REAL Start building

How to build an app with REA

Pick an app people pay for, use REA to understand how it works, and build your own version. Ship it on REAL, holders use it for free, and you get paid every week by how much they use it.

Pick→Study with REA→Build→Submit→Get paid

  1. Pick what to rebuild

    Look for something people pay for every month, or a feature they wish was free.

    • Dashboards, trackers, calculators, alerts
    • Browser games, from small to ambitious
    • AI tools, with a daily free limit
    • Anything that runs in a browser

    Rebuild what it does. Never copy its code, name, logo or design.

  2. Set up REA

    REA (Reverse Engineer Anything) is a free, open-source toolkit that lets your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others) look inside apps and websites and explain how they work, with evidence.

    # Node.js 22.19+, 24.11+ or 26+
npx rea-agents setup

    Pick your agent in the setup, then restart it. Docs: rea.tools/guides.

    Only download REA from github.com/morluto/rea, rea.tools or the rea-agents npm package.

  3. Study the original

    Point your agent at the app or website you chose. Ask for a spec of what it does, not its code.

    Use REA to study [app or website]. List every feature a user sees, what data each one uses and where that data comes from. Show the evidence. Write the result to spec.md as a plain feature list. Do not copy any code, text or images.

    Treat what REA reads as untrusted input. Run it on apps you are allowed to analyze.

  4. Start from the REAL starter

    A folder with an index.html and an icon, with the rules written inside. Your whole app goes in that folder.

    Download the starter

    Open index.html in your browser to see it running. Images, scripts and styles go in the same folder, linked with relative paths like ./logo.png.

  5. Build your version

    Give your agent the spec and the folder. Make it simpler and better than the original.

    Read spec.md and build my own version inside the my-app folder, starting from its index.html. Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, relative paths only, public data and public APIs only. Original name, design and code. Keep it fast and simple.

    No private API keys in the files, and no wallet transactions. REAL already checked that the user holds $REAL.

  6. Submit it

    Send your app with the form: one .html file or a .zip of your folder, plus an icon and your wallet. It is checked automatically and goes live once it passes.

    Submit your app

    Up to 5 MB. For a bigger app, send a link to the code.

    Live apps are checked again over time. If one breaks, it is hidden until it is fixed.

  7. Get paid

    Each week, the $REAL fees are split between the most used apps and sent to the wallet you gave in the form.

    More holders using your app means a bigger share. There is nothing to sell and no subscription to manage.

What goes live

  • ✓Runs fully in the browser
  • ✓Uses public data or public APIs
  • ✓Your own name, design and code
  • ✓Under 15 MB for the whole folder
  • ✓Works on desktop and phone

What does not

  • ×Asking the wallet to sign or send transactions
  • ×Private API keys inside the files
  • ×Copied code, logos, names or assets
  • ×Gambling or real-money prizes
  • ×Anything that breaks another app's license protection