Headless IDA MCP Server

The Cnitlrt Headless Ida Mcp Server turns a local IDA Pro installation into a remote, programmatic analysis service. By leveraging IDA’s headless mode, the server can load and dissect binary executables without a graphical interface, exposing that power to any client that understands the Multi‑Client Protocol. This solves a common pain point for security researchers and reverse engineers: the need to automate analysis across many binaries or integrate disassembly insights into larger AI‑driven workflows.

At its core, the server runs IDA Pro in headless mode and listens on a configurable TCP port. Clients connect via MCP and issue commands that map to IDA’s scripting API: listing functions, renaming variables, retrieving disassembly snippets, and more. The server translates these requests into IDA commands, executes them, and streams back the results in a structured format. Because MCP supports streaming (SSE) or standard I/O, developers can choose the transport that best fits their environment, whether it’s a local script or a cloud‑based AI assistant.

Key capabilities include:

• Automated binary ingestion: Load any ELF, PE, or Mach‑O file through a single command.
• Function and variable management: Create, rename, or delete symbols programmatically.
• Disassembly extraction: Retrieve annotated assembly listings for arbitrary addresses or ranges.
• Scriptable hooks: Extend the server with custom Python logic that runs inside IDA’s environment.

These features enable several real‑world use cases. A security analyst can batch‑process a directory of malware samples, automatically extracting control‑flow graphs and feeding them into an AI model for classification. A developer building a CI pipeline can run static analysis on new releases, surface potential vulnerabilities, and have an AI assistant generate reports. In educational settings, instructors can expose a sandboxed IDA instance to students, letting them experiment with reverse‑engineering tasks while an AI tutor provides guidance.

Integration is straightforward for developers familiar with MCP. Once the server is running, any tool that can speak the protocol—be it a custom Python script, a web UI, or an AI assistant like Claude—can send requests and receive rich analysis data. The headless architecture ensures that the server can run on CI servers, containers, or cloud VMs without user interaction, making it ideal for automated workflows. The standout advantage is the seamless bridge between a powerful commercial disassembler and modern AI ecosystems, allowing teams to harness IDA’s depth without sacrificing automation or scalability.