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Migrating from Sidekick 5.x to 26

Sidekick 26 changes how analysis data is stored, how you apply changes to a binary, how you reuse automation, and how you keep track of work in progress. This page summarizes what changed for users coming from 5.x and how to adapt your workflow.

The major areas of change are:

Analysis data now lives outside the BNDB

The 5.x problem

In 5.x, all Sidekick analysis data — chats, indexes, notebook entries, code maps, and transaction history — was stored inside the BNDB file itself. Sharing a BNDB meant sharing all of that data with it, whether you wanted to or not.

For enterprise teams, where multiple analysts open and save the same file, this could cause metadata conflicts: the Sidekick data attached to a save by one analyst would collide with the data attached by another. There was no clean way to keep your own analysis context separate from the file you were collaborating on.

The 26 model

Analysis data now lives in a SQLite database under your Binary Ninja user directory:

$BN_USER_DIRECTORY/sidekick/data/workspaces.db

Each BNDB or Binary Ninja project has its own workspace in that database, identified by a UUID. The BNDB itself carries only a small piece of metadata that points back to its workspace.

List, rename, and remove workspaces through Plugins > Sidekick > Manage Workspaces....

What you get from the new design

  • Faster load and save — the BNDB no longer carries a growing payload of analysis data.
  • Smaller BNDBs — long chats and transaction history are no longer embedded.
  • Privacy when sharing — handing off a BNDB no longer leaks your chat history or other analysis context.
  • Security — control-plane data (chats, agent state) does not automatically travel in and out of files you open.
  • Works seamlessly with Enterprise — multiple analysts can work on the same binary without their workspaces colliding inside the BNDB.

Sharing is now explicit and user-controlled

You can still share analysis through the BNDB, but you choose when and what to share. Use Plugins > Sidekick > Import/Export Workspace... to write a snapshot of your analysis into the BNDB (or project) metadata; the recipient imports the snapshot on their machine.

Two consequences worth calling out:

  • You control precisely what travels with the file — chats, indexes, notebook entries, transaction history — and when it travels. Nothing is exported automatically.
  • Enterprise teams can explicitly share analysis with their team by exporting a snapshot when they're ready to hand it off, instead of having every save leak the same data implicitly.

For step-by-step instructions, see Sharing Analysis Data. For the full disk layout, see Data Storage.

What this means for your existing 5.x BNDBs

Sidekick 26 does not read the analysis data embedded by 5.x. Opening a 5.x BNDB in 26 silently ignores that data; the file gets a fresh, empty 26 workspace.

If there is 5.x analysis you want to keep, capture it from 5.x before retiring the 5.x plugin — for example, by transcribing important findings into a 26 chat or notebook entry after you upgrade.

Note

Save As on a standalone BNDB writes a fresh workspace UUID for the new file and copies your existing workspace data into that new namespace, instead of reusing the old workspace. See Data Storage for details.

Suggestions is now an agent, not an accumulating sidebar

What changed

In 5.x, the Suggestions sidebar maintained a long, accumulating list of suggested point changes to the binary. You worked through that list one entry at a time.

In 26, the dedicated Suggestions sidebar is gone. Suggestions is now an agent that you invoke explicitly from the main menu. When it runs, it opens a chat titled Suggestions in the Chats sidebar. You can see what the agent did, ask follow-up questions, and request additional changes — all in the same chat.

How to use it

  1. From the menu bar, choose a suggestion operation under Plugins > Sidekick (for example, Suggest Repairs, Suggest Types, Suggest Names, or Suggest Comments).
  2. The agent runs and opens (or updates) the Suggestions chat in the Chats sidebar.
  3. Open that chat to review what was applied and to ask for follow-up changes.

Reviewing changes across chats and suggestions

Every change applied by Sidekick — whether triggered through a regular chat, a Suggestions agent run, or a menu-driven suggestion operation — is recorded in the Transaction Log sidebar. The Transaction Log is the single place to audit all modifications, regardless of which surface initiated them.

See Editing Binaries with Suggestions and Reviewing Changes in the Transaction Log.

Automation Workbench is now the Library

What changed

The Automation Workbench in 5.x stored Python scripts. In 26 it has been replaced by the Library sidebar, which stores three kinds of entry point:

  • Python scripts — same role as before; run code directly.
  • Agents — create a new chat backed by an agent-specific completion pool.
  • Skills — inject reusable instructions into a chat.

You can still run a Python script directly from the Library, the same way you ran scripts from the Automation Workbench. New in 26, you can also use the slash-command syntax in any chat — for example, /my-script — to run a Library item and have Sidekick analyze the result inline.

For details on creating and running Library items, see Managing Scripts, Agents, and Skills in the Library.

Importing your 5.x scripts

The Library can import scripts directly from a 5.x Analysis Workbench database. To use it:

  1. Open the Library sidebar in Binary Ninja.
  2. Open the hamburger menu at the top of the Library list and choose Import 5.x Automation Workbench....
  3. The dialog defaults to the 5.x database path at $BN_USER_DIRECTORY/sidekick/analysis_workbench.db. Use Choose... if your 5.x database is elsewhere.
  4. Click Scan to list the scripts found in the database. Each row shows the script title, the number of revisions, and the number of operators it uses.
  5. Tick the scripts you want to import (or use Select All / Deselect All). Optionally tick Preserve old revisions as repository commits to retain the script history.
  6. Click Import Selected. The results panel reports which scripts succeeded, which failed, and any diagnostics emitted while rewriting their source.

During import, the dialog rewrites known 5.x API calls so the script will run against the 26 API:

  • query_binary(...) is rewritten to sidekick.api.execute_bnql(...).
  • LLMOperator(...) calls are preserved but flagged with a diagnostic; these need assisted porting to sidekick.api.load_prompt or the current prompt APIs.

Other API differences may require manual adjustments. The new API surface is documented in Scripting and Automation with the Sidekick API. Run each imported script once and address any diagnostics shown in the import results.

The Tasks sidebar has been unbundled

In 5.x, the Tasks sidebar served several different jobs at once: tracking what to work on next, queueing background work for Sidekick, and reviewing the changes Sidekick had made. In 26, each of those jobs has its own purpose-built surface — there is no Tasks sidebar.

Tracking what to work on

This moves to the chat itself, supported by the Session Briefing — Sidekick's rolling executive summary of the current workspace. The Session Briefing is included with every new chat, so Sidekick has the context to answer questions about the state of your analysis without you having to set it up each time.

Three ways to use this in practice:

  • Ask Sidekick what's next. Open a new chat and ask "What should I work on next?" Sidekick uses the Session Briefing to ground its suggestion in what you've already explored, annotated, and resolved.
  • Tell Sidekick to just go do a thing. "Recover the string types in this binary." "Look for command injection sinks." Background work that previously lived as Task items is now just another chat in the Chats sidebar — one place for everything.
  • Hand off the decision entirely. "Do whatever you think is the next best step." Sidekick will pick based on the Session Briefing context.

The Session Briefing can be edited manually from Plugins > Sidekick > Edit Session Briefing..., or from the Notebook sidebar's hamburger menu. See Session Briefing.

Reviewing changes Sidekick made

This splits into two distinct controls:

  • Tool Permissions — the gate on what Sidekick is allowed to change. Configure via Plugins > Sidekick > Configure Tool Permissions... to control which categories of modification (renames, type changes, comments, and so on) Sidekick can perform without asking. See Understanding Tool Permissions.
  • Transaction Log — the record of every change Sidekick actually applied or attempted, covering chats, Suggestions, and the suggestion menu items. Available as a sidebar in Binary Ninja. See Reviewing Changes in the Transaction Log.

The result is that all of your interaction with Sidekick — work, delegation, review, audit — flows through dedicated surfaces (Chats, Session Briefing, Tool Permissions, Transaction Log) rather than a single Tasks list trying to do everything.

Onboarding is now a chat

5.x walked new users through a dialog-driven welcome flow. In 26, onboarding is itself a chat: 🎉 Welcome to Sidekick! It uses the onboarding skill to walk you through the three core activities — Search, Simplify, and Surface — and answers follow-up questions in the same conversation.

Open it any time from Plugins > Sidekick > Welcome to Sidekick!. Useful for re-onboarding teammates or refreshing yourself on the 26 layout if you're returning from a long break.

Quick reference

5.x 26
Analysis data stored inside the BNDB Workspace database at $BN_USER_DIRECTORY/sidekick/data/workspaces.db; shared explicitly via Import/Export Workspace...
Suggestions sidebar (accumulating list) Suggestions agent (menu-invoked, results in a chat)
Automation Workbench (Python scripts) Library sidebar (scripts + agents + skills); /<name> in chat; Import 5.x Automation Workbench... in the Library hamburger menu
Tasks sidebar — tracking work Chats sidebar + Session Briefing in every new chat
Tasks sidebar — reviewing changes Configure Tool Permissions... (gate) + Transaction Log sidebar (record)
Onboarding dialog Welcome to Sidekick! chat (Plugins > Sidekick > Welcome to Sidekick!)

For deeper details on each area, follow the links throughout this page or browse the How-to Guides.