Binary Ninja MCP vs Serena

A side-by-side comparison of two Developer Tools servers — tools, transport, auth, maintenance, and copy-paste config for each.

	Binary Ninja MCP Connect your LLM/MCP client to Binary Ninja for AI-assisted reverse engineering and malware analysis. Unverified stdio (local) No auth Python	Serena LSP-powered coding agent toolkit: semantic symbol search, references and structural edits. Verified stdio (local) No auth Python
Category	Developer Tools	Developer Tools
Language	Python	Python
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	None	None
GitHub stars	392	12k
Last commit	2 months ago	23 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`npx -y binary-ninja-mcp`	`uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Binary Ninja MCP if you need the broadest set of tools.

Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you want a verified, documented setup.

Add Binary Ninja MCP

Install / run

npx -y binary-ninja-mcp

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "binary-ninja-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "binary-ninja-mcp",
        "--host",
        "localhost",
        "--port",
        "9009"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Add Serena

Install / run

uvx --from git+https://github.com/oraios/serena serena start-mcp-server

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serena": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/oraios/serena",
        "serena",
        "start-mcp-server"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Requires `uv` (the Python package runner). Install it from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ if `uvx` is not found.

FAQ

Binary Ninja MCP or Serena — which is better?

Pick Binary Ninja MCP if you need the broadest set of tools. Pick Serena if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option, and you want a verified, documented setup.

Can I use both Binary Ninja MCP and Serena?

Yes — MCP clients let you enable multiple servers at once. Add both configs to your client's mcpServers and use whichever tool fits the task.

Do Binary Ninja MCP and Serena work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

Both do. Copy the per-client config below into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

View Binary Ninja MCP →View Serena →More comparisons →