binja-knife

a sharp, stateful cli for binary ninja.

bnk keeps analyzed binaries alive between commands, turning the shell into a fast, continuous reversing workspace.

• retained, named sessions—headless by default
• focused tools for exploring and changing a binary
• unrestricted Binary Ninja Python when the workflow needs more

bnk open ./program
bnk summary
bnk find strings 'parse failed' --refs
bnk inspect 0x401234
bnk code main

With one open session, commands select it automatically. Use -s NAME when you want several.

quick start

Install the client:

uv tool install .
bnk -h

Link or copy plugin/ into Binary Ninja's plugin directory as knife_server. The Knife Server starts automatically and works equally well headlessly, in a container, or alongside the GUI.

When the client and Binary Ninja see different filesystems, pass an absolute plugin-visible path with --server-path.

full power, close at hand

The direct commands cover the everyday loop: orienting to the binary, reading its sections and segments, finding evidence, following references, reading IL, making common edits, patching bytes, and saving the result. bnk -h is the compact map.

For everything else, eval, exec, and run expose the real Binary Ninja Python API without giving up the retained session:

bnk eval 'len(bv.functions)'
bnk exec 'print(bv.entry_point); result = bv.arch.name'
bnk run analysis.py -- arg1 arg2

agents

The repository includes an agent skill with a Binary Ninja API reference. Run ./scripts/link-skill to link it into ~/.agents/skills/rt1_tools/, or pass another skill directory.

develop

Development notes live in doc/development.md. For the small client/plugin split, see doc/architecture.md.