Install REA in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor

Before you start

Everything below comes from the REA project's public README and installation guide. Commands change between releases, so check them there if something does not match.

• Node.js and npm. REA supports Node.js 22.x (22.19 or later), 24.x (24.11 or later) and 26+. Node.js 23, 25 and prereleases are not supported.
• An agent that supports local MCP servers, such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor.
• Optional: Hopper, Ghidra or IDA, only for deep native analysis. Static JavaScript and .NET inspection need no native analysis engine.

Guided setup (recommended)

Run:

npx rea-agents setup

Setup first offers the supported agents in a multi-select. It then shows the exact paths and changes it plans and asks for your approval before it changes any agent configuration or installs Hopper; you can cancel at any prompt. It adds REA's MCP server and matching workflow instructions, keeps unrelated entries, and makes a backup of each configuration it edits. When it finishes, restart the agents named in the completion message.

To use the latest published release explicitly:

npx rea-agents@latest setup

Claude Code, Codex and Cursor

Guided setup configures all three; pick them in the list. If you have the rea command installed (see below), the documentation shows how to select clients explicitly and preview the plan without writing anything:

rea setup --client codex --client cursor --skill=false --dry-run

The client IDs are claude_code for Claude Code, codex for Codex and cursor for Cursor. A few details from the documentation:

• Claude Code: the bundled skill is installed in ~/.claude/skills (or $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR/skills when that is set).
• Codex: setup adds startup_timeout_sec = 30 to the registration, and Codex treats an unset or empty CODEX_HOME as ~/.codex.
• Cursor: no Cursor-specific steps are documented beyond guided setup.

Restart the agent after setup so it loads REA.

Other clients: manual registration

REA is published in the official MCP Registry as io.github.morluto/rea. For a client that needs manual configuration, the documentation gives this entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rea": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "rea-agents@6.4.0", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

The documentation pins one exact package version; 6.4.0 was the version it showed when we checked on 13 October 2026. Run npm view rea-agents dist-tags.latest to see the current release and use that version. If your client is not covered, follow its own instructions for adding a local MCP server with the command above.

Use REA from the terminal

Analyse an extracted JavaScript or Electron app directory, or an ASAR file, without installing anything:

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

To install the rea command for regular use:

npm install --global rea-agents
rea --help

Check, update and remove

rea doctor reads your setup without changing it and reports what is ready. REA changes quickly, so keep it up to date:

rea update

rea update updates a CLI installed with npm install --global or bun add --global; then run the setup command it prints to refresh your agent registrations. If you use npx, run npx rea-agents@latest setup again, review the changes and restart your agent.

rea uninstall
rea uninstall --purge-data

Uninstall removes only REA's own agent registrations and skill files; --purge-data also removes REA's cache and state under ~/.rea.

Hopper, Ghidra and IDA

Setup can install Hopper after a separate, explicit approval, and it can save the verified paths of an existing Ghidra installation. IDA has its own guide in the project's documentation. You must obtain and license commercial tools such as IDA, Hopper and JEB yourself; REA grants no licence or key for them.

Once REA is running, analyse only software you own or are authorised to examine. See what REA is for and the directory's content rules.