MCP stdio server for radare2
Documentation
Radare2 MCP Server
An MCP server to use radare2 with AI agents such as OpenCode, Mai, VSCode, Claude, CLION, ...
Features
This implementation provides:
- 💻 Fully written in C using the native r2 APIs
- 🧩 Works from the CLI, as an r2 plugin and as an MCP server
- 🔍 Seamless binary analysis with radare2
- 🔗 Connect to any local or remote r2/iaito session via r2pipe
- 🔒 Supports readonly mode, sandbox lock and restrict tools
- 🔩 Fine grained tools configuration
- 🔁 Direct stdin/stdout communication model
- 🌐 HTTP MCP server mode with optional
X-Session-IDmultiplexing - 🛠️ Optional raw access to run r2 commands or r2js scripts
Installation
Using r2pm
The simplest way to install the package is by using r2pm:
$ r2pm -Uci r2mcpThe r2mcp executable will be copied into r2pm's bindir in your home directory. However, this binary is not supposed to be executed directly from the shell; it will only work when launched by the MCP service handler of your language model of choice.
$ r2pm -r r2mcpThat's the common mcpServer JSON configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"radare2": {
"command": "r2pm",
"args": ["-r", "r2mcp"]
}
}
}Codex
To install the codex plugin just run the following command:
make codex-plugin-installThis will create a personal marketplace in your home and copy the files from dist/codex-plugin inside.
Using Docker
Alternatively, you can build the Docker image:
docker build -t r2mcp .Update your MCP client configuration file (see below) to use the Docker image to use:
"command": "docker""args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "-v", "/tmp/data:/data", "r2mcp"].
Configuration
HTTP Server Mode
Use -H to run r2mcp as an HTTP MCP server instead of using
stdin/stdout:
r2mcp -H 8765Per-session HTTP state is enabled with -X max[:idle_seconds] and routed by
the X-Session-ID request header:
r2mcp -H 8765 -X 8:600HTTP bearer authentication is enabled with -a . Clients must send
Authorization: Bearer on every GET and POST request:
r2mcp -H 8765 -a my-secret-tokenUse -A or -a random to generate a random token at startup. The generated
token is printed once on stderr:
r2mcp -H 8765 -AThe same token setting can be supplied with R2MCP_AUTH_TOKEN; set it to
random to generate one.
-X requires radare2 ABI 91 or newer because older radare2 headers do not
expose the HTTP request header API. With older ABIs, -H still works as a
single shared HTTP server, but -X is ignored. Bearer authentication also
requires this header API.
r2 Core Plugin Mode
The r2 core plugin exposes the r2mcp command inside an existing radare2
session. Starting HTTP mode from r2 reuses the current RCore, so MCP tools
operate on the file and analysis state already loaded in that session:
r2 -e r2mcp.port=8765 -c 'r2mcp start' /bin/lsUseful subcommands:
r2mcp startorr2mcp httpstarts the HTTP MCP server in the background.r2mcp stop,r2mcp restart, andr2mcp statusmanage the background server.r2mcp logs on|offandr2mcp logs filecontrol plugin debug logs.r2mcp approve on|offandr2mcp approve urlcontrol supervisor approvals.r2mcp yolo on|offdisables approvals and exposes dangerous run tools.r2mcp configlists ther2mcp.*eval keys.
The plugin registers eval keys for the same server options exposed by the CLI:
r2mcp.port, r2mcp.log, r2mcp.logfile, r2mcp.auth, r2mcp.approve, r2mcp.svc,
r2mcp.yolo, r2mcp.mini, r2mcp.permissive, r2mcp.run,
r2mcp.readonly, r2mcp.ignore_analysis, r2mcp.prompts,
r2mcp.prompts.dir, r2mcp.sandbox, r2mcp.sandbox.grain,
r2mcp.content, r2mcp.enabled, r2mcp.disabled,
r2mcp.session_tools, r2mcp.sessions, r2mcp.sessions.max,
r2mcp.sessions.timeout, r2mcp.decompiler, and r2mcp.baseurl.
When loading the plugin manually with -i, set these keys after the plugin is
loaded, for example with -c 'e r2mcp.port=8765', because radare2 processes
early -e options before ad hoc plugin initialization.
Claude Desktop Integration
In the Claude Desktop app, press CMD + , to open the Developer settings. Edit the configuration file and restart the client after editing the JSON file as explained below:
1. Locate your Claude Desktop configuration file:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json - Windows:
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add the following to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"radare2": {
"command": "r2pm",
"args": ["-r", "r2mcp"]
}
}
}VS Code Integration
To use r2mcp with GitHub Copilot Chat in Visual Studio Code by adding it to your user configuration (see other options here):
1. Open the Command Palette with CMD + Shift + P (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows/Linux).
2. Search for and select Copilot: Open User Configuration (typically found in ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/mcp.json in macOS).
3. Add the following to your configuration file:
{
"servers": {
"radare2": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "r2pm",
"args": ["-r", "r2mcp"]
}
},
"inputs": []
}Zed Integration
You can use r2mcp with Zed as well by adding it to your configuration:
1. Open the command palette: CMD + Shift + P (macOS) or Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows/Linux).
2. Search of agent: open configuration or search of settings.
3. Add your server as such:
"context_servers": {
"r2-mcp-server": {
"source": "custom",
"command": "r2pm",
"args": ["-r", "r2mcp"],
"env": {}
}
}Note: you will need another LLM agent, such as Claude, Gemini or else to be able to use it.
For Developers
Build from Source
Linux/macOS
To test the server locally, you can build and install it with make:
make installThis will compile the server and place the r2mcp binary in /usr/local/bin on macOS.
Windows
For Windows, just use meson and ninja like it's done in the CI:
meson b
ninja -C bSimilar MCP
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