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

This server cannot be installed

security - not tested

license - not found

quality - not tested

local-only server

The server can only run on the client's local machine because it depends on local resources.

Enables LLMs to perform binary analysis using Ghidra in headless mode, extracting functions, pseudocode, structs, and enums from binaries for interactive reverse-engineering.

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