Ghidra MCP Server

🔍 Ghidra MCP Server

This project lets you use Ghidra in headless mode to extract rich binary analysis data (functions, pseudocode, structs, enums, etc.) into a JSON file, and expose it to LLMs like Claude via Model Context Protocol (MCP).

It turns Ghidra into an interactive reverse-engineering backend.

🚀 Features

Decompiles a binary using Ghidra headless mode
Extracts:
- Function pseudocode, names, parameters, variables, strings, comments
- Data structures (structs), enums, and function definitions
Outputs to ghidra_context.json
MCP server exposes tools like:
- list_functions(), get_pseudocode(name)
- list_structures(), get_structure(name)
- list_enums(), get_enum(name)
- list_function_definitions(), get_function_definition(name)

⚙️ System Requirements

macOS (tested)
Python 3.10+
Ghidra 11.3.1+
Java 21 (Temurin preferred)
MCP client (e.g. Claude Desktop)
mcp CLI (install via pip install mcp)

🧪 Installation & Setup

✅ 1. Install Java 21 (REQUIRED by Ghidra 11.3.1)

brew install --cask temurin@21

Then set it:

export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 21)
echo 'export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 21)' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Check it:

java -version

Should say: openjdk version "21.0.x"...

✅ 2. Install Ghidra

Download and extract Ghidra 11.3.1

✅ 3. Set up the project

cd ghidra_mcp
gcc -Wall crackme.c -o crackme

✅ 4. Install the server via MCP CLI

mcp install main.py

This registers the MCP server so Claude or other clients can access it.

✅ 5. Run in dev mode (for testing)

mcp dev main.py

This enables hot reload and developer logs.

🛰️ Tools Available

Tool	Description
`setup_context(...)`	Run Ghidra on a binary
`list_functions()`	All functions
`get_pseudocode(name)`	Decompiled pseudocode
`list_structures()`	All structs
`get_structure(name)`	Details of a struct
`list_enums()`	All enums
`get_enum(name)`	Enum values
`list_function_definitions()`	All function prototypes
`get_function_definition()`	Return type & args

Sample Promot

Analyze the binary file located at using Ghidra installed at . First, set up the analysis context using both paths, then list all functions in the binary. Examine the main entry point function and provide a high-level overview of what the program does.

🧠 Common Issues & Fixes

❌ Ghidra fails with “unsupported Java version”

➡️ Fix: Install Java 21, not 17 or 24:

brew install --cask temurin@21
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 21)

❌ `spawn uv ENOENT` (Claude Desktop can't find your UV binary)

➡️ Claude can't locate uv by name. To fix:

Run in your terminal:

which uv

Example output:

/Users/yourname/.cargo/bin/uv

Open your Claude Desktop config file:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Update it like so:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ghidra": {
      "command": "/Users/yourname/.cargo/bin/uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/Users/yourname/Documents/ghidra_mcp",
        "run",
        "main.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop. You should now see your custom MCP tools.

❌ `The operation couldn’t be completed. Unable to locate a Java Runtime.`

➡️ Fix: Java not installed or JAVA_HOME is unset. Follow setup instructions above.

📂 Project Structure

File	Purpose
`main.py`	MCP server with tools
`export_context.py`	Ghidra script that extracts JSON
`crackme.c`	Sample C binary
`crackme`	Compiled binary to test

👨‍💻 Author

Tomi Bamimore
Ghidra by the NSA
MCP by Anthropic

Ghidra MCP Server