THE VISUAL BINARY WORKBENCH
Bring a visual hex workbench into your ChatGPT or Codex conversation. Open a file with a prompt, explore it visually, and ask for explanations or reviewed changes.
Download for Mac See how it works inside ChatGPT Free personal & commercial binary use · Proprietary sourceSelect an instruction to highlight its verified file bytes. Virtual addresses and file offsets keep their distinct identities.
FIRST PUBLIC RELEASE / v0.27.0 PREVIEW
For macOS 13.5+ on Apple Silicon. The core editor and a private Node runtime are included. REA, Ghidra, a JDK and qpdf are separate optional tools.
c92c93364fdf62b849d65973c3c8b591cf65b6b69601fce7b34c72d6743af31fDownload checksum fileOfficial unmodified binaries are free for personal and commercial use. Hex Edit remains proprietary; modification and redistribution require permission. Read the usage terms.
Install Codex first. Extract the ZIP and open Hex Edit Setup.app. macOS may block this unnotarized app; review Apple’s guidance and approve only a source you trust. Setup never disables Gatekeeper.
Select the files folder Hex Edit may access. Codex is detected where available. Optional analysis connects your existing trusted REA/Ghidra/JDK installations; it does not download them.
Click Install Hex Edit, start a new Codex chat, and say “Open Hex Edit with the sample.” Expand the visual result into the side panel. Restart Codex normally if it retains old tools.
The Mac setup installs the local Codex plugin. ChatGPT requires a separately connected backend and your account consent; this package does not create a public endpoint or a directory listing. Read the complete setup guide.
Selected bytes and tool results shared with Codex/ChatGPT may be processed by the host/model provider. Keep confidential files within your organization’s approved workflows. Data handling · Usage terms · Support
INSIDE CHATGPT & CODEX
Your conversation and your visual investigation can work together. ChatGPT can open the connected Hex Edit panel, read the selected bytes through tools, explain what you are looking at, and prepare precise patch proposals for your review.
“Show firmware.bin in Hex Edit.”
ChatGPT invokes Hex Edit and opens an interactive workbench in the conversation. Use the panel to inspect hex and text, navigate the file, and keep working with the same investigation.
PROMPT → VISUAL WORKSPACE“What do the selected bytes represent?”
ChatGPT can inspect the current selection and exact revision through Hex Edit’s tools. Ask follow-up questions, inspect a header, or request an explanation while navigating visually.
SELECTED BYTES → EXPLANATION“Propose changing this value to 42. Don’t apply it.”
ChatGPT can stage a patch with the expected and replacement bytes. You review and apply the proposal in Hex Edit; the original stays intact, and applied edits support undo and redo.
PROPOSAL → YOUR REVIEWThe panel is interactive, not a screenshot. Hex Edit supplies file and revision context; ChatGPT works through the connected tools. The separately installed REA backend adds native-code analysis and linked evidence.
Examples illustrate the workflow; this page is not a live chat. Hex Edit must be installed and connected in a supported host, and the file must be accessible in its configured workspace. Panel expansion and downloads depend on host capabilities.
Earlier ChatGPT checks cover core editing, undo/redo, direct REA flows and PDF resources. The new v0.27 analysis UI still needs fresh Codex/ChatGPT qualification; each tour capture states its own tested host and version. See current preview scope ↗
LESS CONTEXT SWITCHING. MORE CONTEXT.
Hex Edit brings a persistent visual workspace to binary investigation. Move between bytes and code, retain your findings, and examine proposed changes before applying them.
REA supplies the analysis. Hex Edit connects those observations to the exact file and revision you are viewing, with current, historical and incomplete evidence made visible.
17 REAL VIEWS / A GUIDED LOOK INSIDE
Open any screenshot for a closer look.
Every view was captured from the actual tool using generated test files.
ANALYZE
Read the bytes, inspect the assembly, follow the control-flow graph and consult reconstructed pseudocode in a connected workspace.
Pseudocode is reconstructed by the provider. Exact instruction-to-pseudocode-line mapping is not available.
ANALYZE
Explore basic blocks and distinguish branch, fallthrough, jump and loop relationships without losing the byte-level context.
A static path is an exploration aid, not a recording of execution. Unresolved destinations remain unknown.
INSPECT
A color-coded hex and text view brings selections, recognized structures and modified bytes into focus. Keep the immutable original beside your working revision.
The screenshot shows original/working comparison on a generated PNG fixture. Recognized headers are structural hints, not validity checks.
CHANGE
Stage exact byte overwrites, review the expected bytes and inspect the instruction impact before committing a compatible patch set.
This screenshot deliberately shows a staged proposal awaiting REA decoding. Static previews do not prove executable correctness; signatures and checksums are not repaired automatically.
INSPECT
Apply a declarative template to decode headers, arrays, enums and bitfields. Select a field to inspect its exact bytes.
A selected template is your interpretation of the bytes, not proof that the entire file conforms to that format.
ANALYZE
Inspect provider-defined structures, field offsets, lengths and child types, with evidence and coverage kept alongside the layout.
These are retained real REA/Ghidra observations from a generated native fixture, not original source declarations. Full automatic ChatGPT type workflows remain under qualification.
CHANGE
Inspect differences between two file revisions or binaries. Bounded aligned windows help reveal inserted, removed and changed sequences.
The screenshot shows a real bounded alignment of two generated fixtures. Repeated bytes can admit alternative alignments. Comparison does not enable insertion/deletion editing.
ORGANIZE
Search retained functions, symbols, strings, instructions, pseudocode, references, types and your own notes from one place.
The screenshot includes current and historical results. Search completeness is limited to the selected bytes or retained provider observations.
ORGANIZE
Capture comments, user labels and named locations at a byte selection. Your notes stay distinct from provider symbols.
The note shown is a tour example saved only in an isolated copy of the generated fixture. Project metadata exchange is separate from full investigation archives.
ORGANIZE
Use organized menus, a compact toolbar, right-click actions or the searchable Command-K palette to reach the same workbench commands.
Keyboard delivery, clipboard access and downloads depend on the host. Commands preserve the originating review before consequential actions.
ANALYZE
Track requested, running, completed and interrupted work. Keep retained snapshots and evidence available when a host or provider stops responding.
The screenshot shows retained tracking awaiting a provider update. A timeout or expired reservation does not establish cancellation or permit automatic takeover.
Follow the catalog, pages, dictionaries, arrays and indirect references, then view supported image objects directly in the explorer.
Captured in the native Codex v0.23 panel using a generated 256 × 144 RGB image. Optional qpdf 11+ powers PDF inspection independently of REA. Unsupported image encodings retain explicit limits; previews do not render the complete PDF page.
Move from a logical PDF object to its verified file header, inspect those exact bytes, and return to the same object in the tree.
Captured in native Codex v0.23 at revision 0 with no edits. Header links do not imply exact mappings for whole object bodies or decoded fields. The explorer is modal, rather than simultaneous full hex/tree panes.
Review the output format, byte count, SHA-256 and workspace destination before saving a resource separately from the PDF.
This native Codex v0.23 screenshot shows a verified 29,162-byte PNG export from a generated PDF. The source remains revision 0 and unchanged. Exports are bounded to 8 MiB; downloads depend on host capabilities, and extracted content is never launched.
ANALYZE
Name a function locally, annotate instructions and blocks, and inspect exact bytes, operands and observed branch destinations without leaving the linked workspace.
v0.27 local-browser capture with authenticated retained REA/Ghidra evidence and generated bytes. Fresh native Codex/ChatGPT qualification remains pending.
ORGANIZE
Group related basic blocks, collapse and expand the diagram, and review a standalone SVG that retains the original graph facts and annotations.
v0.27 local-browser capture. The SVG source and XML were verified; automatic host download receipt was not observed. Direct PDF graph export is not included.
ORGANIZE
Choose a working folder, detect Codex, and install Hex Edit with its own Node runtime. Connect existing REA/Ghidra/JDK tools when you need disassembly.
Setup-interface capture from v0.26.3, with the same Setup.swift UI used by the v0.27 package. Clean-Mac and quarantined-download installation remain untested.
TWO TOOLS. A CONNECTED WORKFLOW.
Keep REA as your separately installed native-code reverse-engineering backend. PDF object inspection uses the optional local qpdf provider. Use Hex Edit to explore its observations visually, navigate verified byte mappings, organize findings and review changes.
Choose the file revision and architecture. Analysis receives an immutable snapshot with an explicit digest.
FILE → SNAPSHOTWith your trusted direct connection configured, Hex Edit runs tracked static REA/Ghidra jobs without waiting for another model turn. No target application execution is required.
LOCAL RUNNER → REA / GHIDRAValidated imports connect observed instructions, blocks and mappings to the matching revision.
EVIDENCE → WORKBENCHEdits create a new working revision. Previous analysis stays readable as historical evidence; fresh analysis is needed to restore current byte links.
BUILT FOR THE WORK
Browse imported functions, symbols and strings. Inspect incoming and outgoing cross-references, follow mapped locations, and return through navigation history.
Preserve the immutable original, stage exact overwrites, undo or redo transactions, and export verified copies or portable patch manifests.
Resize panes, save named layouts, switch themes, toggle the minimap and choose between linked views and focused analysis.
The first public preview includes the core editor, linked REA views, PDF inspection, durable local annotations, a context inspector and reversible graph groups. It is not a v1 release candidate or an approved OpenAI directory listing.
All 445 regression tests pass. The v0.27 analysis UI passed local browser checks with authenticated retained REA evidence; fresh native Codex/ChatGPT checks are pending. Changed code does not inherit older host receipts. Clean-Mac installation and downloaded-app approval remain untested; abrupt host loss and physical power loss were not tested.
Files are limited to 64 MiB and eight open tabs. Edits are fixed-length overwrites. Instruction assembly, insertion/deletion editing, a debugger, automatic checksum/signature repair, direct PDF graph export and exact instruction-to-pseudocode-line mapping are not included. A static preview does not guarantee patched application behavior.
Historical tour captures are individually scoped. New v0.27 chapters use an isolated local browser and generated fixtures. Screenshots demonstrate the interface; they are not a live embedded editor.