AI learned to read software. Then it built thirteen apps.
REA taught AI to read other people's apps. ArtCraft is the proof: 13 programmes instead of Adobe and Office, with AI writing most of the code.
At a glance
REA (Reverse Engineer Anything, morluto/rea, MIT, created 14 April 2026) is an open-source tool that plugs an AI agent into reading other people's software. Analysis runs locally on your disk, nothing gets uploaded, every conclusion is meant to come with proof plus a list of what wasn't proven. As of 19 October 2026 it has over 322,000 stars on GitHub. A sample: the Windows calculator turns 200 + 10 percent into 220, because the percent button behaves differently after plus than after multiply. ArtCraft (storytold, led by Brandon Thomas) is proof that agents understand programmes: since 30 September 2026 it has built 13 open-source Rust apps to replace Adobe and Office, PhotoCraft has over 68,000 stars, and Claude Opus 5.5 wrote most of the code. Every feature is a command you can also drive through an MCP server, which matches Jakub's own experience. Status is early alpha, and the authors themselves write that it is not yet a replacement for daily professional work.
I deleted Photoshop. And Premiere. And After Effects. Plus the audio app.
In their place I have PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, EffectCraft and SoundCraft. Free. No subscription. No account. And it is extremely fast.
The strongest moment came after that. I asked 2B to do something with it. And she could. Each of those apps has a server inside through which an agent can drive it. No clicking. I write it into chat.
Why am I telling you this. Not as a review. But as proof of something bigger.
It’s called REA. Reverse Engineer Anything. You ask your AI about a feature in someone else’s app. And it tells you how it’s built. With proof of where it found it.
No. Really. You ask in plain language and you get an answer.
The calculator as proof
One example to stand for all of them. Take the Windows calculator. Type in 200 + 10 % and hit equals. You get 220.
Why?
The percent button behaves differently after plus than after multiply. After plus it takes the percent of the first number. Ten percent of two hundred is twenty. Two hundred plus twenty is two hundred and twenty.
That’s how simple it is. And almost nobody knew it until the REA makers asked their assistant and it looked inside.
Think of it as a book in a foreign language. You don’t speak it. But you have a friend who does, and at every paragraph they point a finger at where they found it. You ask in your own language. They read the original and explain.
Everything happens on your disk. Nothing gets sent anywhere.
Thirteen programmes in under three weeks
And now the argument.
ArtCraft is a set of thirteen programmes. Photos, vectors, video, PDF, effects, layout, text, audio, presentations, spreadsheets and design. All free, open source, running on your machine. No cloud between you and your work.
The story starts on 30 September. First release in the first week of October. PhotoCraft alone now has over 68,000 stars. Read that again. In under three weeks.
According to their history, Claude Opus 5.5 wrote most of the code. In PhotoCraft alone, over 240,000 lines.
When agents can build thirteen replacements for Adobe and Office in three weeks, it’s clear they understand other people’s programmes in depth. Reading through REA is trivial by comparison.
Why the ransom came first
And here is the part that interests me most.
No wonder the first products to get replaced were the ones hiding behind a ransom. You pay every month and own nothing. Stop paying, and you have nothing.
People want to own their programmes. And when corporations forbid them, they look for alternatives. And these are the alternatives now.
Follow the money. A year’s subscription to a creative bundle costs as much as a decent computer. This costs zero and runs offline.
Two different paths, one proof
Now the important part. And an honest admission.
ArtCraft and REA are not the same method. ArtCraft is built from the outside. It doesn’t copy other people’s code, doesn’t look inside other people’s apps. Just behaviour from the outside and public documents. REA looks inside instead, but only on your disk and only to explain how something works.
The argument is elsewhere. Both prove the same thing. An agent understands professional software so deeply it can read it and build it.
The speed didn’t come from the best model. It came from rules. Nothing may crash. Small tasks. Tests before code. The agent tries each feature itself and screenshots it. People hold the licences, the money and the releases.
People no longer write code. They write the rules someone else writes it by.
So what will you do with it? You don’t need to understand a single line. Just write what you want.
Should you download it
It works, it’s free, and agents can work with it. My experience says yes.
But. And this but is a big one.
The authors themselves write that it is not yet a replacement for daily work. The AI features are missing, fifteen tools, depth in typography, plugins. Testers report freezes.
So no. Don’t download it instead of Photoshop if you have a deadline burning tomorrow. Download it as proof.
Closed software has stopped being a secret. First AI learned to read it. Then it built it.
The question is, what will you build.