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HexForge Gateway is a self-hosted workspace API that coordinates APK analysis tools through MCP agents. Its phone setup is the distinctive part: the author runs the Gateway inside Termux on Android and connects it over loopback to the APK MCP service in MT Manager. The same project also runs on a PC, so a phone is an option rather than a requirement.
Claude’s role is narrower than the headline suggests. Claude is an MCP client that can call the tools HexForge exposes. Nothing in the project’s published documentation describes installing Claude on the phone, and model interaction happens through the MCP client and whichever AI provider you configure.
What HexForge Gateway is
The official HexForge Gateway repository describes the project as an AI-assisted APK reverse-engineering workspace API. Work is organized as a hierarchy: a Workspace contains Workflows, Workflows run Jobs, Jobs break into Tasks, and Tasks are carried out by MCP Agents. Modules communicate through an internal event bus, so one step can publish results that later steps consume.
The author’s overview, published September 24, 2026 on DEV Community, gives the feature counts most readers look for first: eight agents, 19 MCP tools, and nine AI providers. It also lists job and workflow tracking, a knowledge engine that makes findings from earlier tasks available to later ones, WebSocket updates, and a plugin system. Treat these numbers as a description of that release. Check the repository for the version you install, because the counts may have changed.
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Who does what: Gateway, Claude, providers, and agents
HexForge is easy to misread as a chatbot or a model. It is neither. It is a local orchestration layer, and each part of the chain has a separate job.
| Layer | What it does | Where it runs in the phone setup |
|---|---|---|
| HexForge Gateway | Manages workspaces, workflows, jobs, tasks, and the event bus | Termux on Android, or a PC |
| MCP client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or Cursor) | Calls the Gateway’s exposed tools and drives the workflow | Not stated for the phone setup. The repository’s MCP server guide covers registration for these three clients. |
| AI provider | Handles model interaction for the provider you select | Depends on your configuration. Not every provider runs locally. |
| MCP agents (jadx, apktool, adb, frida, filesystem, MT Manager APK MCP, and others) | Execute analysis tasks | MT Manager’s service is reached over loopback on the device |
Running HexForge on an Android phone
In the author’s setup, the Gateway runs in Termux and connects to the APK MCP service that MT Manager provides. Because the connection uses loopback, the traffic stays on the device’s own network interface. That is what makes the setup self-contained on one Android device.
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What you need before you start
- Termux installed on the Android device, with npm available for the project’s dependencies.
- MT Manager with its APK MCP service set up. The author’s article points to a step-by-step MT Manager guide with screenshots; it is reached from the author’s article.
- The floating-ball setting enabled in MT Manager. The author notes that it keeps the service alive in the background.
- Git access to clone the repository.
Quick start outline
The author’s published outline has five steps. Treat it as a starting map. Commands and file layout can change between versions, so the repository’s current documentation is the authority.
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- Clone the HexForge Gateway GitHub repository inside Termux.
- Install the npm dependencies from the project folder with
npm install. - Copy the example configuration with
cp .env.example .env, then review the values in.envbefore starting. - Start the Gateway with
npm run dev. The author says it listens athttp://localhost:8080. - Register the server with your MCP client using the MCP server guide in the repository docs.
Before you run analysis tasks, confirm that MT Manager’s APK MCP service is still running, since the agent depends on that loopback connection.
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Running HexForge on a PC
The same project runs on a normal computer, and the clone, install, configure, and run sequence is identical. On a PC you don’t need MT Manager on the device, but the agents still need their underlying tools. The two APK decompilation tools each require their binary on PATH: jadx for decompile_apk and apktool for decode_apk. The published documentation doesn’t explain how to install those binaries inside Termux, so check the tool documentation before assuming a phone setup has them.
jadx or apktool: choose by what you need to produce
Both tools start from an APK, but they produce different artifacts. The difference matters more than which one you run first.
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| Aspect | decompile_apk (jadx) |
decode_apk (apktool) |
|---|---|---|
| Output form | Readable, Java-like source | Resources decoded to editable XML; code disassembled to smali |
| Intended use | Reading and searching code | Editing a decoded project |
| Rebuildable into an APK | No. The tool description says the output cannot be rebuilt. | Yes. The tool description says it creates a rebuildable project. |
| Output location | Under the workspace’s jadx output directory | Not stated in the tool description |
| Binary requirement | jadx on PATH | apktool on PATH |
In practice, start with jadx when you need to understand logic and search for strings or methods. Use apktool when you plan to change resources or code and rebuild. The tool descriptions for decompile_apk and decode_apk document these differences.
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The repository says local files are the default storage backend and that Supabase is optional. API-key authentication is opt-in and off by default. So “no cloud required” describes one possible deployment, not every configuration. Optional storage, the AI provider you choose, and your MCP client setup each change what leaves the machine.
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Read .env and the configuration docs before you load sensitive APKs. If you make the Gateway reachable beyond the local device or computer, turn on API-key authentication first.
Responsible use
The author states: “Only analyze apps you own or have permission to test.” That is the boundary for every APK you load, on a phone or a PC. Decompiled code and rebuilt packages can expose logic and secrets that belong to someone else, so the permission question comes before the tooling question.
What the published documentation does not establish
- The minimum Android version and the RAM or storage a phone needs.
- A supported handset list or any device compatibility tier.
- Performance comparisons between phone and PC analysis.
- Coverage or detection accuracy for the adb, frida, and APKiD agents. Check the current project documentation for those.
- Whether the eight-agent, 19-tool, and nine-provider counts from the September 24, 2026 overview still match the latest release.
If you need any of these before committing to the phone path, the PC setup avoids the phone-specific unknowns.
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