Dev disputes 'clean room' claim: same person decompiles and rewrites app
kristoph · x · 2026-10-08
- kristoph challenges a Rust rewrite project's 'clean room' claim on X: the person decompiled the original apps, then had the same individual turn decompiled output into specifications and rebuild filters in Rust from them — with one person on both sides, there's no way to verify the decompiled code wasn't used.
- He adds that the rewritten apps' UI is pixel-identical to the originals, implying at minimum reuse of original app images, which contradicts clean-room practice.
- The thread highlights a classic boundary problem for reverse-engineering plus AI-assisted rewrites: isolation collapses when the same person handles both decompilation and reimplementation.