Our take
Newless than six months old and changing fast- Activity
- 68
- Community
- 36
- Issues
- 72
- Pull requests
- 70
+503 stars in the last 30 days
ASC is a promising, actively changing Python tool for targeted Android analysis, with strong recent activity but a short track record and much of its development concentrated in one contributor.
Good fit if
- You need targeted class decompilation or cross-DEX searches in Android APKs, rather than a full decompilation workflow.
- Your analysis or agent tooling is written in Python and can use Python 3.10 or later.
- You are comfortable adopting a new project whose recent development and release activity is high, but whose work is largely driven by one person.
Look elsewhere if
- You need full APK decompilation or prefer a binary-only workflow. The authors direct those users to rust_ASC.
- Your environment cannot run Python 3.10 or later.
- Your team needs a mature project with development spread broadly across contributors.
All health signals
| Last commit | 2026-10-16 (today) |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 90 days | 100+ |
| Releases, last 12 months | 3 (latest dev-0.1.2-post2, 2026-10-14) |
| Contributors | 8 (top contributor: 79% of commits) |
| Issues closed, last 90 days | 10 (typically closed in 1 day) |
| Pull requests merged, last 90 days | 30 (typically merged in 0 days) |
| Project age | 4 months |
Checked on 2026-10-17 with the GitHub API.
Project history
Daily GitHub snapshots since Oct 7, 2026. History covers stars and forks; health signals are not tracked historically.
Stars
2,666Forks
381Change since Nov 6, 2026: +5 stars·+2 forks
Overview
ASC is a Python Android decompiler for agents and mobile researchers. Built on the Androguard Android reverse-engineering and DEX analysis foundation, it uses R8 compiler optimizations to search APKs directly instead of first building large indexes and cross-references. This is aimed at reducing the time and memory needed to inspect large Android apps.
The workflow is on-demand: search references across DEX entries, locate classes, and decompile selected code. The project also offers manifest extraction and class listing through its CLI. For users who need a binary or full APK decompilation, the authors point to the Rust rewrite, rust_ASC.
Key Features
- Search for string, type, method, and field references across an APK's DEX entries.
- Find classes that extend a target class or implement an interface.
- Locate and decompile a selected class without decompiling the whole APK.
- List classes across DEX entries, with an optional package or class prefix filter.
- Decode an APK's Android manifest to XML.
- Provide a command-line interface that can be integrated into Python workflows.
Use Cases
- Mobile researchers can find references to a string, method, or field across a large APK before inspecting specific classes.
- Reverse engineers can extract a target class for focused analysis without waiting for a full application decompilation.
- Agent developers can add APK class lookup and reference search to Python-based analysis workflows.
- Analysts comparing multiple APKs can use the CLI's targeted search and extraction operations to avoid loading every app into a full decompiler session.
What you need
Detected in the repository
- Python >=3.10 (from pyproject.toml)
- A test suite and automated checks on GitHub Actions
License in plain words
Apache-2.0permissive
- Commercial use: yes
- Modify and redistribute: yes
- You must keep: the license, the NOTICE file and a note of your changes
- Share your changes: no
- Includes an explicit patent grant from the contributors:
A summary, not legal advice: the LICENSE file is what applies.
Getting Started
Install from PyPI:
pip install droidasc
For command examples and options, see the repository README.
Considerations
- The project is new and changing quickly. Its recent commit, release, and merged-pull-request activity is substantial, but that activity has not yet established a long-term maintenance record.
- Development is contributor-concentrated, with most contributions coming from one person, which may affect continuity if that contributor's availability changes.
- ASC is designed for targeted, on-demand analysis. The README describes full APK decompilation as a use case for the Rust rewrite, not this Python project.
- The project is licensed under Apache-2.0. Teams should review that license's terms when incorporating or distributing it.
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