Help Getting Started With Ghidra For MPC562 ME9.6.1 VE E77 LY7

[Lucasperks06]

that all makes sense, thanks for all that really appriciate it
ive tried setting up a mcp server but i cannot for the life of me figure it out. ive changed my ghidra version to the latest and tried using the bethington mcp server, but i cant manage to figure out how to set it up. what server are you using? is there an easier one to setup?

[antus]

I set up claude in vs code then asked it to set it up. You can also ask it step by step instructions but the value is it being able to interact with your machine.

I know there are multiple tools, with different amounts of security, and different configuration options. I am useing this one, and after evaluating what it was doing, and getting used to prompting learning what I should it expect it to do, I then disabled security so it can run what it wants on my PC. I wouldn't trust all AIs with this level of access, but I think the security is part of what we are paying for. Depending what I am asking I give it tools or specific limits on when to stop. I hear these horror stories about AIs going way out of line trying to achieve a goal and hacking something or using resources they shouldn't. I've not observed any attempts like that but I usually tell it what tool and the general appraoch to use and if I am not sure it'll be able to figure it out I include something like "if the next step is not clear, ask me". Whether this really helps I don't know, perhaps it would not go out of line anyway, but I figure its a nice insurance policy.

With that claude vs code plugin you should be able to give it the path of the ghidra install on your machine and ask it to setup and test the MCP plugin on your machine. Then take the conversation with the LLM from there if there are blockers and if you need to ask it what the solutions are or how to configure your machine so it can work.

I'm on IDA so I used the Mr Exodia MCP server, and I got claude to install it. But in practice it got better results with python scripts driving idat (text mode executable) direct. That logic probably doesn't correlate to ghidra. I am sure some of the others are using MCP in ghidra, so someone else might chime in. https://github.com/mrexodia/ida-pro-mcp

[Lucasperks06]

i got it working finally that was a massive ordeal but it works really good.
also, i found out a massive problem that was holding me back, and it explains why i was getting hardly any xrefs.
so when i set r2/r13, i set it at the start of the file, i didnt realise i needed to highlight the entire file and then set the registers
so i used claude to find rpm using the xrefs from maps to functions, and it found the same ram address for rpm 4 times in 4 different maps, but the ram address only had 1 xref.
once i set the registers for the whole file, the rpm address alone now has over 250 references. that is so good. this is exactly what i wanted.
and claude finds it with no problems, because i have the map and the axis labled, and know there rpm/load etc it figures it out with ease. i need to hop off tonight but tommorow im gonna try and label as much as i can.
i should then able to start putting togther the missing pieces for maps in my xdf, and find more maps and axis. this is just the start though i hope to do much more, hopefully creating custom maps at some point.
but ai is so handy its insane, ill update more as i go on for what i find

[antus]

[Lucasperks06]

this is so good, it just found an axis for a map ive been trying to find for ages in less then a minute, im gonna be very busy for the next couple of days hahaha. only issue is how quickly i go through my usage, im on the pro plan so its not too bad. thanks antus for helping me set this up, very much appreiciated.

Screenshot 2026-08-12 224611.png

[Lucasperks06]

just thought id post up this script ive been making with claude, i believe its pretty good now, it imports your xdf into ghidra, does maps, axis, flags everything.
the main good thing it does is for importing axis. obviously the xrefs for axis / maps that have the axis right before the map, which links it to only 1 xref (most of the time), the xref begins at the header of the axis, not the calibration point. so say a axis cal data starts like this "008 001 002 003 004 005 006 007" in the xdf youd start it at "001", but the xref itself begins at the header, "008". so it makes importing xdf's a pain because half the xrefs dont show up.
so when the script is ran, you can set how many bytes to search back for, for an axis, and it has some logic behind it to determine if its actually for that axis (and not just random cal data) and will actually label the axis to the address that contains the corrosponding xref. i normally set this to 4 too, as it covers all 8 / 16bit axis.
it also links axis / maps together for maps that dont contain xrefs but where the axis does, as maps that have the axis directly before that map will generally only show one xref for the whole lot (not always though).
it finds xrefs for pretty much all my maps/axis/flags/scalars (close to 400).
its not perfect but its pretty damn good, and saves a boat load of time. and can be used for anything, i would only try on bosch related ecu's though, as im not sure how other ecu's work there axis headers/xrefs.
it also asks for the offset of the xdf, (set to 400000 for me9 related ecu's), and asks for a note doc to paste its logs in, basically tells you what maps it got, and what maps it didnt get (which ive only found its missed a few)

still a WIP, but im pretty happy with how it is now, just paste the java file in ghidra scripts, and run
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tJXz6R ... sp=sharing

[kur4o]

Some notes on tables` addresses axis and headers.

Most 2d and 3d table have header infront of actual data, usually a 3 or 4 byte, containing data for table axis length.

for example 00 11 00 21 is header for word size table that have 17x33 cell counts.

Header might be 3 bytes too or 2 bytes.

The cpu reads tables based on header start address, and skips the actual header, doing this.

Most bosch crap I looked at, also have axis tables set as headers to main table. There is a little more complicated to decipher.

When xdf is created for some reason the header is omitted, making correct references to actual code really hard.

to ease AI to figure if there is header, make it check the actual axis length and compare with the data infront.

[Lucasperks06]

thanks for the reply man, and yeah thats what i figured out before, and that tool i made with claude actually adds in xdf maps, and labels them at the start of the header if it needs to link it to its specific xref. (which ive only found it needs it for axis, and maps that contain the axis right next to it, so the axis is only used for that map(s)). if the map is on its own, and the axis is somewhere random in the bin, then the xref for the map begins at the start of the map itself, pretty much all the time. there have been a couple ive found where its just the map on its own, and the xref started one byte before.

but pretty easy to work out if the xref is for that map anyway. im slowly disassembling more and more maps and finding maps i could never find just using winols. and im labeling heaps of ram addresses too.
but on the side im creating xdf's for every vz / ve OS as im gonna start selling tunes, claude makes it 1000 times easier.

but i do want to start looking into custom stuff soon, my first goal would be to add in my own map, instead of dwell time, rpm x load, i want to create a dwell rpm x gear. or for the cam angle at idle map, make that rpm x gear, and i know im gonna need to invest in pcmflash, module 77, and more. obviously i need to get more experienced in ghidra first, but i do want to do this as some point. and thats where gatecrashers and your checksums you found will come in handy too. although i think module 77 has checksum correction anyway.

have you gone this deep on these me9.6 / 9.6.1 bosch ecu's kur4o? im just wondering whats the most cost effective way to read / write bins, ive got hp tuners but i wont be able to write custom code for a hpt file, unless i had a bin to hpt convertor but i cannot seem to find one anywhere. but i dont think that would even work well anyway as my bin dosent even have the boot block, id need a full read.

i saw for module 77 you need a scanmatic or something else, but there very price haha, have you mucked around with any of this?