Read Your Own Build Back: your source is gone. Your program still knows what it does.
Projects strand: an account dies, a laptop dies, an AI session eats the only copy. If the compiled build survives — the download, the game file, the .jar, the .wasm on your site — its logic is still in there. This shelf holds the free, verified tools that read a build back into code you can follow, plus the workflow that turns that code into a map and a reconstruction you can continue the project from.
Forge entry · RE sweep 2026-10-23 · tools by their respective projects (licenses below, each read at the source), harness pack by this project. One of the Forge shelf. For software you own or are authorized to analyze — the fence is printed in the pack and meant.
Why this shelf exists (the anchor it replaces)
Reading compiled programs back used to be a professional seat with a professional price: IDA Pro Expert — the tier with local decompilers — lists at €4,999/year, and Binary Ninja Commercial at $1,799 (vendor pricing pages, read 2026-10-23). The tools below are free, permissively licensed, and — measured on our own test programs, proof in the pack — they recover the logic and the numbers. The seat is now optional.
Measured facts (checked 2026-10-23)
| Licenses | 11 tools verified at the source: Ghidra, jadx, Vineflower, Procyon, WABT (Apache-2.0); RetDec, CFR, ILSpy, Recaf (MIT); Boomerang and Capstone are BSD and flagged as BSD, not relabeled. Four copyleft tools (Rizin, Cutter, pycdc, uncompyle6 — GPL-3.0, read at the source) are excluded, and the ledger says why. |
| The proof | Three small programs written for the test, compiled, read back by CFR, Vineflower, WABT's decompiler, and Ghidra headless (12.2, build dated 2026-10-16). All logic and all constants recovered on every route — including from a stripped native binary with no names in it at all. Names and comments recovered on none. Full commands and grades in proof.md. |
| Ghidra's fine print | The flagship is a ~450 MB download and the current release needs JDK 25 installed first — our first proof run bounced off JDK 21, which is how we know. Printed here so it never ambushes you either. |
| WABT's fine print | The decompiler ships in the 1.0.34 release line; the current 1.0.42 binaries omit it. Measured on the rig, printed in the pack's routes file. |
What the pack makes happen
- The right tool for your build, without the folklore — native program → Ghidra (or RetDec); APK/Java → jadx, CFR, or Vineflower; a Unity game's Assembly-CSharp.dll → ILSpy; a .wasm → WABT. Each route carries its license, its download, and its friction, all verified the same day.
- A readable read-back — the decompiler returns your program's logic as code: branches, loops, constants, and the exact words it shows users. That's the raw material; most people stall here, staring at generic names.
- The recover-and-document workflow — a prompt you paste into your AI with the recovered code. It answers in three passes — inventory, a plain-language program map (every rule-constant quoted exactly, in a table), and a reconstruction: a spec a fresh session can continue the project from, with inferred names tagged [INFERRED] and gaps left as OPEN QUESTIONs instead of invented behavior.
- A way back into the project — the reconstruction stands in for the lost spec/state, so the rescue/continuation flow has something true to continue from: what the program provably does, not what anyone remembers it doing.
The nits, stated plainly
- Names and comments do not come back. Compilers erase them. A variable returns as var3 or FUN_00101210; the workflow has the AI propose names and tag them inferred, because pretending otherwise would be lying on the label.
- Recovered code is a reading, not the original. Tools occasionally mis-guess — in our own proof, Ghidra scrambled two parameters in one guessed prototype while getting every rule right. Test any rebuild against the original build's behavior.
- There is no Python decompiler on this shelf. The known ones are GPL (read at the source) and we don't bundle copyleft. The pack prints the practical routes instead of shipping what we can't license cleanly.
- One famous name is missing on purpose. Snowman's license could not be read at the source, so it is not shipped and not cited. Unverified is unverified.
- The hosted shortcut has a catch. Free web decompiler services exist, but at least one states plainly that uploaded binaries are retained. The pack names it and warns: never upload a private build you wouldn't hand a stranger. The tools on this shelf run on your machine.
Run it yourself
Find your build, pick its route in the pack's README, decompile, then hand the recovered code and the workflow prompt to your AI. Pairs with the continuation pack — the reconstruction this pack produces is exactly the document a resumed session needs.
Download the pack
| File | What it is | Size |
|---|---|---|
| README.md | The route: which verified tool reads which kind of build, then the pack's three steps | 3,028 B |
| tool-routes.md | Every tool on the shelf: what it reads, its license (read at the source), where to get it, honest friction | 4,221 B |
| recover-and-document.md | The paste-into-your-AI workflow: decompiled code in, a plain-language program map + a reconstruction a fresh session can continue from | 3,726 B |
| what-you-get-back.md | What survives compilation and what doesn't — logic, constants and strings come back; names and comments don't — graded from the proof | 2,673 B |
| proof.md | The measured proof: three small programs written for the test, compiled, and read back by four free tools, with commands and grades | 3,963 B |
⬇ Download all five — read-your-build-back.zip⬇ Get Ghidra (official)
Adding to the Forge
A Forge entry needs a name, a one-line claim, an author line, a worked example with real measurements, the files, and its limitations on its page — this one included.