REA on DeepSeek Harness — setup notes

Wiring czcdr/dsh-plugin-rea (the REA reverse-engineering MCP server) into DeepSeek Harness on Windows, including two non-obvious failures and the evidence that identified each.

Observed 2026-10-15 · Windows win32-x64 · DSH CLI 0.2.0-rc.2 · Node 24.21.0. Every claim below is backed by a command result; nothing is inferred.

Files

File	Contents
findings.md	The two root causes, with measured evidence
install-notes.md	Install, provision, relocate, verify, uninstall
rea-cordis-row.yml	The profile patch that makes it work

Working end state

$ node C:\dsh-rea\bin\rea-shim.mjs mcp doctor
healthy: true
server:            rea 6.4.0, protocol 2025-11-25
inventory.tools:   expected 170, observed 170, missing []
inventory.prompts: expected 6,   observed 6
request_flow:      tool binary_session, ok true

Component	Version	Where
dsh-plugin-rea	2.0.1	DSH desktop profile
REA CLI (rea-agents)	6.4.0	C:\dsh-rea\vendor\node_modules\rea-agents
Ghidra	12.1.4	C:\dsh-rea\vendor\ghidra
Temurin JDK	21.0.12.1+1	C:\dsh-rea\vendor\jdk
apktool / jadx-headless-mcp / adb	3.0.3 / 0.7.1 / 37.0.1	C:\dsh-rea\vendor\...

Two load-bearing deviations from a plain install

1. The bundle lives at C:\dsh-rea, not the default <DSH_HOME>/plugins/rea-bundle, because the default path contained non-ASCII characters — which silently disabled all native-binary analysis.
2. Installed from the npm registry, not github:, because github.com is unreachable from this machine. It is the same commit, verified by hash.

Both are explained in findings.md.

Quick version

# 1. Install the plugin (registry route; see findings.md for why)
dsh plugin --profile desktop add dsh-plugin-rea@2.0.1

# 2. Provision the engine into an ASCII-only root.
#    --root is mandatory, and use a Node OUTSIDE the bundle.
& "<external node>" C:\dsh-rea\scripts\setup.mjs --root C:\dsh-rea

# 3. Add the override row from rea-cordis-row.yml to
#    %USERPROFILE%\.dsh\profiles\desktop\cordis.patch.yml

# 4. Restart the harness, then verify via mcp__rea__binary_session:
#    analysis_provider_candidates[0].availability.status == "available"

Do not preinstall npm install -g rea-agents. Node/npm are not on PATH on this machine, so a global rea would never be found, while the plugin vendors its own Node (with npm) and REA inside the bundle. A global copy is unreachable duplication.

Optional components not installed

Item	Why
Hopper	commercial, macOS-oriented — HOPPER_LAUNCHER_PATH
IDA	needs a registration JSON — REA_IDA_MCP_CONFIG
REA skill (skill:identity)	writes into ~/.agents/skills/ for other agents; left as a user decision
browser provider	set REA_BROWSER_EXECUTABLE; the bundle never downloads a browser
extract_firmware, inspect_firmware_regions	Linux-only by design (Unblob/Binwalk + prlimit)

rea doctor's top-level healthy stays false until the optional REA skill is installed, even when the engine fully works. Treat the Ghidra provider's availability.status, or rea mcp doctor, as the real readiness signal.