reverse-engineering-anything/docs/cli.md

CLI and Evidence

Use the CLI for a direct inspection or a script. It uses the same application workflows and evidence contracts as REA's MCP server. Each CLI invocation is a separate process; save results when you want to use them in a later command. For a pinned, noninteractive workflow with retained reports, see static analysis in GitHub Actions.

Run a command

After installing REA, use rea. You can also run a command without a global installation:

npx -y rea-agents@latest analyze-javascript-application /absolute/path/to/app --json

Use an extracted application directory or an ASAR as the target. Static JavaScript analysis returns the application graph and Evidence directly. Generic rea analyze PATH selects this workflow for directories and .asar files when neither --provider nor --snapshot is supplied. See JavaScript artifact reconstruction for results, integrity checks and coverage.

The complete application Evidence can be hundreds of megabytes for a real application. When an agent or a person reads the result, save it to a file and project a summary, a module page or one module from the saved Evidence:

rea analyze-javascript-application /absolute/path/to/app --json > app-evidence.json
jq -c '{source: {kind: "inline", evidence: .}, view: {kind: "summary"}}' app-evidence.json > app-view.json
rea inspect-analysis-view app-view.json

The request can also name the saved file instead of embedding it: {"source": {"kind": "evidence-file", "path": "app-evidence.json"}, "view": {"kind": "summary"}}. The CLI resolves a relative path against the working directory; MCP clients pass an absolute path. REA reads and authenticates the file, then projects it like retained Evidence, so a large file is bounded by the file reader rather than charged as inline input.

An argument that accepts inline JSON or a JSON file path also accepts -, which reads the request from standard input, so a generated request needs no temporary file:

jq -nc '{source: {kind: "evidence-file", path: "app-evidence.json"}, view: {kind: "summary"}}' | rea inspect-analysis-view -

Standard input is read once as a single UTF-8 JSON document without a byte-order mark, and it is limited to 8 MiB. Put a larger request in a file.

Local file inspection commands reject empty paths and NUL bytes before resolving relative inputs, auxiliary files or output destinations. An empty string never selects the working directory; use an explicit . when selecting that directory is supported by the command.

For example, a 334 MB Obsidian application Evidence file yields a summary view of about 10 KB. Replace the view with {"kind": "page", "collection": "modules", "offset": 0, "limit": 32} for a module page. See JavaScript application workflows for views, feature traces and comparisons that take the same saved Evidence.

Add --timings to a command to write one JSON timing record to stderr. For example, rea inspect-elf-notes program --json --timings > result.json keeps stdout as a parseable result and writes {"rea_timings":{"version":1,"command_ms":42}} to stderr. command_ms measures CLI command dispatch and result delivery; it is not provider-only or analysis-only time. The flag is off by default, and the record omits stages that REA did not measure. Root version reporting does not dispatch a command and has no command timing record.

JSON Lines record output

Use --format jsonl to consume row-oriented results one record per line:

cat > observations-view.json <<'JSON'
{"source":{"kind":"evidence-file","path":"app-evidence.json"},"view":{"kind":"javascript-facts","property_keys":[],"offset":0,"limit":32}}
JSON
rea inspect-analysis-view observations-view.json --format jsonl > observations.jsonl

This request selects up to 32 observation identities and their provenance, without observation property values.

This changes JSONL object-collection framing. Scripts that need one complete report or a scalar field should use --format json. For a full application graph, first project a supported analysis view rather than selecting an arbitrary nested graph array.

A top-level array emits its elements in source order. An object must have one clear rows, items, records, or occurrences array, directly or under page. Evidence uses the same boundaries inside normalized_result. Any other selection is refused before a record is written, including an arbitrary report, a scalar, a nested array elsewhere, and a columnar object such as the inspect-sqlite-database --table normalized_result.rows ({columns, values}). The refusal is the caller error invalid_request (invalid_input) and names the selection and its observed shape; the analysis itself succeeded, so use --format json for the complete document. If several collections exist, select one with --filter-output, for example normalized_result.rows for an analysis view.

Object collections finish with a control record:

{
  "$rea": "jsonl/v1",
  "type": "metadata",
  "records": {
    "path": ["normalized_result", "rows"],
    "emitted": 2,
    "source": 10,
    "filter": "normalized_result.rows[0,2]"
  },
  "context": {
    "evidence_id": "ev_…",
    "normalized_result": {
      "coverage": {
        "status": "page",
        "examined": 10,
        "total": 100,
        "next_offset": 10,
        "exhausted": false
      }
    }
  }
}

This abbreviated example illustrates framing. The actual context preserves all non-row fields, including Evidence subject, provider, authority, confidence, locations, links, limitations, parent/view digests, pagination and coverage. With --full-output, it also retains the command envelope and its metadata. A data filter selects row fields/slices while this context remains available; excluded peer record collections and unselected Evidence raw_result are not restored. An explicitly selected raw_result remains selected. Retain the original Evidence for complete observations.

records.emitted and records.source count the selected output and its source array; they do not assert analysis completeness. Source coverage and unknowns retain their original meaning. Existing row identities and indices remain unchanged unless your field selection excludes them. Empty object collections still emit metadata; an empty top-level array emits no lines. Bare top-level arrays have no synthetic coverage record.

Command and output-validation failures emit {"$rea":"jsonl/v1","type":"error","ok":false,"result":…} and retain the original diagnostic payload. SDK validation/sentinel errors use the SDK's exit status rather than guessing from data fields. $rea is reserved at the top level of a data record, so control records are unambiguous; collisions are refused before rows are written. Nested $rea values are ordinary data. A missing final metadata record or nonzero exit can indicate an interrupted export; do not treat already emitted rows as a complete result.

--token-count estimates this exact representation, including metadata, one line at a time. Errors remain error records even with token counting enabled. Token windows cannot preserve JSON Lines and are rejected. JSON encoding and stdout writes are incremental, including large escaped strings; this is output streaming over a completed result, not incremental analysis. The analysis still needs its normal resources. A single record must fit the runtime string limit for token estimation; remove --token-count to stream a larger record.

Standalone version and MCP doctor diagnostics remain single JSON documents in JSON Lines mode. Incur's streaming generator events and successful sentinel responses retain their SDK protocol. MCP application results and Evidence contracts are unchanged.

Shell completion

The CLI includes optional shell completion. Run rea completions --help to see the available shells and their setup commands. For Bash, load the hook into the current shell:

eval "$(rea completions bash)"

For zsh, initialize completion before loading the hook. If your shell already runs compinit, place the hook after that existing initialization:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit
eval "$(rea completions zsh)"

The Bash hook supports macOS system Bash 3.2. It uses optional completion features when the shell provides them and falls back to portable registration. Completion includes standard global options and the active command's options; rea mcp offers only add and doctor. Output-option values remain data when resolving the command scope.

For future interactive non-login Bash sessions, add the command to ~/.bashrc. Interactive login Bash sessions read the first available file in ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile; add the command to the file your shell reads, or have that file source ~/.bashrc. Remove the command from the startup file to stop loading completion, and run complete -r rea to remove the registration from the current shell. These are manual, opt-in steps. Completion is a discovery aid; use rea COMMAND --help to confirm the available options and subcommands.

Managed assemblies (.NET)

For a .NET PE/CLI assembly, inspect its identity and deployment form before inspecting members. These commands read metadata and Common Intermediate Language (CIL) without loading or executing the assembly and require no native analysis engine:

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

Replace Example.Parser with an exact full_name from the member inspection, or a declaring type name you already know. Omit --type to inspect all members, or repeat it to select several types. Selection limits decoding to the selected types; member references remain an assembly-wide inventory, so the output can still be large.

Select --detail summary --evidence-bundle /absolute/path/members.json to receive identity, selection, coverage, limitations and collection counts while saving the complete original Evidence in a new bundle. Summary requires that explicit destination; existing files are preserved. Later inspect-analysis-view calls can page the exact parent from the saved bundle without reopening the assembly. See CLI summary and saved member rows for the complete command sequence. Omitted or --detail complete retains the full inline response.

Choose the workflow from the artifact's contents rather than its .exe or .dll extension. The managed parser requires PE/CLI metadata; it does not unpack .NET single-file hosts or decode IL2CPP. For the image, type and method names in a Unity global-metadata.dat, use IL2CPP metadata. NativeAOT method bodies require native analysis. See the managed-code guide for supported deployment forms, selection semantics, and coverage limits.

SQLite snapshots

For a local database snapshot, use rea inspect-sqlite-database PATH --json. Add --table NAME --row-limit 20 to read a bounded sample from an ordinary table. This command does not require a native analysis provider. See SQLite database snapshots for database/WAL identity, source-file handling and row-value semantics.

Native analysis

Inspect embedded Go build metadata without installing Go or configuring a disassembler:

rea inspect-go-binary /absolute/path/to/program --json

The shared CLI/MCP workflow reports compiler version, modules, replacements, build settings, original bytes and SHA-256. See Go binaries for supported containers and absent or malformed metadata.

Inspect a Godot PCK without running the game:

rea inspect-artifact game.pck --detail summary --evidence_output evidence.json --json
rea extract-artifact game.pck --json

Formats 2, 3 and 4 retain header, directory and integrity facts. Compact delivery keeps complete Evidence in the requested bundle. See Godot PCK for embedded packs, batch queries and unknown encrypted coverage.

Inspect a UnityFS AssetBundle without running Unity:

rea inspect-artifact content.bundle --detail summary --evidence_output evidence.json --json
rea extract-artifact content.bundle --json

Format versions 6 through 8 retain header, block and directory facts with none/LZ4/LZ4HC block decompression. See UnityFS for encryption and LZMA coverage boundaries.

Inspect a WeChat mini-program package without WeChat or an unpacker:

rea inspect-artifact app.wxapkg --detail summary --evidence_output evidence.json --json
rea extract-artifact app.wxapkg --json

Plaintext packages retain header, table and member facts with verbatim member bytes. V1MMWX packages are detected as encrypted coverage and refused on extraction. See wxapkg for layout and coverage boundaries.

Inspect an ESP32-family app or bootloader image without esptool:

rea inspect-artifact firmware.bin --json
rea extract-artifact firmware.bin --json

The inventory lists each segment with its ESP-IDF load classification, the checksum and SHA-256 results, the descriptor and any Secure Boot v2 signature blocks. See ESP images for recognition, coverage and refusals.

Inspect an ESP flash dump, or one read from a flash address other than 0:

rea inspect-artifact flash.bin --json
rea inspect-artifact dump.bin --target-format esp-flash-image --flash-offset 0x1000 --json
rea extract-artifact flash.bin --json

The inventory lists the bootloader, the partition table and each partition, with ESP image facts for app partitions and the OTA records. See ESP flash images for table location, inputs and limits.

Inspect a Node.js SEA carrier without running it:

rea inspect-artifact ./application --json
rea extract-artifact ./application --json

See Node.js SEA for supported layouts, script and asset paths, fuse observations, and the real-fixture verification lane.

Inventory and extract Intel HEX or S-record regions:

rea inspect-artifact ./firmware.hex --json
rea extract-artifact ./firmware.hex --json

See Intel HEX and S-record images for recognition, region names, metadata and limits.

Inspect and extract stored U-Boot legacy uImage payloads and components:

rea inspect-artifact ./firmware.bin --detail summary --evidence_output firmware.json --json
rea extract-artifact ./firmware.bin --json

See U-Boot uImage for verified CRCs, physical component ranges, unknown names, resource limits and retained views. Compressed bytes stay stored.

inspect-artifact and extract-artifact also read ZIP members compressed with Zstandard (standard method 93). They retain the shared ZIP CRC, declared-size, overlap and archive expansion checks. The native streaming decoder keeps the existing 128 MiB Zstandard window cap; frames requiring a larger window are refused. Deprecated method 20 and other unregistered ZIP codecs remain unsupported.

Inventory and extract UF2 or DfuSe regions:

rea inspect-artifact ./firmware.uf2 --json
rea extract-artifact ./firmware.dfu --json

See UF2 and DfuSe images for recognition, families, numbering, the DfuSe suffix CRC and limits.

Inventory and extract U-Boot FIT images:

rea inspect-artifact ./boot.itb --json
rea extract-artifact ./boot.itb --json

See U-Boot FIT images for recognition, data sources, hashes and limits.

Inspect local model declarations without loading weights:

rea inspect-model-artifact /absolute/path/model.gguf --json
rea inspect-model-artifact /absolute/path/model.safetensors --hash full --json

Default hashing reads only headers and leaves full-file identity unknown. --hash full streams the complete file for SHA-256. Both return typed metadata, original tensor declarations and derived totals. MCP summaries retain complete Evidence for filtered metadata, tensor and type-total pages; CLI compact delivery uses --detail summary --evidence_output FILE. See model files.

Inspect Unity IL2CPP metadata names without Unity or a disassembler:

rea inspect-il2cpp-metadata /absolute/path/global-metadata.dat --json

The command decodes a version 24, 27, 29, 31 or 39 global-metadata.dat and reports assembly images, type, method and member names, string literals, index ranges, header sections and SHA-256. With --binary PATH it also reads the matching GameAssembly.dylib, GameAssembly.dll or libil2cpp.so (never runs it) and links each method to its code address; --generic-instances adds generic method instances and --ghidra-seeds PATH then writes Ghidra function seeds. It does not decrypt metadata. MCP defaults to compact counts with retained Evidence; query indexed rows with filters, batch indices and selected fields. The CLI defaults to complete Evidence; --detail summary --evidence_output FILE exports the full result to a new file and returns a compact overview. See IL2CPP metadata.

Inspect an embedded cargo-auditable Rust dependency list without installing Rust or configuring a disassembler:

rea inspect-rust-binary /absolute/path/to/program --json

The same workflow reports package names, versions, sources, the root package, dependency edges, and the section's file range. A missing .dep-v0 section is null metadata, not proof that the binary has no dependencies. See Rust binaries.

Inspect a PE Authenticode certificate table without executing the image or verifying signatures:

rea inspect-pe-certificates /absolute/path/to/application.exe --json

The workflow reports WIN_CERTIFICATE entries and, for PKCS#7 signedData, embedded X.509 serial, issuer, subject, and validity fields. A missing security directory is observed absence of that table. See PE Authenticode certificate tables.

Inspect PE import and delay-load tables without executing the image:

rea inspect-pe-imports /absolute/path/to/application.exe --json

The workflow reports DLL names, named and ordinal functions, delay-load descriptors, and a pefile-compatible import hash of the standard import table. A missing import directory is observed absence of that table. See PE import and delay-load tables.

Inspect ELF PT_NOTE and SHT_NOTE tables without executing the image:

rea inspect-elf-notes /absolute/path/to/program --json

The workflow reports note owners, types, descriptor hashes, and GNU build-id or ABI-tag fields when those descriptors match. A missing note table is observed absence of those declarations. See ELF note tables.

Inspect an Apple .ips crash report without executing a target:

rea inspect-apple-ips /absolute/path/to/report.ips --json

The workflow reports first-line metadata, process/exception/termination facts, threads, usedImages, lossless integer registers, and documented crash classes when bug_type is "309". Other DiagnosticReports types return no crash result. See Apple IPS crash reports. Inspect Linux kernel module metadata without executing the module or requiring modinfo:

rea inspect-kernel-module /absolute/path/to/module.ko --json

The workflow reports ordered .modinfo keys (duplicate alias and parm entries preserved), __versions symbol CRCs, presence of .gnu.linkonce.this_module and __ksymtab sections, observed .init.text and .exit.text sizes, and an appended signature trailer. struct module is not decoded and the signature is not validated. Other ELF types are not applicable. gzip, xz, and zstd containers are unsupported and name external_decompression as the next probe: decompress with an external utility, then inspect the decompressed file. See Linux kernel modules.

Inspect a CPython 3.7–3.13 .pyc header and nested marshal code objects without executing bytecode or installing Python:

rea inspect-python-pyc /absolute/path/to/module.pyc --json

The workflow reports the pinned CPython version for the magic, PEP 552 hash or mtime/size fields, nested function names, and bytecode SHA-256. Bytecode is not decompiled. See CPython pyc inspection.

Inspect an Erlang BEAM file without executing bytecode:

rea inspect-erlang-beam /absolute/path/to/app.beam --json

The workflow reports IFF chunk names, atom tables, exports, imports, lambdas, and the Code chunk header. Missing optional tables stay null. See Erlang BEAM files.

Configure Hopper or Ghidra, the IDA adapter, or Kuna before analyzing a native target. Substitute your target, search text and function name or address in these examples:

rea analyze /absolute/path/to/program --provider ghidra --json
rea search /absolute/path/to/program "search" --provider ghidra --json
rea function /absolute/path/to/program main --provider ghidra --json
rea decompile /absolute/path/to/program 0x1000 --provider ghidra --json
rea xrefs /absolute/path/to/program 0x1000 --provider ghidra --json
rea trace /absolute/path/to/program "search" --provider ghidra --json

analyze and inspect share the native overview workflow. function returns a function dossier; decompile returns pseudocode. For assembly instructions alone, use rea instructions. A macOS .app bundle can be supplied directly.

A complete dossier can reach several megabytes of value-flow and references. rea function ... --detail summary --evidence_output /absolute/path/dossier.json returns the compact summary and saves the complete dossier as an Evidence bundle, never overwriting an existing file. Page that bundle without reanalysis by naming it as an inspect-analysis-view source, selecting the summary's normalized_result.parent_evidence_id when the bundle holds several records: {"source": {"kind": "evidence-file", "path": "/absolute/path/dossier.json", "evidence_id": "ev_…"}, "view": {"kind": "native", "facet": "pseudocode", "offset": 0, "limit": 4096}}. MCP analyze_function defaults to the same summary and retains the complete dossier in the session for inspect_analysis_view.

Run rea --help or a command's --help for arguments and output options. The generated catalog lists all CLI commands and MCP tools. Provider-specific target support is described in the native guide, DOS guide, raw binary guide, GameCube DOL guide, and Windows Ghidra guide.

Choose a provider

List the available providers and their supported operations:

rea providers --json
rea capabilities --json

These commands describe binary-session providers and auxiliary capabilities. For the complete MCP surface, use the connected server's tool list and the session's advertised availability; individual guides describe prerequisites.

With automatic selection, REA uses the single available provider that supports the target. When several providers support it, select one explicitly:

rea analyze /absolute/path/to/program --provider hopper

Set REA_ANALYSIS_PROVIDER for a standing preference. An explicit --provider overrides it. In MCP, pass provider_id to open_binary:

{
  "path": "/absolute/path/to/program",
  "provider_id": "hopper"
}

The selected provider remains bound to the session until an explicit switch or close. Provider failures are returned with their original reason. For an ambiguous selection error, choose from details.candidate_ids; for provider_unavailable, follow message, remediation.action, and the original reasons in details.rejections. Each rejection names its origin: availability entries describe local readiness failures, including missing configuration or an invalid existing registration; they do not establish target support. target entries record a refused kind, format, architecture, or role. An availability-only message describes the recorded rejections without claiming that every provider is unconfigured or that target support is known. For Hopper, Ghidra, IDA, JADX, and Kuna, run rea doctor --provider ID --json to diagnose the selected engine. Other adapters, such as pwntools-elf, report their configuration requirements directly and are not accepted by doctor --provider. See task readiness and provider selection.

The session reports work still in progress through analysis_activity. A client timeout can end its wait while the provider continues analyzing. cleanup_incomplete identifies resources whose shutdown or removal could not be verified. See MCP contracts for session lifecycle and Ghidra first-query deadlines for import, client timeouts and recovery.

A one-shot command releases its provider session and REA runtime before it prints a failure, so it omits the same-session reuse and update_analysis_settings guidance an MCP connection receives. Its details.limit reports scope: "rea-invocation" and applies_at: "next_invocation"; set the named environment (or the per-call parameter) for a new invocation and rerun. For example, a Ghidra decompile deadline names REA_GHIDRA_DECOMPILE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS.

rea debug-with-gdb and rea debug-with-rizin hold their debugger only for the command's own process. If cleanup cannot confirm the debugger stopped, they print cleanup_incomplete and exit nonzero without stopping it. remediation.action names the process, as does retained_debugger_pids in details.diagnostics, or in details.diagnostics.cleanup_error.details.diagnostics when the command also failed or was interrupted. Exiting closes the debugger's command and output pipes. REA does not establish what the debugger or its target does next, so check that process. An MCP server that shuts down likewise exits with status 1 instead of waiting on a debugger it could not stop. It names the process on stderr and as retained_debugger_pids in its error log.

If one-shot analysis fails and closing its session also fails, the original error details remain inline and details.cleanup_error describes the later close failure. Each diagnostic retains its own reported resources; the later failure does not establish whether an earlier resource was released. Captured output and partial observations remain in the original details.

Save and reuse analysis snapshots

A snapshot retains successful analysis results for later queries. REA reuses an exact result when the target bytes, operation, parameters, provider and settings match. Mutations and cursor-dependent calls are excluded from the cache. Snapshot files are local and use owner-only permissions.

One-shot binary CLI Evidence reports the exact path argument in caller_input_path, including relative spelling and symlink aliases. Its subject identifies the inspected artifact; caller_input_path does not change the Evidence ID or snapshot query. A replay reports the current invocation's path while leaving the saved Evidence unchanged. Provider inspections continue to include the established parameters.input_path field.

Importing an Evidence bundle refreshes retained request and subject display metadata. It preserves cached analysis results, including observations for other targets. Snapshot bindings that use a replaced record retain its updated display path.

Dispatching a provider metadata write invalidates the active session's snapshot cache, even if its reply fails: the provider may already have applied the write. Close and reopen the target before importing or saving another snapshot.

Saved snapshots include only cache entries whose subject identifies the selected target. Unbound observations and observations of child artifacts remain available in the open session and its Evidence bundle; they are excluded from the target's saved replay entries without changing their subjects. The snapshot also retains available Evidence linked by selected records, including transitive sources with an unbound or different subject. Those sources are not replay entries for the selected target. Unrelated records remain excluded.

Snapshots retain eligible target-scoped question histories in full, including mutation Evidence recorded while another target was active. Observations and related questions must still belong to the saved target. If those dependencies cannot be retained, the entire history is excluded instead of reverting the question to an earlier revision or disposition.

rea analyze /absolute/path/to/program --provider ghidra --snapshot /absolute/path/to/analysis/program.json
# Repeat the same query to reuse its saved result.
rea analyze /absolute/path/to/program --provider ghidra --snapshot /absolute/path/to/analysis/program.json

An exact CLI cache hit is normally read before starting a provider process. decompile --provider ghidra --snapshot ... also retains its single selected Program's pseudocode result, even without an explicit document selector. Old snapshots that contain only the Evidence need one new query to add that replay entry. This does not retain every body from decompile-all or make a persistent session's implicit document replayable. On Windows, Ghidra first admits the selected source through its native snapshot owner, so replay can start that provider. In MCP, open_binary accepts snapshot_path to import a snapshot atomically for its matching target; an MCP provider may still start before returning a cached result. close_binary accepts snapshot_path and optional overwrite: true to save before releasing provider resources. A failed save leaves the session open so the caller can resolve the output failure.

When a validated snapshot does not match the selected binding, the error's details.binding_mismatch reports confirmed target identities, provider identities, or profile digests that differ. snapshot is the saved value and selected is the requested value. Multiple differences can be reported. A profile_comparison: "not_compared" means the profile was not available at that boundary; it does not establish a match. A profileless snapshot can report workflow_scope: "incompatible" even when its target and profile match. Choose a matching target, provider, and profile, or analyze without the snapshot and save a new one for the intended binding.

For a profile mismatch, the saved snapshot contains binding.analysis_profile.parameters. If binary_session reports an active profile whose digest matches binding_mismatch.profile_digest.selected, its analysis_provider_binding.analysis_profile.parameters can be compared with those saved parameters. A rejected switch leaves the previous session active, so its profile may be different from the attempted selection; check the digest before using it for this comparison. A configuration difference does not by itself establish why analysis results differ.

If no target is open and you intend to inspect the selected binding, open that target without the snapshot, then check its profile digest in binary_session before comparing parameters. This may start the selected provider; the saved snapshot remains a separate file.

If a selected snapshot's file descriptor cannot close, open_binary reports cleanup_incomplete. binary_session reports cleanup_pending even when no target opened. Retry close_binary to release the retained descriptor before opening another target.

If a snapshot switch fails after the previous target was retired, restoration keeps that target's analysis commitments with the replacement client. This includes the native dispatch workflow profile on a profileless route, so its existing snapshot and fresh observations retain the same provenance.

For native dispatch, the snapshot binding retains the reader profile; workflow Evidence and workflow_entries retain the composed profile, which commits that reader and the workflow's analysis caveats. Restoration preserves both profiles.

The MCP save receipt reports primitive_entries, workflow_entries, and evidence_records separately. Zero primitive bindings can still accompany retained workflow results and Evidence. These are cached observations, not a saved provider database: only eligible exact queries can reuse a result, and new or live queries can still require provider startup. The CLI uses the same snapshot format and preserves these records when loading and updating it. When an MCP session replays a provider observation, its delivered Evidence identifies the original observation through evidence_links and reports that the provider was not rerun. The original and its available source records remain in the investigation bundle.

Import, export and compare Evidence

Evidence records retain artifact identity, source locations, observations, inferences and unresolved findings. Validate an existing bundle, export its canonical form, or compare two supplied bundles:

rea evidence-import /absolute/path/to/evidence/bundle.json
rea evidence-export /absolute/path/to/evidence/bundle.json /absolute/path/to/evidence/canonical.json
rea compare /absolute/path/to/evidence/left.json /absolute/path/to/evidence/right.json
rea compare left.json right.json --record_pairs '[{"left_evidence_id":"ev_<left-sha256>","right_evidence_id":"ev_<right-sha256>"}]' --json

Migration: replace rea compare-bundles with rea compare; the former command has been removed. The MCP tool remains compare_bundles.

rea compare compares records by Evidence identity and explicit pairs. It does not read artifact contents: the inventories of two builds are unresolved records, or one opaque change when you pair them. Use compare-artifacts, described at the end of this section, to compare their contents.

--record_pairs supplies an explicit JSON array of observation pairs, matching MCP compare_bundles.record_pairs. Pair IDs must exist on their named sides and be one-to-one. Without pairs, one-sided membership remains unknown; REA does not infer correspondence from position or display names.

Exports preserve an existing destination unless --overwrite is explicit.

Atomic Evidence output stages on the selected destination's filesystem. If the OS pathname ceiling prevents its internal staging name, REA retries in a shorter ancestor on that same filesystem and removes the unused stage. Existing output protection still applies. A genuine pathname refusal uses resource_constraint with details.reason: path-limit and boundary: filesystem-path.

For application traces and version comparisons, see JavaScript application workflows. MCP retained Evidence references belong to one connection. Separate CLI calls can consume full saved records or resolve exact retained IDs from an explicitly selected local bundle:

rea trace-application-feature request.json --evidence-bundle /absolute/path/evidence.json --json

Here request.json uses the same logical Evidence input as MCP, for example "application": {"kind":"retained-evidence","evidence_id":"ev_<64 lowercase hex characters>"}. Inline records and references may be mixed in the request's declared source fields, including arrays and nested inputs. The bundle is read and authenticated once for that command; no target is reopened, no producer is rerun, and no record is selected by file order. Source identity, provenance, coverage and partial or unknown facts agree with the complete inline form. When starting from summary or inspection Evidence, select its normalized_result.parent_evidence_id for a workflow requiring complete source facts. Omit --evidence-bundle when all sources are inline.

The JSON workflow commands supporting this option are:

• trace-application-feature, trace-javascript-semantics, compare-application-versions, compare-javascript-export-shapes, compare-source-to-bundle, and reconcile-javascript-runtime.
• import-managed-reconstruction, verify-managed-native-boundaries, and project-managed-application-graph.
• project-android-application-graph, project-apple-application-graph, and project-harmony-application-graph.
• compare-wasm-interfaces and inspect-analysis-view.

For inspect-analysis-view, the request's source reference selects a parent from the bundle for every supported view kind. Bundles exported from MCP work for these commands. Its inline source form cannot also select a bundle. A missing ID is refused with details.reason: "missing"; supplying a bundle does not make incompatible Evidence valid for a workflow. compare-managed-members keeps its two assembly paths, and compare-process-captures keeps its two capture Evidence JSON paths. The bundle option above selects an input; producer options that write a new bundle, such as inspect-managed-members --evidence-bundle, retain their existing meaning. File selectors remain available only on contracts that explicitly support them.

Compare two artifact inventories with compare-artifacts. It takes the same left and right input as MCP compare_artifacts: complete Evidence, or an evidence-file source with an optional evidence_id that selects one record from a bundle. Relative paths resolve from the working directory:

rea inspect-artifact old.zip --json > old.json
rea inspect-artifact new.zip --json > new.json
rea compare-artifacts '{"left":{"kind":"evidence-file","path":"old.json"},"right":{"kind":"evidence-file","path":"new.json"}}' --json

A one-shot compare-artifacts command keeps no session Evidence, so it refuses a retained-evidence source with details.reason: "missing". Select the record from a saved bundle instead. For an artifact summary selected from a bundle, include its complete parent inventory in the same bundle. The command resolves that parent from the authenticated file records; a summary-only file cannot supply missing facts.

Import historical source

Historical source inventories preserve exact filenames, including literal backslashes on POSIX hosts. Relative import lookup uses the recorded source file's owning directory and decodes URL percent escapes once; encoded slash, NUL and malformed escapes remain unresolved. A decoded backslash remains part of a filename rather than a directory separator. This inventory lookup does not claim that Node can load that filename or apply Node's runtime file-URL admission policy.

Import an older source tree to compare with the current artifact:

rea import-reference-source /absolute/path/to/source
rea import-reference-source /absolute/path/to/source --detail summary --outline-depth 2 --json

The default (--detail full) returns the complete HistoricalSourceGraph. Choose --detail summary for a HistoricalSourceSummary of that same committed inventory: its HistoricalSourceManifest contains the semantic graph and root digests, with provenance, VCS facts, languages, manifest paths, entry and relationship counts, parse-failure counts, file/directory states, exclusions and limitations. The summary is a presentation view, not a graph accepted by source-to-bundle comparison; keep the full output for that workflow.

Known filesystem failures commit the operation, parsed errno, entry-relative location and recovery guidance. Entry local_diagnostics, when present, retains the exact host message, including local paths, outside the semantic graph commitment. Equivalent permission failures therefore retain their manifest identity after relocation while preserving original source diagnostics in full output and visible summary outline entries. Other substantive limitations still participate in the graph commitment.

An unreadable child directory remains a partial inventory entry. Directory-scoped ignore policy is required before enumerating a directory that can be opened; an unreadable or invalid policy still fails the import. Project negations cannot override defaults or caller exclusions; caller patterns retain their own ordered negations. Configured secret exclusions remain final.

--outline-depth requires --detail summary and accepts a nonnegative safe integer. Depth 1 shows root children, depth 2 (the default) also shows their children, and depth 0 omits all outline entries. Paths retain canonical Unicode code-point order. outline.omitted_entry_count counts only inventoried entries hidden by the chosen depth; it does not count unexamined children of excluded or unreadable directories, or change inventory_state. Exclusions and source limitations remain separate from this presentation omission.

file_sizes.known_bytes is the exact sum of known inventoried file sizes as decimal text, so large sums cannot lose integer precision. Unknown sizes count in file_sizes.unknown_file_count; excluded or unexamined paths are not included in that total. A zero known-byte sum therefore does not establish an empty source tree. Full output retains individual file hashes, relationships and parse-failure diagnostics. Summary mode performs the same import and cleanup, then projects the committed result without rereading source files. It reduces the selected output, not the amount of source examined. A shallow tree or many exclusions can still produce a large summary; depth 0 removes the outline but preserves the other facts. No fixed output-size or runtime improvement is promised.

Import failures use the shared error contract (code, category, message, retryable, and remediation). When reads completed before failure, details.diagnostics.partial retains the reader facts, with file bytes as arrays of byte values. Unresolved cleanup uses cleanup_incomplete and retains the source failure and resource paths in details.

The import records hashes and metadata for the supplied files, separately from observations of the current app. For a directory inside a Git checkout, it records the HEAD of the nearest enclosing repository; whether the working tree matches that commit remains unknown. Root selection follows filesystem symlink/parent semantics before canonical identity is derived. It honors .gitignore files at the selected root and in traversed child directories, with patterns relative to their containing directory and deeper negations applied only when the parent was not excluded. Matching uses the nearest repository's local core.ignorecase setting (false when unset), including the shared configuration of linked worktrees. Policy and Git metadata reads retain their descriptor cleanup under the import's resource owner; unreadable policy is a typed failure, not an empty policy. Above-root .gitignore files, global excludes, .git/info/exclude, config includes and worktree-specific config are not loaded. The import also applies default exclusions for common generated and dependency paths such as node_modules/, dist/, and *.log. Pattern-based exclusions record the matched pattern and whether it came from project, default, caller, or sensitive path policy. Links into excluded paths retain their internal target metadata; the exclusion explains why the target has no inventory entry, and the inventory remains partial. Exclusions record entry_kind when the importer observed it; older saved exclusions without that field have unknown kind. An excluded ancestor proves an internal descendant only when its kind is directory. Set REA_REFERENCE_SECRET_PATTERNS_JSON to a JSON array of ignore patterns when you want to mark selected paths as sensitive; those patterns are reported separately as configured-secret exclusions.

Re-import saved graphs whose pattern-based exclusions lack pattern before using them in source-to-bundle comparisons.

Entries that change during an import retain an unavailable-entry diagnostic alongside readable siblings. If enumeration of an already admitted root fails, the graph keeps its observed children and records the root failure as a top-level limitation. That partial inventory does not establish absence among unexamined children. POSIX directory-entry bytes that are not valid UTF-8 cannot be represented as graph paths; the containing directory (or root) is marked unsupported, and REA does not access the entry through a replacement-character name. Symlink targets are read as bytes too: a target that is not valid UTF-8 is retained as an unreadable symlink with its bytes reported in the limitation, and is never resolved through a replacement-character path. Readable siblings remain inventoried.

JavaScript and TypeScript import parsing requires valid UTF-8. Malformed source bytes retain their original hashes and sizes with a decoding diagnostic; REA does not infer module targets from replacement characters. Exact dynamic-import strings, expression-free templates and runtime-transparent TypeScript wrappers retain their targets; computed imports remain unknown. TypeScript import-equals dependencies remain requires relationships whether or not they are exported. Historical dependencies also include TypeScript import types (import("./dep").T and typeof import("./dep")) and declarations inside ambient module bodies; these source relationships do not assert runtime loading. Language labels retain the conventional case-sensitive .C (C++) and .M (Objective-C++) suffixes.

REA derives historical CommonJS paths only when the selected loader and its base are proven: this includes the exact createRequire(new URL("./file.cjs", import.meta.url)) form and require.resolve with { paths: [__dirname] }. Exact optional-call forms such as require.resolve?.("./dep.cjs") use the same loader and mutation facts. The nearest inventoried package manifest supplies .js/.ts package facts to the shared parser; explicit filename modes take precedence. A known ES module has no implicit CommonJS wrapper, including when a factory is derived from an unbound require. An unreadable, excluded or malformed manifest, or package scope outside the selected inventory, leaves otherwise unproven loader resolution unknown with the requested specifier and a reason. A nearest manifest without a type field uses the shared parser's JavaScript module-syntax facts. Unresolved TypeScript, JSX compilation and declaration contexts do not establish runtime wrapper bases. Other custom bases and search options remain partial with unknown resolution and the literal requested specifier. Overwritten resolver methods retain that uncertainty; they are not attributed to Node. require.main is a module object, so calling it does not establish a loader reference. These relationships do not establish execution; Node's require.resolve performs lookup without loading the target. An excluded package.json also leaves package-directory selection unknown rather than treating the manifest as absent and applying an index fallback.

Import requests use URL pathname semantics: query and fragment remain request identity, percent escapes decode exactly once for inventory lookup, and encoded separators or malformed escapes retain an unresolved relationship and diagnostic. URL-bearing relationships retain the authored source_specifier separately from the inventoried to path; distinct query/fragment requests remain distinct even when they name the same file. CommonJS requests retain literal filename semantics for percent signs, query marks and fragments.

Historical-source import requires safe no-follow file opens on Linux or macOS. Native Windows returns unsupported_host; use Linux REA inside WSL or another supported host. See source-to-bundle comparison for mapping identities, inferences and unknowns.

Capture runtime behavior

Choose the guide for the target and intended interaction:

• Browser observation: inspect a selected page through CDP.
• Browser scenarios: run declared interactions and capture their results.
• Electron observation: inspect an Electron renderer or capture an application scenario.
• Electron fuses: read packaged fuse bytes before expecting --inspect to reach an Electron main process.
• Node/Electron Inspector: record script locations and execution contexts.
• Process capture: run an executable and compare terminal, exit and filesystem observations.
• Desktop application capture: launch a Linux desktop application and record its windows and home-directory state at checkpoints while it is used.
• Desktop application state: read a capture folder into the application's state files, typed views of each version and kinds of change.
• Desktop application export: write a capture folder as an agentenv computer app bundle with its class, skill and seed.
• Desktop application tasks: describe how a capture's files changed, then validate an agent-written task against the capture and export it with its verifier.

Runtime requests name the target and actions. Launched targets run with your user permissions; consult the chosen guide for host requirements and effects.

Serve MCP over streamable HTTP

rea mcp speaks stdio to the client that launched it. To serve the same MCP catalog over streamable HTTP for one local client, such as an agent environment runtime, start the dispatcher entry with --http:

rea mcp --http --port 8765

--host and --port default to MCP_HOST and MCP_PORT from the environment, then to 127.0.0.1 and an ephemeral port. A bind outside loopback requires MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS or --allowed-hosts, a comma-separated list of client host names or IP addresses without URLs or ports.

Repeat --allowed-hosts to append names, or put multiple names in one comma-separated value. All occurrences are validated together and deduplicated after hostname normalization; the explicit list replaces MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS.

For example:

rea mcp --http --host 0.0.0.0 --allowed-hosts 127.0.0.1,rea.lan

Requests with a different Host or browser Origin receive 403; a missing Origin is accepted. The announced client URL uses the bound hostname when admitted, otherwise the first declared hostname, with the actual bound port. It is written to stderr as one JSON log line ("msg":"MCP transport listening") whatever REA_LOG_LEVEL is set to; nothing is written to stdout. rea mcp --http --help lists the accepted options. The listener serves one client at a time: a session ends with the client's DELETE, and a client that connects while another session is open takes it over, so a client that exited without ending its session needs no restart. The listener runs until SIGINT or SIGTERM and does not stop when stdin closes. See transports for the session, Host header and shutdown contract. Client registrations written by setup and the MCP registry entry keep stdio.

Serve an environment manifest

rea environment-serve <manifest.json> --evidence <capture.json> [--replay-only] [--host H] [--port N] serves an environment manifest projected by inspect-analysis-view as an agent environment: an MCP server at /mcp, the environment card at /.well-known/agent-env.json, and a /agentenv data plane. The manifest's parent_evidence_id must equal the evidence file's evidence_id; otherwise the command refuses with invalid_request before binding. Before binding it derives the environment-state view of the capture with the manifest's template_rules, as inspect-analysis-view would, and serves from it: read tools whose views are state-backed answer from a live state, write tools are served only where the capture's later reads confirmed their effect, and /agentenv serves data/reset, data/add and data/get. When the state cannot be derived, or its catalog exceeds the discovery reservation, it logs a warning with the error code and message and serves replay; --replay-only serves replay without deriving. In replay every manifest tool replays the retained capture records it cites and /agentenv answers every method with JSON-RPC -32601. The stopped document's state member is {"served": true, "evidence_id": …}, {"served": false, "reason": "replay-only"} or {"served": false, "reason": "unavailable", "code": …, "message": …}; see serve from the state.

rea environment-serve manifest.json --evidence capture.json --port 8765

--host and --port resolve like rea mcp --http: flags, then MCP_HOST and MCP_PORT, then 127.0.0.1 and an ephemeral port. A non-loopback bind requires MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS with the same hostname rules and Host/Origin gates as above. environment-serve uses this environment setting; --allowed-hosts belongs to rea mcp --http. For example:

MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS=127.0.0.1,rea.lan rea environment-serve manifest.json --evidence capture.json --host 0.0.0.0

ENVIRONMENT_NAME renames the served environment; set but blank, it is refused as configuration_invalid like a blank MCP_HOST. The admitted client URL is written to stderr as one JSON log line ("msg":"MCP transport listening"). See agent environments for what the state and replay return and do not establish.

Build an environment bundle

rea environment-build <capture> [dir] [--name <name>] [--template-rule <rule> ...] [--format-rules-only] [--package-tarball <path>] [--capture-timeout-ms <ms>] [--dry-run] builds the bundle environment-export writes from one recorded capture: a .har file, which it inspects as inspect-web-network-capture does, or capture Evidence JSON from inspect-web-network-capture (HAR) or capture-browser-scenario. It projects the environment manifest from the in-memory Evidence with the opt-in rules after-uid-literal, opaque-token, sibling-variance and prefix-variance unless --template-rule or --format-rules-only selects others, prepares the state, and writes the bundle; every file is byte-identical to the three-step path's when that path lists the same rules in the views' order and exports under the build's name. A loopback or IP-literal capture is named after its file unless --name is given. It prints one JSON report: the capture and manifest identities, the state, a coverage summary of which tools answer from the state, which replay and why each write is withheld with a hint, the files, warnings and the next command. --dry-run writes nothing and may omit the directory.

rea environment-build grafana.har ./grafana --json

See agent environments for the report, the hints and what the bundle ships.

Export an environment bundle

rea environment-export <manifest.json> --evidence <capture.json> <dir> [--package-tarball <path>] [--name <override>] writes the same manifest and capture pair as a bundle folder the agentenv framework runs with agent-env run <dir>. It reads each file once, authenticates and cross-checks the pair with the same checks as environment-serve, checks the bundle name, then prepares the state under that name as the bundle's server will at startup to predict what the bundle serves (replay when the state is unavailable), copies the bytes it authenticated, refuses to write into a directory that exists and is not empty, and never overwrites a file.

rea environment-export manifest.json --evidence capture.json ./grafana-example --json

The folder holds a README.md with the bundle's provenance, an env folder envs/<name>/ with a Dockerfile that installs this exact rea-agents version and serves the copied manifest.json and evidence.json (written with mode 0600 on POSIX; Windows retains inherited ACLs) with environment-serve (from the state by default), a Python verifier under artifacts/check_<name>/ that checks the served tool count and one served answer, and the smoke task tasks/smoke.json. --package-tarball copies a packed rea-agents tarball into the env folder and installs it instead of the registry package, which is how the hosted lane proves a checkout rather than a release. --name replaces the manifest's kebab-case name as the env folder and env id; a device name Windows reserves (con, nul, com1 and the like) is refused. The command prints one JSON document listing the written files with their sizes, the pinned package source, the served tool_count, and state in the shape of the serve command's stopped document. See agent environments for the folder layout and what the smoke task checks.

Compare an environment with its application

rea environment-compare <manifest.json> --evidence <capture.json> --probe <probe.json> [--probe <probe.json> ...] compares the environment the pair serves with probe captures of the application it came from. Each probe is capture Evidence of one call sequence recorded against the application after a reset; the environment's state is reset before each probe, every request to the application's origin is answered as the served environment answers it, and the answer is compared with the application's after ids are mapped and clocks and generated values are normalised. The command reads files only and makes no network call. It prints the report and exits 0, or prints a structured invalid_request error and exits 1 for the same pair refusals as environment-serve, a probe that is not capture Evidence, or a browser probe captured without response bodies, or without the request bodies its writes need. See agent environments for the report.

rea environment-compare manifest.json --evidence capture.json --probe probe.json --json

Report version and runtime

rea --version prints the package version. Add an output format to get the version with the runtime and platform context that a support request needs:

Version reports do not initialize analysis providers. Invalid global settings or output options still report their usual errors.

rea --version --json

{
  "name": "rea-agents",
  "version": "6.7.0",
  "runtime": { "id": "node", "version": "24.22.1" },
  "platform": "linux",
  "architecture": "x64",
  "supported_runtime": {
    "range": "^22.23.4 || ^24.22.1 || >=26.12.1",
    "satisfied": true
  }
}

Field	Meaning
name, version	Published package name and version; version matches plain --version.
runtime.id	node or bun.
runtime.version	Version of that runtime.
runtime.node_compatibility_version	Bun only: the Node.js version it reports compatibility with.
platform, architecture	Node.js process.platform and process.arch, such as linux and x64.
supported_runtime.range	Supported Node.js range.
supported_runtime.satisfied	Whether this runtime is supported, judged as rea doctor judges it; Bun by its Node.js compatibility version.

The field names are stable. The report contains no paths, environment values, user or host names, and it starts no provider and reads no target. --format selects any CLI output format, such as --format yaml. JSON follows the usual rule: indented on a terminal, compact when piped or redirected. --help still takes precedence. With other output controls, --version keeps its existing behavior: valid controls such as --filter-output or --full-output print the plain version, and invalid combinations report the usual output-flag error, such as UNSUPPORTED_OUTPUT_COMBINATION for --json with --token-limit. Use rea doctor for provider and host readiness.

Output and exit status

Commands reject surplus positional arguments before execution, including commands that accept no positionals. Use rea <command> --help for the declared argument shape; a final variadic argument continues to accept multiple values.

rea mcp doctor --json checks production MCP startup and reports child logs in diagnostics. It drains stderr while retaining at most its first 64 KiB of raw bytes as text, omitting a final UTF-8 code point if it crosses that byte limit. stderr_bytes counts all observed bytes, including omitted output; stderr_truncated indicates that output exceeded the retention limit. The same diagnostics appear inside the report when --full-output is selected. Log truncation alone does not change the diagnostic health or exit status.

The default terminal format is TOON. Use --json when saving results for a JSON consumer. Valued output flags (--format, --filter-output, --token-limit, --token-offset) accept --flag value or --flag=value; a missing value fails with MISSING_OUTPUT_VALUE before the command runs. Malformed format values and token windows fail with INVALID_OUTPUT_VALUE in the selected structured format. Token limits and offsets must be nonnegative safe integers; zero selects an empty window. These checks run before command execution. --json is indented on a terminal and compact when piped or redirected, which keeps large results smaller for agents and scripts; pipe through jq . for indented files. A formatting refusal exits nonzero even when the underlying operation succeeded.

--format md escapes backslashes, pipes, and inline Markdown syntax in table headers and cells so source text is displayed literally, and renders cell line breaks as <br>. Underscores between letters or digits, as in source_index, cannot form emphasis and stay unescaped. These are presentation changes; retained Evidence and JSON output keep the original values. Nested objects and arrays use JSON inside their owning Markdown cells, retaining the field names and values instead of replacing them with an object label. Table widths are measured iteratively, so an admitted row page is not limited by the JavaScript function argument count.

Markdown refuses selected NUL characters and unpaired UTF-16 surrogates because renderers or UTF-8 output would substitute them. TOON refuses selected unpaired surrogates for the same UTF-8 reason. Use JSON or YAML to retain those values. An authored replacement character and valid supplementary characters are not treated as malformed.

--format csv and --format tsv export one selected row collection. Select an exact array path with --filter-output and provide comma-separated direct scalar columns with --columns; column order is the output column order:

For an artifact inventory request that selects the occurrences collection and includes logical_path and artifact_id in its view fields:

rea inspect-analysis-view request.json --format csv \
  --filter-output normalized_result.items --columns logical_path,artifact_id

The first line is a REA metadata record, # rea-delimited-v1 <JSON>. It carries the selected path, view request, limitations and unknowns, coverage, source coverage and completeness, command, and duration. A metadata value of null means that the selected row collection did not provide that fact; it does not mean complete coverage. The following line is the header. CSV records use CRLF line endings; TSV records use LF. Cells containing the delimiter, quotes, or line breaks are quoted and embedded quotes are doubled. Values are emitted as UTF-8 without Unicode normalization. Missing and null cells are empty; booleans and finite numbers use their ordinary text forms. String cells and headers that begin with spreadsheet formula syntax are refused with a structured error; unpaired surrogates in selected cells or headers are also refused. JSON retains those values unchanged.

Delimited output does not flatten nested Evidence or nested field values. It returns a structured error and a nonzero status if the filter does not select exactly one row array, a row is not an object, or a selected cell is nested or formula-leading. JSON remains the complete canonical output; use it to retain fields outside the selected columns or preserve exact formula-leading text. Token counting and token windows are not available for CSV/TSV because slicing would corrupt records or metadata.

--filter-output selects fields from successful command data. Classified failures retain their complete typed diagnostic projection even when the selector matches a field such as code or message, or names a missing field. --full-output controls whether the outer {ok, error, meta} envelope is included. Selected own JSON members, including __proto__, remain ordinary output data.

Sibling array slices that select different fields are combined by original row index and emitted in source order, regardless of selector order. Selecting a whole parent row keeps that row intact and takes precedence over narrower fields selected from the same row. For example, rows[0,2].name,rows[1,3].version combines both fields for overlapping rows, while rows[0,2],rows[1,3].version retains rows 0 and 1 whole.

For cutter-command, --json-output requests command-specific JSON from Cutter when available. This is separate from --format json, which selects the CLI result representation; the global --json flag selects that same CLI representation.

Cutter no longer accepts command-local --json=true or --json=false. Replace these with --json-output=true or --json-output=false, respectively. Combine --json-output with bare --json when both Cutter command output and the CLI result should use JSON; either argument order is accepted.

Status	Meaning
0	The operation completed. Its result may include partial evidence, warnings or unresolved questions.
1	The operation could not complete. Structured output identifies invalid input, permissions, cancellation, timeouts or another failure when available.
128 + N	Signal-derived status. An unhandled signal may have ended the process, with the shell or runtime preserving the conventional status; a command may instead have handled the signal, waited for its operation and cleanup to settle, and assigned the same status (130 for SIGINT, 143 for SIGTERM). In the handled case, it may also have printed a structured cancelled result.

rea mcp --http is long-running and prints no structured result. It exits 130 on SIGINT or 143 on SIGTERM after closing the listener, the session and its providers, and 1 when that cleanup fails.

rea environment-serve is also long-running: it serves until SIGINT or SIGTERM, closes the listener, then prints one structured {"status":"stopped", …} document naming the URL, environment and tool count and exits 130 or 143 through the shared cancellation handler below. Refusals before binding (unreadable files, non-Evidence JSON, capture Evidence in a format other than HAR, a manifest or state whose parent is not the supplied evidence, an unbindable port) print a structured error and exit 1, as does a listener that fails after binding. If shutdown fails, the command reports cleanup_incomplete with the retained server resources. It preserves a primary listener diagnostic, or a shutdown_observation naming the requested shutdown and its URL, environment, tool count and Evidence identifiers. The successful stopped document is returned only after cleanup is confirmed. The same in-process server owner retains failed stages for retry; the CLI exposes no separate retry command. rea environment-build is one-shot too: it prints its report and exits 0, or prints the refusing stage's structured error and exits 1, writing nothing when the refusal comes before the bundle is written. SIGINT cancels it with a cancelled error; a cancellation before the bundle stage writes nothing. rea environment-export is one-shot: it prints the written files and exits 0, or prints a structured invalid_request error and exits 1 for the same pair refusals, a non-empty or file-occupied directory, a missing package tarball or a name that is not a kebab-case label or is a Windows device name, writing nothing in each case. A file occupying the destination is reported as requiring a directory; identity-change diagnostics are reserved for admitted paths that fail later identity checks. Host permission failures identify whether input reading or bundle writing was denied and retain the reported path. A write that fails after the first file (a permission, disk-space or pathname-length failure on a later path) propagates as the host's failure, naming its cause and, when it failed on one bundle file or the package tarball, that file. A failure while syncing the finished folder names only its cause. Either way the partial folder stays in place for inspection; remove it before retrying, since the next attempt refuses the non-empty directory.

A cancelled result does not by itself determine the exit status; it depends on the command's signal handling. Commands routed through the shared withCommandCancellation handler in the CLI set status 130 for SIGINT or 143 for SIGTERM after their operation settles. Current source registrations use that handler for process capture and comparison (capture-process, compare-process-captures), desktop application capture and state (capture-desktop-application, inspect-desktop-application-state, export-desktop-application, describe-desktop-application-task), JavaScript application analysis (analyze when it selects the JavaScript lane, and analyze-javascript-application), selected browser, web and Electron commands (including analyze-web-bundle, observe-web-execution, capture-browser-scenario and capture-electron-scenario), and the platform and provider command families for Android/ADB, Apktool/JEB/Flutter, firmware, PCAP and signal analysis, WASM/EVM, Go/Rust and binary diagnostics, Frida instrumentation, the Cutter command, objdump, Rizin and GDB, and the agent environment server (environment-serve). The handler also wraps doctor, inspect-sqlite-database, recover-javascript-sources, inspect-il2cpp-metadata, and inspect-desktop-application. In these paths, a returned structured cancelled result can be printed before the wrapper assigns the signal-derived status. This describes the current source routing; it is not a claim that every command or provider runtime has been independently exercised.

Commands with --evidence_output select their delivered view, then publish the complete Evidence bundle atomically. Cancellation before publication leaves no new file. A publication that has committed can win a later cancellation; the cancelled result then keeps the written path and byte count under details.diagnostics.evidence_bundle. If staging cleanup stays incomplete after commit, the cleanup_incomplete error reports the same file as details.published_path and details.bytes.

When a failure retains a completed observation and no bundle committed, details.source_closure states what that observation cites. publication is not_published. records holds authentic source Evidence this invocation captured, within 64 KiB. omitted lists up to 64 other identities and omitted_count the total: not_captured means the invocation holds no such record, so nothing is shown for it or its ancestors; not_inlined means it was captured but is not in this response. complete is true only when every cited record is in records or embedded in the observation. If examining the closure itself fails, collection_failure names the error type and the closure state is unknown; the original failure is still returned. Nothing is retained after exit, and running the command again is a new observation.

When the reader of piped output closes early, as rea ... | head does, the CLI stops writing, prints no error and exits 141 (128 + 13, the status of a SIGPIPE-terminated writer). The operation itself may have completed; only its output was declined.

inspect-artifact also returns a structured cancelled result. Its logging wrapper sits outside the cancellation handler and replaces the signal-derived status with the analysis failure status, so it exits 1. Setup has its own contract: cancellation exits 0. Treat the structured result and process status as separate signals when scripting cancellation.

setup --dry-run returns planned and exits 0; a cancelled setup also exits 0. Setup returns 1 for needs_confirmation or needs_human. doctor returns 1 when required checks in its selected readiness scope fail; unavailable optional providers remain informational for unrelated tasks.

Enable pipefail in a supporting shell so a downstream formatter preserves REA's failure status:

set -o pipefail
rea inspect-artifact ./app.asar --json | jq . > inspection.json

--token-count reports a tokenx estimate for the selected emitted document, including a requested full-output envelope and metadata. JSON uses the same terminal indentation or compact piped representation as normal output; JSONL uses its emitted line representation. The final newline is included (tokenx assigns whitespace no tokens). This is an estimate, not a model tokenizer count. Counting retains the existing bounded formatted-string allocation after capacity admission; omit the flag to stream large JSON documents without materializing the complete formatted text. Exhausted token windows display an empty range at the total token count and have no next offset.

inspect-devicetree

Inspect an explicit local FDT v16/v17 blob without execution or an external tool. Returns header, reservations, node/property tree, derived standard values and selected phandle references. See devicetree inspection for limits and retained-view pagination.

rea inspect-devicetree /artifacts/board.dtb --json
rea inspect-devicetree /artifacts/board.dtb --detail summary --evidence_output /artifacts/board-evidence.json --json

PE TLS and load configuration

rea inspect-pe-load-config /absolute/path/to/application.exe --json

Reports TLS callbacks and size-covered load-config fields without execution. Use --max-callbacks and --max-file-bytes to set read budgets. See PE TLS and load configuration.

Bun standalone executables use the existing inspect-artifact and extract-artifact commands to inventory and materialize embedded source, sourcemaps and bytecode without running the executable. See Bun standalone executables for layout coverage and limits.