.Generic.List`1. Other well-formed TypeSpec forms and ModuleRef or MethodDef parents stay null. A method-spec call edge reports the name and declaring type of the generic method it instantiates. A field access is named only by a field or a field-signature MemberRef. TypeSpec and MethodSpec blobs are decoded with the member-signature grammar, and a MethodSpec must instantiate a generic method with as many type arguments as it declares. Malformed or unsupported rows and blobs, and arity mismatches, make coverage partial. A readable MethodSpec method column that names a method, or a TypeRef whose resolution scope is invalid, keeps its name. Older member Evidence without these fields reads them as null: unknown.

Analysis objective

Start by identifying the artifact with inspect_managed_artifact, then inspect its types and CIL with inspect_managed_members. Use member comparison for another build, and managed/native boundary rules when matching declared native calls to supplied native Evidence. Static inspection does not load or execute the assembly. Reconstructed structure and unresolved native/runtime questions retain their own authority and coverage.

When the selected source changes during acquisition or no longer matches its admitted digest, inspection and comparison report retryable artifact_changed; any completed hash retains the observed digest and byte count. Retry against a stable source. This differs from corrupted retained Evidence, which remains an Evidence-integrity failure. Malformed selected PE input has the same input-format classification in inspection and comparison. Its issue identifies the selected filename and argument: path for inspection, or leftPath / rightPath for CLI comparison. A failed right-side comparison retains the completed left observation.

Member comparison

Call edges and field accesses retain il_offset as their instruction site within the caller's build-local method token and artifact identity. Their target_identity_sha256 combines the existing enclosing-type nominal digest, member name and resolved decoded signature. Comparison joins edges to their instruction sites rather than array positions and compares these identities; display labels alone cannot establish equal targets. Same-named nested types under different enclosing types and different overload signatures stay distinct. This is nominal metadata identity, not assembly resolution or runtime binding. Historical edges without a site or identity, unresolved/cyclic type scopes, TypeSpec owners and unresolved MethodSpec instantiations retain unknown target equivalence. Valid MethodSpecs combine the base member identity with the resolved instantiation signature, preserving generic argument distinctions.

Names and semantic labels do not establish durable member identity. Comparison preserves observed differences, structural inferences, and unknowns separately.

Cross-version matching first pairs members of the same declared type and name. A current declared type uses its observed name_sha256, so same-named nested types in different enclosing types stay distinct even in selected inventories. Malformed, missing, contradictory, cyclic or over-deep enclosing identity remains unknown; the comparison preserves display names without using them to repair that gap. Historical observations retain an explicitly limited bare-name mode when either side predates the identity facts. A known current identity gap still remains unknown beside a historical observation. Matching then pairs methods by exact CIL/signature identity, then by signature, then by structural body shape; fields by signature. Exact CIL/signature identity requires equal raw CIL digests and decoded fingerprints. Equal decoded fingerprints alone cannot establish an exact match: they omit switch targets and collapse distinct NaN encodings. Only then may a remap pair a renamed or moved member across declared types or names: a method by exact CIL/signature identity or structural body shape, a field by exact decoded signature. A remap never takes a member whose own declared type and name remain unpaired on the other side, so a member is never taken from its own changed counterpart. A member whose declared identity is unresolved could belong to any type. It never makes a declared-identity pair, and any remap group it joins stays ambiguous. Unresolved same-named counterparts prevent definitive added/removed claims, while observed names and tokens remain available in the result. The exact-signature key uses names only as part of that full tuple; names alone never select a pair. Duplicate tuples remain ambiguous rather than being paired by token order. Every round compares signatures by resolved_sha256: the raw signature with each TypeDef or TypeRef operand replaced by a digest of that type's namespace and name, hashed as separate values so A + B.C differs from A.B + C, after its enclosing types for a nested type (Outer/Inner). The defining assembly is not part of the name: a TypeDef and a TypeRef with the same namespace and name compare as the same nominal name, and a TypeRef's ResolutionScope assembly is ignored, so a type forwarded from one assembly to another still pairs. Two different types with the same full name in different assemblies therefore have equal name digests. Comparison reports this scope limitation inline; it does not establish CLR type identity or runtime binding equivalence. Nesting deeper than 64 levels is not named, and such a signature compares by its raw digest. Comparison keys keep resolved and raw digests apart, so a raw digest never pairs with an equal resolved one. Raw signature bytes name types by metadata row, and rows are build-local, so the same signature usually has different raw bytes in two builds. A signature that names no types resolves to its raw digest. When an operand cannot be resolved, such as a TypeSpec, or when REA could not parse the signature, the raw digest stands in. Missing or unreadable TypeDef and TypeRef operands are reported as coverage issues. Invalid NestedClass rows retain their failure reasons and withhold TypeDef signature identities; type names and nesting are parsed once by their shared owner. Each current inspection records signature_resolution: "type-names-v2", even when none of its operands can be resolved. Version 2 also appends readable names to signature operands, for example class:7772 (AnalysisJob). Coded indexes remain build-local references; names are display text and do not change raw or resolved signature digests. Nested names use Outer/Inner. Generic instantiations keep their decoded arguments, for example class:9 (System.Collections.Generic.List`1)<string>; custom modifiers are named too. Valid but unresolved TypeSpecs, invalid scopes, unreadable type names, cycles and nesting beyond the cap keep their raw operand spelling. Invalid or missing metadata coordinates retain the existing malformed signature result and source issue; rendering does not bypass validation. Version 1 Evidence remains readable and compares using the same digest policy. Historical Evidence defaults this attestation to null. When either observation predates resolution, both sides compare raw digests, which pair only where type rows agree, and the comparison reports that limitation. The signature is exact whether or not REA decoded it, so undecoded signatures pair by that tuple too, but they never enter structural rounds. An unmatched member is therefore reported as unknown, not added or removed, when its own signature was not decoded or when the other side has an unpaired member, one-sided or ambiguous, with the same declared type and name whose signature was not decoded. When both observations attest type-name resolution, a decoded signature that still compares by its raw digest is treated the same way: an unmatched member with one, or beside an unpaired same-named member with one, is unknown, because its raw bytes name types by build-local row. A matched unresolved signature also remains unknown unless another observed dimension establishes a change; identical row bytes can reference different TypeSpec contents. Its resolution limitation is retained even when another dimension changes.

For a matched method, an unavailable or partial body makes body-shape facets unknown while preserving observed signature differences. For complete bodies, a difference in either the raw CIL digest or the decoded fingerprint is reported in the cil dimension, including reordered switch targets with equal decoded fingerprints. Structural identity compares resolved signatures, the limited decoded-CIL tuple fingerprint, constants, and bounded shape context. It reports all candidates at the winning score and remains ambiguous when the evidence does not distinguish them. The digest does not itself remap metadata tokens.

Matched methods also compare aligned references. call-shape and field-shape report opcode and operand-kind differences; call-target and field-target report differences in the observed target declaring type or name from call_edges and field_accesses. Target tokens remain build-local and are not compared across artifacts. Missing or unaligned edges and missing target names leave that facet unknown; equal names do not establish overload identity or runtime dispatch. exception-shape compares clause flags and ranges. exception-target compares the nested nominal catch-type name digest; for resolved TypeDefs it also compares the enclosing assembly identity. A different known name or assembly scope establishes a change. Equal TypeRef names remain unknown because their resolution scope is not resolved here. Exception tokens remain in the source facts but are not cross-build identity; an unresolved catch type leaves that facet unknown. The method body retains the display class_type, nested class_type_name_sha256, and whether its local token identifies a TypeDef. A TypeDef digest alone does not prove identity without matching assembly identity. Missing assembly identity and equal TypeRef names leave the comparison unknown.

Tokens are always remapped through observed structure. A caller cannot carry 0x06001234 into a new MVID and assume it names the same method.

NativeAOT metadata recovery

NativeAOT removes the ordinary CIL method bodies, so a CIL decompiler cannot reconstruct those bodies as C# source. The executable remains a native target for Hopper or Ghidra, where decompilation produces pseudocode and analyst inference. This is a different route from ordinary managed member inspection.

NativeAOT is not limited to Windows .exe files. The native image can be PE, ELF, or Mach-O, and NativeAOT can also publish shared libraries (PE DLL, ELF .so, or Mach-O .dylib) with explicitly exported entry points. Identify the image from its bytes and loader metadata, not its filename extension. When the image is inside an application bundle, inventory or extract the bundle first and carry the component identity into native analysis. Matching PDB, ELF debug, or dSYM sidecars can add symbol evidence when the selected provider supports them; verify their identity and keep them separate from observations made from the executable itself. Microsoft's NativeAOT overview lists supported OS/architecture targets and deployment limitations, while its native library guide describes exported shared-library entry points.

REA offers a built-in read-only snapshot parser for x64 PE/RTR 9.1 metadata and an optional Linux headless Ghidra adapter for annotations and broader recovery. The adapter requires a locally built REA_GHIDRA_NATIVEAOT_JAR; REA does not install it or its toolchain. The NativeAOT guide defines these routes, their layout/host restrictions, derived-memory provenance, and verification coverage.

REA's experimental Windows Ghidra boundary admits native x86, x86-64, ARMNT (Thumb-2) and ARM64 PE applications and DLLs for static analysis. For x64 PE NativeAOT, the read-only parser also runs there; the NativeAOT guide lists what a Windows host covers.

For NativeAOT analysis, preserve the selected native artifact's path and digest and report recovered type data with its returned provenance. Linking those types to native function addresses requires verified provider evidence; names or vtable similarity alone do not prove that a native function implements a specific managed method.

Managed/native boundary rules

verify_managed_native_boundaries compares declared P/Invoke module and entry point identities with supplied native export or function evidence. Name/module matches establish declaration links; they do not establish that a call executed. When either side lacks a usable module identity, a matching name remains unresolved and retains the candidate evidence; REA reports a module mismatch only when both identities are available and their format-specific comparison establishes a difference. ELF module names retain case, PE module names compare case-insensitively, and a case-only match for Mach-O or an unknown format stays unresolved because the available Evidence does not establish case behavior. For PE imports, .dll, .exe, a trailing period, and absolute paths suppress appending .dll; other names may also be tried with .dll. Unix loaders use the platform suffix (.so or .dylib) and lib prefix variations. A suffix already present at the end of the name or before a period still gets an appended-suffix variation, so Linux can match nativedep.so.6 with libnativedep.so.6. The lib prefix is omitted when the name contains /, and absolute paths are used as supplied. POSIX paths keep backslashes as literal characters. These candidates follow Microsoft's native library loading rules. These filename rules compare declared and observed identities; they do not establish which library the runtime loaded.

Signatures retain their decoded fields, but a Field or MethodDef row whose signature has the other member kind is malformed and cannot establish an unchanged signature. Comparison retains exact byte-based pairs for malformed signatures, including empty, truncated, or invalid headers, but reports them as unknown with a signature-malformed limitation when no change is observed. This applies to historical Evidence without signature-resolution attestation as well. Runtime-provided methods are counted separately in native_implementations.runtime_provided; they have no file-backed native body for this workflow to map and do not increase native_body_unresolved. Historical verification Evidence without this separate count leaves it unknown (null).

An empty declared import name remains unchanged in verification Evidence and produces no native-name candidates. With a supplied PE native context and no_mangle: false, an unspecified charset includes the ANSI A candidate; auto includes the Windows Unicode W candidate. Other native formats do not inherit these Windows defaults. Known ELF and Mach-O contexts use the declared entry point without A/W suffixes or Windows stdcall decoration, including when the metadata declares an explicit ANSI or Unicode marshalling charset. The original charset and calling convention remain unchanged. This follows the .NET runtime's platform-specific entry-point lookup. Windows name decorations are static inferred candidates; exact spelling still suppresses decoration and no runtime binding is proven. The mapping follows Microsoft's charset guidance. Partial input coverage records a residual question even when no unresolved individual boundary was produced. Selected literal inventories likewise remain partial when unknown MethodDef ownership can hide a selected body.

Metadata tokens are not native addresses. Native body mapping for C++/CLI, ReadyToRun, NativeAOT, and IL2CPP requires separately verified format and provider support. The managed static tools do not recover those mappings. The optional Ghidra NativeAOT extension has its own supported boundary.

Declared import inventory supports a bounded positive claim. Its absence does not exclude dynamic resolution, generated code, protected code, native helpers, or server-side behavior.

Application graph relations

project_managed_application_graph turns member Evidence into contains edges for declarations, imports edges for P/Invoke declarations, and two relation kinds read from method bodies:

• calls links two managed-method nodes when a call, callvirt, newobj or jmp site in the caller targets a MethodDef in the inspected module.
• accesses links a managed-method node to a managed-field node for each field it loads, stores or takes the address of.

Each edge stands for every site between one source and one target. Its properties carry site_count and per-opcode opcodes counts; accesses edges also list access as read, write and/or address. Edge evidence links the member Evidence.

Some sites are counted rather than projected: calls to MemberRefs (members of other assemblies or of generic type instantiations), generic method instantiations (MethodSpec), unknown targets, ldftn/ldvirtftn function pointer loads, recursive self-calls (the graph has no self-loops), MemberRef fields, and sites whose method or field node is absent, for example under a type selection. Limitations name each counted class, and graph coverage is partial with omitted_count equal to the omitted sites when nothing else is incomplete. A missing calls edge is therefore not evidence that a method is never called.

Evidence record shape

Member comparison, application graph projection, and managed/native verification authenticate supplied inspection Evidence and check that any subject SHA-256 matches the normalized artifact SHA-256. A valid Evidence ID alone does not establish that those two identities agree. Evidence without a subject remains usable, with no subject digest available to cross-check.

Artifact inspection returns the selected path, byte length and SHA-256, observed PE/CLI classification, assembly and module identities, and metadata coverage. Member inspection binds build-local tokens, signatures, row offsets, method bodies, and decoded relationships to that artifact and MVID. Missing or malformed facts remain explicit in coverage and per-member status.

Metadata table streams may carry the CLR-compatible ExtraData extension (HeapSizes flag 0x40), which Microsoft readers honor although it is not specified by ECMA-335. REA skips its fixed four-byte word after the row counts before decoding table rows; the word's value is not a length. An incomplete word is reported as a metadata coverage failure at its file offset, without reading beyond the declared table stream.

For unoptimized #- metadata, nonempty FieldPtr and MethodPtr tables translate TypeDef list positions to physical member definitions. REA resolves these indirections for member ownership and local attribute-constructor types; field and method tokens still identify the original definition rows. field_list and method_list retain the metadata's list coordinates, which refer to the pointer table when present rather than necessarily contiguous definition rows. Invalid or nonmonotonic list coordinates and malformed or ambiguous pointers leave affected owners unknown with partial coverage while preserving readable member and attribute facts. The retained inverse indexes are admitted against the existing representation budget before allocation.

Custom-attribute type_name uses Outer+Nested when its local TypeDef or TypeRef enclosing chain is readable. It remains null when the constructor's type or required enclosing facts cannot be resolved.

exported_types reports ExportedType rows as declared. Facade assemblies such as .NET System.Runtime.dll provide their types this way: forwarder: true marks a type forwarder, and implementation_token names the AssemblyRef, File, or enclosing ExportedType row that implements it. REA does not load the implementing assembly to resolve the forwarded definition, and compare_managed_members does not compare exported types. Member Evidence recorded before this field existed reads back with exported_types: null, which means the table was not examined.

CLI #GUID heap values retain their exact 16-byte GUID text. REA does not impose RFC 4122 UUID version or variant bits on MVID, EncId, or EncBaseId because ECMA-335 metadata does not require those bit patterns. Tokens and RVAs are build-local coordinates, not durable cross-build identities or native addresses. Field and method signatures validate embedded TypeDefOrRefOrSpec operands against the artifact's metadata tables. An invalid operand leaves the member name and raw signature digest available while marking that signature malformed and coverage partial. A fat method header's nonzero LocalVarSigTok must name an existing StandAloneSig row whose blob is a structurally valid LocalVarSig. REA validates its local types and exact blob coverage, retaining local_var_signature with the raw blob digest and whether named types, modifiers, or generic variables require metadata or declaring context. Historical Evidence defaults this field to null. An invalid token or malformed signature leaves decoded CIL anchors intact but marks the body malformed and coverage partial. Unsupported local type encodings retain the readable body with partial coverage. Zero continues to mean no locals signature. Raw table tokens are not cross-build identities. Comparison uses validated context-free signature digests; signatures requiring metadata or declaring context remain unknown across artifacts.

Decoded-CIL fingerprint

inspect_managed_members exposes two method CIL hashes with different byte boundaries:

Field	Input	Excluded from the digest
il_sha256	The exact il_size raw CIL bytes after the tiny or fat method header	Method header, locals signature blob, alignment, and extra sections including exception clauses
normalized_il_sha256	UTF-8 JSON.stringify output for the instruction-order array of [opcode, operand_kind, operand] tuples	Instruction offsets except projected scalar branch targets, switch targets, resolved metadata/string identities, method header, locals, and exception regions

The normalized field is available only when the entire CIL stream decodes with status present. A malformed or absent body reports null. The tuple format is defined here.

Tuple operands use these exact projections:

• operand-free instructions: none and null;
• metadata and user-string operands: the build-local token as lowercase 0x-prefixed eight-digit hexadecimal;
• scalar branches: the target CIL byte offset as a decimal string;
• switch: the case count as a decimal string, without target offsets;
• signed integer and variable operands: decimal strings; floating-point operands: JavaScript's String representation of the decoded IEEE value.

For ldtoken MemberRef operands, operand_kind follows the parsed member signature (field or method); if that signature does not establish the kind, the anchor keeps the generic token classification.

Opcode names retain short/long forms and prefix opcodes. This makes the value a reproducible decoded-tuple fingerprint, not a canonical semantic CIL identity: it does not resolve tokens across MVIDs, does not commit full control flow or exception semantics, and does not replace the raw CIL digest. Cross-build comparison requires equal raw CIL digests as well for exact CIL/signature matches and reports ambiguity when structural evidence is insufficient.

For example, a present body (including any valid declared locals signature) whose IL is nop; ret serializes exactly as [["nop","none",null],["ret","none",null]] and has digest 5e5fad7741cb44bca3a4f045546b7449990da343f612f5f34c0ca30e9eee0636. This vector specifies the tuple order, null handling, absence of whitespace, UTF-8 encoding, and lowercase hexadecimal output.

Tool and packaging boundary

The production parser is REA-owned TypeScript and ships with the existing Node application. Deterministic conformance uses source-owned byte-built PE/CLI fixtures and expected semantic facts. An optional real ILSpy lane runs only when its executable is explicitly supplied; the default lane does not establish independent pinned-oracle parity. Production inspection needs none of those tools.

• ICSharpCode.Decompiler/ilspycmd can supply reconstruction inference. A BYO reconstruction import records the supplied version and remains non-canonical. When REA_ILSPY_CMD_PATH points to an absolute runnable ilspycmd, verify:managed runs a source-owned real ILSpy oracle and imports its C# output as reconstruction inference against exact static member Evidence.
• The package contains no .NET runtime, SDK, ILSpy installation, proprietary assembly, or compiled conformance fixture.
• Setup never installs or upgrades those tools. Doctor may inspect an explicit optional path without changing it.

Real-tool downloads used in development or CI require exact package coordinates and SHA-256 lock entries. They are cached outside the source tree and restored into isolated directories. Updating any coordinate requires review of license, runtime, supported host, output contract, and conformance results.

Target platform is not host support. The canonical parser must inspect Windows-produced PE/CLI bytes on REA's supported Linux and macOS hosts with the same result. Pinned Windows oracle jobs may provide additional conformance, but do not establish that the REA managed analysis workflow has been verified on a Windows host. The experimental Windows Ghidra boundary has its own host and provider verification scope. Native ReadyToRun, C++/CLI, NativeAOT, or IL2CPP coverage is additionally constrained by the selected Hopper/Ghidra host and format matrix.

Conformance verification

The current lane uses source-owned byte-built fixtures and malformed-input regressions, with optional operator-supplied applications and ILSpy verification.

Run the deterministic lane with npm run verify:managed. See testing for prerequisites and coverage. Generated outputs belong outside tracked fixture directories and must not remain after verification or packaging.

Verification compares semantic facts, not decompiler text. It checks resource ceilings, deterministic ordering, complete cleanup, CLI/MCP parity, Evidence commitments, packed-package behavior, and target-free MCP startup. A parser and an oracle disagreeing on malformed input is investigated explicitly; one tool's acceptance does not automatically make the bytes valid.

Operator-local osu! benchmark

The optional osu! benchmark accepts only paths and expectations supplied by the operator. Run it with:

REA_MANAGED_APP_MANIFEST_PATH=/absolute/managed-app-manifest.json npm run verify:managed

verify:managed always runs a source-owned manifest-verifier self-test first. If REA_ILSPY_CMD_PATH is set to an absolute ilspycmd path, it also runs a source-owned ILSpy oracle: version discovery, class listing, bounded C# output for a pinned fixture type, and import through import_managed_reconstruction. The verifier prints only command/version, executable and output digests, Evidence IDs, method locks, and compact fixture identity; it does not print decompiled C# text. A failing ILSpy oracle fails the verifier because it is an explicit real-tool claim, but leaving REA_ILSPY_CMD_PATH unset keeps the oracle disabled.

When REA_MANAGED_APP_MANIFEST_PATH is set, the manifest's target path may be absolute or relative to the manifest file. A compact manifest contains:

{
  "label": "operator-local osu!stable semantic slice",
  "target": {
    "path": "./osu!.exe",
    "sha256": "<exact target digest>",
    "mvid": "<exact module MVID>",
    "assembly_name": "<expected simple name>",
    "runtime_family": "dotnet-framework",
    "managed_architecture": "x86"
  },
  "methods": [
    {
      "label": "operator-local semantic label",
      "token": "0x06000000",
      "signature_sha256": "<raw signature blob digest>",
      "il_size": 0,
      "il_sha256": "<raw CIL byte digest>",
      "normalized_il_sha256": "<digest>"
    }
  ],
  "application_graph": {
    "expected_node_kinds": [
      "artifact",
      "managed-assembly",
      "managed-module",
      "managed-type",
      "managed-method"
    ],
    "feature_traces": [
      {
        "label": "operator-local feature label",
        "method_token": "0x06000000",
        "seed": "<method name, API name, string, or digest to trace>",
        "match": "exact",
        "case_sensitive": true,
        "min_matched_seeds": 1
      }
    ]
  }
}

Before evaluating methods, the verifier fails closed on target SHA-256, MVID, assembly name, runtime-family, and managed-architecture mismatches whenever the manifest supplies those fields. It then pages each declared MethodDef token directly by row, so selected methods do not need to appear in the first member page of a large application. Optional il_sha256 locks the exact raw CIL bytes in addition to REA's decoded-instruction-tuple digest. That normalized field has the byte boundaries documented above and is not a complete semantic CIL identity.

The optional application_graph block reuses those exact-build method commitments. For each referenced MethodDef token, the verifier builds a bounded managed application-graph projection from the authenticated artifact and the single selected member page, then checks requested node kinds and feature-trace seed matches. This proves only that the selected static facts enter REA's graph and tracing vocabulary for that exact local build; it does not execute the application, inspect arbitrary unlisted methods, or infer runtime behavior.

Output contains assertion status and compact identities only: file name, target SHA-256, MVID, assembly name, runtime-family, managed architecture, method tokens, method names, signature digests, IL sizes, normalized IL digests, graph Evidence IDs, node-kind summaries, and trace seed hit counts. It does not print method bodies, reconstructed C#, application data, runtime telemetry, account/service details, full filesystem inventories, or the target's absolute path. The manifest and target remain outside git.

The benchmark may prove that REA reproduces selected facts for that exact local build. It cannot establish general support on its own; source-built conformance remains the admission requirement.

Runtime behavior boundary

Managed inspection does not execute assemblies or observe CLR internals. Questions about actual behavior remain unknown until supported runtime evidence is collected. A direct process capture can retain declared inputs, outputs, filesystem and protocol activity for a target run; it does not prove which managed methods executed or how the CLR resolved them.

Method metadata during build comparison

Managed member comparisons report a metadata dimension when an observed MethodDef flags or implementation flags value differs, including accessibility or synchronization changes. Observed method-body init_locals and max_stack differences also contribute to metadata, even when CIL decoding is incomplete. For complete bodies, presence or absence of a locals signature also contributes; the locals table token is build-local and is not compared. Different validated context-free LocalVarSig digests report a metadata encoding difference without asserting a semantic type change. Equal digests establish unchanged bytes only when neither signature requires metadata or declaring context. Historical unrecorded signatures and context-dependent signatures keep local identity unknown, preserving any independently observed changes. The same method token in an artifact with the same authenticated SHA-256 identifies the same local signature bytes, including for retained historical Evidence. An unavailable header value keeps body coverage unknown rather than establishing equality or a difference. These comparisons are separate from the CIL/signature matching tiers: identical instructions do not establish unchanged method metadata. The reported difference is static metadata evidence, not proof of runtime behavior.