---
id: ida-hcli
version: "0.19.2"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# ida-hcli — HCLI - Hex-Rays CLI Utility

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 91.5K/mo

## What it is and what it does

ida-hcli is Hex-Rays' official command-line utility for IDA Pro administration and automation. It wraps IDA Pro operations—license management, plugin installation, downloads—into a modern CLI with Rich-formatted output and interactive prompts via Questionary. The tool is tightly integrated with Hex-Rays' proprietary workflows and is under active development with frequent updates.

The package is designed for reverse engineers, security researchers, and malware analysts who need to automate or script IDA Pro tasks from the command line. It requires Python 3.10+ and depends on standard CLI libraries (Click, Rich, httpx, Pydantic) plus the idapro package itself. The team does not accept external contributions due to rapid iteration and internal roadmap priorities, but welcomes bug reports and feature requests.

Use it for:

- Automate IDA Pro license activation and management across multiple machines or CI/CD pipelines.
- Script plugin installation and updates for IDA Pro from the command line.
- Query and download IDA Pro releases and related tools programmatically.
- Integrate IDA Pro operations into reverse-engineering workflows and automation scripts.
- Check license status and user identity without opening the IDA Pro GUI.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

ida-hcli is a command-line interface for managing IDA Pro licenses, downloads, and related operations through a modern CLI built on Click and Rich.

Yes, if you use IDA Pro and need command-line automation for license or plugin management. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, and uses a permissive MIT license. Install friction is low. The main caveat is that it requires IDA Pro itself and depends on the idapro package—verify that your IDA Pro setup is compatible before installing.

## Install

pip install ida-hcli
uv add ida-hcli
poetry add ida-hcli

## Installing ida-hcli

Before you install: Low friction installation as a pure Python wheel. The package is actively maintained (last commit 2026-08-11, released 3 days ago) and requires Python 3.10 or higher. It depends on 13 runtime packages including Click, Rich, httpx, and Pydantic—all stable, widely-used libraries.

License in practice: Licensed under MIT (permissive), so you can use, modify, and distribute the package freely with minimal restrictions. No copyleft obligations or commercial licensing concerns.

Quickstart:

pip install ida-hcli

from ida_hcli import cli
# or use the CLI directly:
# hcli --help
# hcli whoami
# hcli plugin list

Requires Python 3.10 or higher. The idapro dependency in the runtime list suggests integration with IDA Pro itself, which may require IDA Pro to be installed or configured separately.

Verify before relying:

- Whether idapro runtime dependency requires a paid IDA Pro license or if it works with free/demo versions.
- Exact scope of license management operations supported (renewal, transfer, activation, etc.).
- Whether the tool can run offline or requires network connectivity to Hex-Rays servers.

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 91.5K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

ida pro license management cli, hex-rays command line tool, ida pro download manager, reverse engineering cli utility, binary analysis command line, ida pro automation tool, disassembler cli interface, reverse-engineering, binary-analysis, cli-tool

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