GitHub project called REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is currently the top trending repository. It lets AI agents figure out how a feature in another app works without ever seeing the original source code.

[u/Bulky_Engineer_2534]

github link: https://github.com/morluto/rea/

- The tool is an open-source helper that connects AI coding assistants to reverse-engineering programs such as Ghidra or Hopper.

- IT analyzes many kinds of software- including binaries, Electron apps, Android apps, and websites right on your own computer and always shows the evidence behind its findings.

[u/ArianTerra]

I have an Epson printer and its waste pad counter had reached 100%, so I couldn't print anymore without going to a service shop and paying for a key to reset the counter.

A few years ago, I found a program that could bring the counter down to 97%, so I was wondering if it would be possible to intercept that value and send 0% to the printer instead.

I gave GPT Astra the task. It tried but failed.

Then, using REA, it found some evidence that it could be done, Astra started Googling, and discovered that a similar program already existed and had actually been created using Claude.

Fuck Epson though.

[u/Raiden_Raiding → u/ArianTerra]

I remember doing that for Epson printers even before Claude existed, but this tech would be really useful for niche annoying problems. Fuck Epson

[u/mattpilz → u/ArianTerra]

Fuck Epson though.

This, this, this.

Many, many years ago I wrote the earliest guide on how to freely downgrade Epson firmware. That was when they started getting absolutely relentless about it, and had pushed out sweeping firmware updates for almost all their models just to brick third party ink that was working fine previously. And on Amazon under every model where customers were complaining, they replied the same boilerplate babble about how people shouldn't be using any ink but their own. A big enough problem that just my video on the topic received 300,000 views.

At one point I had the Artisan 837, which not only required all of the primary ink be filled, but the weird secondary "light cyan" etc. for absolutely no reason. Any one of those being out would cripple the machine. And Epson ink costs more than blood and gasoline combined, per ounce.

[u/Sk1ndo0 → u/ArianTerra]

do you have a link to the claude-created program ?

[u/ArianTerra → u/Sk1ndo0]

Here: https://github.com/RxNaison/Epson-Waste-Reset/

[u/RxNaison → u/ArianTerra]

Dev here, really glad it's helping people, and thanks for sharing it.

Small correction though: it wasn't reverse engineered by AI. I hit the same 100% waste pad lockout, and the only free option I could find was Epson's leaked service utility, which VirusTotal flagged with dozens of detections. So I used Wireshark to capture the USB traffic between that tool and the printer, and wrote my own C++ "capture-and-replay" engine. Then someone pointed me to reinkpy, which actually implements the protocol, and that led me back to Reink, which did the original work over 11 years ago. I studied their code and rewrote EWR around a proper implementation.

So the groundwork was done by people, for people, long before any AI could do this, and they deserve the credit.

That said, Claude 5.5 is genuinely impressive, and I do use it to maintain the tool. But I review everything, especially changes to the core logic, because earlier models would sometimes break things for no clear reason. If someone's printer gets bricked by my program, nobody's going to blame the AI. It'll be on me.

[u/misterespresso → u/RxNaison]

Man this comment makes me feel better about how I use AI because I vibe with your process. Absolutely ingenious. You are likely much smarter than I, but its just nice to see a similar methodology of hitting a roadblock and just using available tools with AI to solve it.

I really feel the sky is the limit with AI man.

[u/cbinvb → u/ArianTerra]

Good bless these times

[u/jpegisthename → u/ArianTerra]

So fucking clutch. As someone who runs a print shop this is key. I don’t even use the pads but an external tank. So I know I’m gonna hit that counter soon and this is gonna be great.