flatline

Python wrapper around the Ghidra decompiler. Provides a stable, pip-installable interface for single-function decompilation with structured output -- no Ghidra installation required.

Named after Dixie Flatline from William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984) -- a dead hacker's ROM construct, a consciousness extracted from hardware. In the same spirit, flatline brings Ghidra's decompiler into library form for extracting meaningful structure from binaries.

Features

• Single-function decompilation -- pass a memory image, base address, and function entry point; get back structured C output with diagnostics.
• Multi-ISA -- x86 (32/64), ARM64, RISC-V 64, and MIPS32 are fixture-backed; all other Ghidra-supported architectures are available best-effort.
• Enriched output -- opt-in pcode IR with use-def edges and a networkx.MultiDiGraph projection for data-flow analysis.
• Packaged runtime data -- compiled Sleigh assets come from the companion ghidra-sleigh package. No vendored Ghidra tree at runtime.
• Deterministic -- repeated decompiles of the same input produce structurally equivalent output.

Installation

pip install flatline

Pre-built wheels are published for Linux x86_64/aarch64, Windows x86_64, and macOS x86_64/arm64 (Python 3.13+). If no wheel matches your platform, pip falls back to a source build.

Build from source

Source builds require a C++20 compiler, Ninja, and zlib headers:

Platform	Install command
Ubuntu/Debian	sudo apt-get install g++ ninja-build zlib1g-dev
Fedora/RHEL	sudo dnf install gcc-c++ ninja-build zlib-devel
Arch Linux	sudo pacman -S gcc ninja zlib
macOS	brew install ninja zlib (Xcode provides the C++ compiler)
Windows	Visual Studio with C++ workload; pip install ninja; vcpkg install zlib:x64-windows

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install .

The native C++ extension is built automatically when a compiler is found. The published wheels already include it. Without it the Python API is fully importable, but decompile calls return a configuration_error result. See the installation guide for native bridge build modes and troubleshooting.

Quick start

from flatline import DecompileRequest, decompile_function

result = decompile_function(DecompileRequest(
    memory_image=raw_bytes,
    base_address=0x400000,
    function_address=0x401000,
    language_id="x86:LE:64:default",
    compiler_spec="gcc",
))

print(result.c_code)

Runtime data is auto-discovered from ghidra-sleigh. Pass runtime_data_dir=... only when overriding the default root.

Flatline zero-fills decoder lookahead past the end of memory_image by default (tail_padding=b"\x00"), so exact function slices work without manual caller padding.

Enriched output

Request enriched=True to get the post-simplification pcode IR:

result = decompile_function(DecompileRequest(
    memory_image=raw_bytes,
    base_address=0x400000,
    function_address=0x401000,
    language_id="x86:LE:64:default",
    compiler_spec="gcc",
    enriched=True,
))

pcode = result.enriched.pcode
graph = pcode.to_graph()          # networkx.MultiDiGraph
op = pcode.get_pcode_op(op_id)    # O(1) lookup
vn = pcode.get_varnode(vn_id)     # O(1) lookup

# Clean filtering using the typed hierarchy
from flatline.models.pcode_ops import BranchOp
branches = [op for op in pcode.pcode_ops if isinstance(op, BranchOp)]

See the API reference for the full enriched-output contract.

Flatline X-Ray

flatline-xray is a shipped interactive pcode viewer for caller-provided memory images:

flatline-xray --help

The viewer uses Ghidra's Sleigh disassembly natively, so no extra install is needed for decoded instructions.

See the X-Ray docs for usage and tutorial.

Development

python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

tox                                          # tests + lint
tox -e lint                                  # lint only
tox -e py313,py314 -- -m unit                # unit tests only
tox -e py313,py314 -- -m requires_native     # native-dependent tests

Tox test envs build and install wheels, so the suite exercises the packaged artifact. Release and diagnostic helpers live under tools/ and are excluded from distribution artifacts.

Building the docs locally

pip install -e ".[docs]"
PYTHONPATH=src mkdocs serve        # http://127.0.0.1:8000

Full documentation is at https://patacca.github.io/flatline/.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md. Release policy and support tiers are documented in docs/release_notes.md.

Acknowledgments

This project was developed with the support of Quarkslab.

License

Apache-2.0. See LICENSE for the project license and NOTICE for redistribution-time attribution.