IDA Instruction Hinter is a native IDA Pro 9.3 plugin that explains x86/x64 instruction mnemonics directly in IDA View. Hover over a mnemonic until IDA's normal hint delay expires to see a concise offline English or Simplified Chinese explanation. When a matching page exists, Ctrl+click the mnemonic or right-click it and choose Open instruction reference to open the Felix Cloutier x86 reference in the system browser.

The catalog covers all 1,951 real NN_* x86 instruction types in the pinned IDA SDK 9.3.1 snapshot. The plugin does not perform network requests while hovering, does not send telemetry, and remains inactive for non-x86 processor modules.

Requirements:

• CMake 3.27 or newer
• A C++17 compiler supported by IDA SDK (Visual Studio 2022 on Windows)
• Git submodules checked out recursively
• IDA Pro 9.3.x for runtime testing

git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:secsome/ida-ins-hinter.git
cd ida-ins-hinter
cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 `
  -DIDA_INSTALL_DIR="D:/IDA/IDA 9.3sp2"
cmake --build build --config Release
ctest --test-dir build -C Release --output-on-failure

The SDK is pinned under third_party/ida-sdk. To use another IDA 9.3 SDK checkout, pass -DIDA_SDK_ROOT=/path/to/idasdk where that directory contains include/pro.h.

Normal builds never write to the IDA installation. Runtime files are staged in:

build/dist/plugins/ida_ins_hinter/

Create a distributable ZIP with:

cmake --build build --config Release --target package

Copy the complete staged ida_ins_hinter directory into an IDA 9.3 plugin directory. A per-user Windows installation can be performed with:

$source = "build/dist/plugins/ida_ins_hinter"
$target = Join-Path $env:APPDATA "Hex-Rays/IDA Pro/plugins/ida_ins_hinter"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $target | Out-Null
Copy-Item "$source/*" $target -Recurse -Force

Restart IDA and open an x86 or x64 database. Hover over a mnemonic to see its explanation, or Ctrl+left-click it to open its reference page. Addresses, bytes, operands, comments, and whitespace intentionally do not trigger either feature. If an instruction has no mapped reference page, Ctrl+click retains IDA's normal behavior.

The packaged config.json selects the locale:

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "locale": "en"
}

Set locale to zh-CN, or override it on IDA's command line with -Oida_ins_hinter:locale=zh-CN, to use the bundled Simplified Chinese translation. Locale lookup overlays English, the primary language, and then the exact BCP-47 tag one complete message key at a time.

English (en) and Simplified Chinese (zh-CN) are bundled. To add another translation, copy locales/en.json, change its locale, and translate the ui strings and stable instructions message IDs. Missing keys fall back to English. No C++ changes or catalog regeneration are required.

Regenerate checked-in data without network access:

py tools/update_catalog.py
py tools/update_zh_locale.py
py tools/update_catalog.py --check
py tools/update_zh_locale.py --check

Updating the Felix link snapshot is intentionally explicit:

py tools/update_catalog.py --refresh-felix-index

The generator derives short English meanings from the MIT-licensed IDA SDK comments and stores only Felix page labels/paths, not reference page contents. Review tools/catalog_overrides.json when SDK instruction types or reference-page groupings change.

The plugin is released under the MIT License. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for SDK and reference-site attribution.