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JavaScript artifact reconstruction

REA can project an operator-supplied Electron/JavaScript application directory or ASAR into JavaScript Application Graph v1 without executing application code. The target-free analyze_javascript_application MCP tool, dedicated rea analyze-javascript-application CLI command, and generic rea analyze PATH --approved directory/ASAR route expose the same application service and return an Evidence v2 envelope containing the graph and an Electron boundary summary.

The resulting Evidence can be combined with passive web or Electron capture Evidence through reconcile_javascript_runtime. That second operation does not rerun static analysis or contact CDP; it preserves separate static, runtime, and cross-layer inference authorities.

Public workflow

The administrator first grants a canonical input root. Every request still requires explicit per-call approval, and the requested ASAR or directory must remain beneath that root after canonicalization:

export REA_INVESTIGATION_INPUT_ROOTS_JSON='["/absolute/path/to/apps"]'
rea analyze /absolute/path/to/apps/app.asar --approved --json
rea analyze-javascript-application /absolute/path/to/apps/app.asar \
  --approved \
  --json

Generic rea analyze selects this static provider for directories and .asar paths when neither --provider nor --snapshot is supplied. Use the dedicated command when setting explicit format or reconstruction limits. Native targets, single JavaScript files, .app bundles, and explicit deep-provider or snapshot requests retain the native deep-analysis route.

When configuring an MCP client, set the variable before approved setup so REA copies the explicit non-secret root policy into the managed registration:

export REA_INVESTIGATION_INPUT_ROOTS_JSON='["/absolute/path/to/apps"]'
rea setup

Restart the configured MCP client after changing this administrator ceiling. An already-running server cannot acquire a new process environment through MCP elicitation or SIGHUP.

The equivalent MCP input is:

{
  "input_path": "/absolute/path/to/apps/app.asar",
  "format": "auto",
  "approved": true,
  "source_map_read_approved": false
}

input_path must be absolute. format accepts auto, asar, or directory. The result retains the canonical local path, root artifact digest, artifact manifest and graph commitments, JavaScript Application Graph v1, static Electron summary, reconstruction statistics, and explicit limitations. It does not require a live Hopper, Ghidra, browser, or Electron process.

What is reconstructed

The projector reuses the content-addressed artifact inventory and safe artifact readers. It retains canonical artifact-relative paths, exact byte counts, SHA-256 digests, inventory IDs, ASAR container identity, and .asar.unpacked status. Direct ASAR inputs and filesystem-backed ASAR files nested beneath a directory are supported.

If an ASAR declares an unpacked companion entry but the corresponding <archive>.unpacked file is absent from the operator-supplied artifact set, REA keeps the ASAR occurrence with hash_status: unavailable, records an explicit limitation, and does not create a content-addressed child artifact for those missing bytes. This allows static JavaScript/Electron reconstruction to proceed for the embedded files while preserving the missing native/resource bytes as an unknown instead of silently treating them as absent or verified.

Selected bounded text is then parsed as inert data to recover:

  • package.json metadata and declared main or renderer entrypoints;
  • Electron preload paths and renderer files visible in static syntax;
  • local HTML script entrypoints;
  • Webpack and Rspack chunk registrations and module factories represented as AST literals;
  • static imports, dynamic imports, CommonJS require calls, workers, and service workers;
  • route, network endpoint, storage, and vendor-marker observations;
  • local source-map declarations and, when separately approved, bounded original source names and content digests;
  • explicit BrowserWindow options and webPreferences, including statically resolvable preload entrypoints;
  • contextBridge.exposeInMainWorld and exposeInIsolatedWorld API keys and bounded literal member paths;
  • renderer and main-process IPC operations, literal or dynamic channels, exact handler locations, and conservative pairing status;
  • sender, frame, URL, and origin validation candidates without claiming that a visible check enforces a complete policy;
  • utility-process entrypoints and native .node binding requests without parsing or executing the add-on.

Each recovered bundle module retains the exact factory-source digest. A complete bounded AST also receives a babel-ast-v1 structural fingerprint that ignores ordinary identifier names while retaining syntax, literals, operators, object keys, and member properties. If fingerprint construction reaches its structural bound, the fingerprint is unavailable and its status is truncated; a bounded prefix is never presented as a complete stable fingerprint.

Authority and unknowns

Artifact bytes and AST syntax are observations. Entrypoint resolution, imports, loads, calls, and persistence relationships are static inferences and explicitly say that syntax does not prove runtime execution. A malformed or unavailable JavaScript file, package record, or source map produces an unknown graph scope with state: unavailable; it is not treated as evidence that modules or source are absent.

Source-map content has a separate source_map_read_approved input. Without that approval, REA inventories the map, links a static declaration when present, and records partial non-truncated coverage plus an unavailable parse scope. With approval, the graph stores original source names and optional content digests, not the raw sourcesContent text.

Only explicitly present BrowserWindow values are observations. REA does not substitute version-dependent Electron defaults for omitted webPreferences. Dynamic option objects, bridge keys, API objects, and IPC channel expressions remain unknown and make coverage partial.

IPC pairing is an inference, not an observation. A renderer invoke pairs only with one unique ipcMain.handle/handleOnce candidate on the same exact literal channel; a renderer send pairs only with one unique ipcMain.on/once candidate. Dynamic channels are never paired, and multiple compatible handlers are reported as ambiguous without adding a caller-to-handler edge. A matching channel still does not prove registration order, reachability, or runtime use.

For .node bindings, member names mean “requested by JavaScript syntax.” A resolved add-on path does not convert them into verified native exports. Native symbol verification remains a separate deep-analysis claim.

Endpoint observations preserve useful local diagnostics while removing URL credentials, fragments, and query values. Artifact paths, digests, parse locations, and analysis metadata remain actionable because REA is local-only.

Safety boundary

The reconstruction path never uses eval, Function, vm.runInContext, a DOM, bundle push handlers, or application bootstrap code. The Webpack/Rspack fixture used by the test suite mutates a global and throws if executed; reconstruction recovers its four module factories without triggering either side effect.

Directory readers do not follow symlinks. Artifact paths pass through the shared normalizer and collision registry, ASAR entry bytes are rechecked against the inventory digest before parsing, and malformed ASAR operations return typed format diagnostics that retain the local container path. Native add-ons are represented by metadata only.

Bounds and coverage

The input schema bounds artifact entries, cumulative artifact bytes, bytes per entry, compression ratio, path depth and length, selected text files, text bytes, AST nodes, static findings, bundle modules, source-map originals, and cooperative parse time. Source-map original limits are shared across all maps in one reconstruction. Combined input limits are rejected if their conservative graph projection could exceed the v1 contract's 100,000 nodes or 200,000 edges.

Byte, entry, path, and graph-shape bounds are hard limits. The parse deadline is checked before and between bounded parsing and traversal phases; the synchronous Babel and JSON parser calls cannot be preempted mid-call, so their input byte bounds remain the hard protection for an individual call.

Byte-identical assets share a content-digest node. At most 64 distinct observations are retained on that node, as required by the graph contract; every inventoried containment edge remains present, and any omitted observations make top-level coverage partial and truncated. When an exact omission count is not knowable, omitted_count is null rather than a guessed value.

Verification boundary

The source-owned fixture covers an extracted directory, a direct ASAR with an unpacked native add-on, a direct ASAR whose unpacked native companion is missing, and an ASAR nested beneath a directory. Tests also cover deterministic reruns, parse-not-execute behavior, source-map approval, global source-map limits, malformed structured data, invalid containers, traversal, symlink escape, oversized text, cancellation, AST truncation, and repeated content identities. A separate synthetic Electron fixture covers explicit safe and unsafe preference values, preload and contextBridge surfaces, literal, dynamic, paired, ambiguous, and unpaired IPC, validation candidates, utility processes, and native binding requests. These fixtures establish parser and artifact-reader claims; they do not replace the later operator-supplied real-application benchmark.