Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13 or later
• pip

Pre-built wheels are available for Linux x86_64/aarch64, Windows x86_64, and macOS x86_64/arm64. On these platforms a C++ compiler is not required.

Platforms outside that matrix fall back to a source build, which additionally requires a C++20 compiler, Ninja, and zlib development headers.

Platform	Native build dependencies
Ubuntu / Debian	sudo apt-get install g++ ninja-build zlib1g-dev
Fedora / RHEL	sudo dnf install gcc-c++ ninja-build zlib-devel
Arch Linux	sudo pacman -S gcc ninja zlib
macOS	brew install ninja zlib (Xcode provides the compiler)
Windows	Visual Studio with the C++ workload; pip install ninja; vcpkg install zlib:x64-windows

Install from PyPI

pip install flatline

This pulls in the ghidra-sleigh companion package, which ships the compiled Sleigh processor definitions that flatline needs at runtime. No separate download or path configuration is required.

pip install flatline already includes the shipped flatline-xray viewer. Install the optional xray extra only if you want richer assembly decoding via capstone:

pip install "flatline[xray]"

That extra adds optional disassembly support via capstone. tkinter is part of the Python standard library, but some distributions package it separately. If flatline-xray reports that tkinter is missing, install the platform package for your Python distribution and rerun the tool.

Build from source

Use this path when you want to work on flatline itself, run the test suite, or install on a platform without a pre-built wheel.

git clone https://github.com/patacca/flatline.git
cd flatline
git submodule update --init
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate     # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

The editable install compiles the native C++ extension automatically if a suitable compiler is found. To force a native build and fail loudly if prerequisites are missing:

pip install -e ".[dev]" -Csetup-args=-Dnative_bridge=enabled

Verify the installation

import flatline

info = flatline.get_version_info()
print(info.flatline_version)    # e.g. "0.1.0"
print(info.decompiler_version)  # e.g. "ghidra-6.1"

Note

The decompiler_version (e.g. "ghidra-6.1") refers to the Ghidra decompiler engine, which is versioned independently from the main Ghidra project. It does not correspond to the Ghidra application version (e.g. Ghidra 12.0.4).

If the native extension built correctly, flatline.decompile_function will produce real decompiled output. Without the native extension the API is fully importable but every decompile call returns a configuration_error result rather than C code.

Optional X-Ray viewer

The shipped flatline-xray utility uses the same request fields as the core API: raw memory image bytes, base address, function address, and target selection. The viewer is documented in the X-Ray section, with a step-by-step tutorial at X-Ray Tutorial.