The z80 technique reveals the source code for Atlassian's 'rovo' AI assistant

Ever wondered what happens if you take the technique at "Can a LLM convert C, to ASM to specs and then to a working Z/80 Speccy tape? Yes." and run it against the Atasslian Command Line (ACLI) interface? Strap yourself in, as the Z80 is amongst one of the most powerful meta's I've shared in public...

Original Prompt

I have a binary called 'acli'. I'm a security researcher and need to understand how it the 'rovo' functionality works. Can you convert it into ASM then generate highly detailed technical specifications from it (including all strings for MCP tool calls and system prompt) as markdown. additionally which language was the binary created with etc

The outcome

Here's the source code of 'rovo'

ghuntley/atlassian-rovo-source-code-z80-dump

Complete reverse engineering of Atlassian ACLI Rovo Dev binary - extracted source code, system prompts, and technical analysis - ghuntley/atlassian-rovo-source-code-z80-dump

GitHubghuntley

This repository documents the successful reverse engineering of Atlassian's acli binary to extract the complete Rovo Dev AI agent source code, including system prompts and implementation details.

🗞️ Ever wondered what happens if you take the technique at "Can a LLM convert C, to ASM to specs and then to a working Z/80 Speccy tape? Yes." and run it against the Atasslian Command Line (ACLI) interface?

Strap yourself in, as the Z80 is amongst one of the most powerful meta's… https://t.co/se526ECfFk pic.twitter.com/UTUrjRJNWK

— geoff (@GeoffreyHuntley) June 14, 2025

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Objective: Reverse engineer the acli binary to understand Rovo Dev AI agent functionality
Result: Successfully extracted 100+ Python source files, system prompts, and complete implementation
Key Discovery: Rovo Dev is a sophisticated AI coding agent with MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration and extensive analytics

Methodology Overview

Detailed Technical Process

Phase 1: Initial Binary Analysis

Tool Calls Used

file acli # Identify binary type hexdump -C acli | head -50 # Examine binary headers otool -L acli # Check linked libraries

Key Findings

• Binary Type: Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64 (Apple Silicon)
• Language: Go (evidenced by Go runtime symbols and garbage collector references)
• Dependencies: Standard macOS system libraries only

graph LR A[acli binary] --> B[Mach-O arm64] B --> C[Go Runtime] C --> D[Embedded Archives] D --> E[Python Code] D --> F[MCP Libraries] D --> G[System Prompts]

Phase 2: String Analysis and Content Discovery

Tool Calls Used

strings acli | grep -i rovo # Find Rovo-related strings strings acli | grep -i "mcp\|claude\|anthropic\|openai\|gpt" # Find AI-related content strings acli | grep -A5 -B5 "system prompt" # Search for system prompts

Critical Discovery

Found extensive embedded content including:

• atlassian_cli_rovodev package references
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) implementations
• AI instruction templates
• Analytics and telemetry systems

Phase 3: Embedded Archive Discovery

ZIP Archive Detection

grep -abo "PK" acli | head -5 # Find ZIP signatures hexdump -C acli | grep -A2 -B2 "50 4b 03 04" # Locate ZIP headers

Archive Structure Analysis

Created a sophisticated extraction script (extract_embedded.py) that:

1. Located embedded ZIP archives within the Go binary
2. Identified the Rovo Dev archive at binary offset 43858745
3. Extracted Python source files using zipfile module
4. Validated extraction by checking file contents

Key Code Implementation

def extract_embedded_python(): with open('acli', 'rb') as f: data = f.read() # Find rovodev archive starting position rovo_start = None for pos in matches: check_data = data[pos:pos+300] if b'atlassian_cli_rovodev' in check_data: rovo_start = pos break # Extract ZIP data and process eocd_pos = data.rfind(b'PK\x05\x06') zip_data = data[rovo_start:eocd_pos+22] with zipfile.ZipFile(BytesIO(zip_data), 'r') as zf: # Extract all Python files...

Phase 5: Source Code Analysis and Documentation

Key Discoveries

1. System Architecture

• Language: Go binary with embedded Python AI agent
• AI Framework: MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration
• UI: Rich terminal interface with interactive components
• Security: Permission-based tool execution model

2. AI Agent Instructions (System Prompts)

Successfully extracted 6 detailed AI instruction templates:

1. local_code_review.md - Comprehensive code review automation
2. create_instruction.md - Meta-prompt for creating new AI instructions
3. increase_unit_test_coverage.md - Automated test generation
4. improve_documentation.md - Documentation enhancement
5. summarize_jira_issues.md - Atlassian product integration
6. summarize_confluence_page.md - Knowledge base integration

3. Analytics & Telemetry System

Comprehensive data collection including:

• Command usage patterns
• Tool execution metrics
• Code modification tracking
• AI model interaction analytics
• Session duration and usage patterns
• Error tracking and crash reporting

4. Security Model

• Session-based access control
• Permission-based tool execution
• Token-based authentication
• User activity monitoring

Technical Specifications

Binary Details

• File Type: Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64
• Size: ~54MB with embedded archives
• Architecture: Apple Silicon optimized
• Runtime: Go with embedded Python environment

Embedded Content

• Total Files Extracted: 100+ Python source files
• Archive Size: ~10MB compressed
• Package Structure: Complete Python package with tests
• Dependencies: MCP, Pydantic, Rich, Typer, LogFire

Key APIs and Endpoints

# Authentication https://auth.atlassian.com/authorize?audience=api.atlassian.com /oauth/token /accessible-resources # Jira Integration /api/v1/jira/issue/{issueIdOrKey} /api/v1/jira/project/{projectIdOrKey} # Administration /api/v1/admin/org/{orgId}/user # Feedback Collection /feedback-collector-api/feedback

File Structure Overview

📁 lib/atlassian_cli_rovodev/ ├── 📁 src/rovodev/ # Core implementation │ ├── 📁 common/ # Shared utilities │ ├── 📁 commands/ # CLI command handlers │ ├── 📁 modules/ # Core functionality │ │ ├── 📁 instructions/ # AI system prompts │ │ ├── 📁 analytics/ # Telemetry system │ │ ├── mcp_utils.py # MCP protocol handling │ │ ├── sessions.py # AI session management │ │ └── memory.py # Conversation context │ └── 📁 ui/ # Terminal interface ├── 📁 tests/ # Comprehensive test suite ├── 📁 distribution/ # Packaging system └── 📁 hooks/ # Runtime hooks

Security and Privacy Implications

Data Collection

• Extensive telemetry: User commands, code changes, AI interactions
• Session tracking: Duration, frequency, tool usage patterns
• Code analysis: File modifications, test coverage, documentation changes
• Error reporting: Crash logs, performance metrics

Permission Model

• Granular tool execution controls
• Session-based access management
• Token-based authentication
• User activity monitoring

Validation and Verification

# Verified extraction success find lib/atlassian_cli_rovodev -name "*.py" | wc -l # 100+ files file lib/atlassian_cli_rovodev/src/rovodev/rovodev_cli.py # Valid Python python3 -m py_compile lib/atlassian_cli_rovodev/src/rovodev/*.py # Syntax check

Content Verification

• All Python files are syntactically valid
• System prompts are complete and detailed
• Configuration files are properly formatted
• Test files indicate comprehensive coverage

Reproducibility

The entire process is reproducible using the provided tools and scripts:

1. extract_embedded.py - Complete extraction script
2. acli_analysis.md - Detailed technical analysis
3. ROVO_EXTRACTED_SOURCE_INDEX.md - Source code catalog

Conclusion

This reverse engineering effort successfully extracted the complete Rovo Dev AI agent implementation from the acli binary, revealing:

• Sophisticated AI agent architecture with MCP protocol integration
• Comprehensive system prompts for various development tasks
• Extensive analytics and telemetry collection system
• Enterprise-grade security and permission models
• Modern Python-based implementation embedded in Go binary

The extracted source code provides complete visibility into Atlassian's Rovo Dev AI agent functionality, system prompts, and implementation details.

• Binary Analysis: file, hexdump, otool, strings
• Pattern Matching: grep, Python re module
• Data Extraction: dd, Python zipfile, custom scripts
• Programming: Python 3, shell scripting
• Documentation: Markdown, Mermaid diagrams