| name | re-evidence-log |
| description | Discipline for recording why each offset and sig is trusted — the proof behind the offset table. Every offset added, every sig derived, every struct layout committed comes with a citable evidence entry. Always active during RE work; pairs with pcx-re-discipline and pcx-patch-day-playbook.
|
| license | MIT |
RE Evidence Log — Every Claim Cites Its Proof
The discipline of recording why you trust each offset and sig in your project. The offset table is data; the evidence log is the proof behind it. Without the log, every patch day starts from zero on the same offsets you derived three months ago — you remember roughly what you did, not the citations that let you confirm it. This skill is the artifact half of pcx-re-discipline (which is the discipline itself) and the input to pcx-patch-day-playbook Step 7 (which writes a per-patch entry into the log).
Always active when doing RE work. Every offset you add, every sig you derive, every struct layout you commit to the project comes with an evidence entry. The cost is one paragraph per claim; the payoff is being able to answer "why do we trust this?" three months later without re-reversing.
Prerequisite: skill://pcx-re-discipline for the underlying discipline rules; knowledge/offset-methodology.md for the sig-derivation mechanics the log entries reference; tools/sig-uniqueness-checker.py for the verdict you record alongside each sig.
Trigger
Starting RE work on a new binary, adding an offset to offsets.em, committing a struct layout to a feature, recovering from a patch (the patch-day skill produces a log entry), onboarding a teammate to existing offsets, code-review of RE claims, suspicious behavior in a script you wrote weeks ago and can't remember why a field is at +0x40.
1. One File per Binary, One Entry per Claim
The canonical layout: evidence/<binary-hash-prefix>.md, one file per binary you reverse, one numbered entry per claim. Filed by content hash, not by game name or version — the same game across patches produces different binaries with different hashes; each gets its own file.
project/
├── globals.em
├── offsets.em
├── ...
└── evidence/
├── README.md ← what's in here, naming convention
├── 7a3f4d1c-game-v1.42.3.md ← per-binary log
├── 7a3f4d1c-game-v1.42.3.sha256 ← cached hash for trivial verification
├── 9b2e8a07-game-v1.42.4.md ← next patch = new file
└── archive/ ← old entries kept for diffing
└── 7a3f4d1c-game-v1.42.3.md
Inside one file, each claim is its own section:
# Evidence Log — game.exe v1.42.3
SHA-256: 7a3f4d1c8e2b5a019f3d4c7e2b1a8f6d...
Module size: 158,720,000 bytes (.text 0x00400000–0x00C12000)
First verified: 2026-06-15
Last verified: 2026-06-17
## E-001 — entity_list global pointer
## E-002 — local_player slot
## E-003 — view matrix (4x4 row-major)
## E-004 — CEntity::m_iHealth field offset
## E-005 — CEntity::m_vecOrigin field offset
...
Entry IDs (E-001 … E-NNN) are stable across patches — offsets.em references them in comments (// E-003), so when you rewrite the offset for the next version, you keep the same ID and update the per-version file. The ID is the cross-reference; the file is the version-specific evidence.
Why: Without a per-binary file, you can't diff what changed between patches. Without numbered entries, you can't reference a claim from your code or a teammate's review. The file naming by hash means the system survives renames, re-downloads, and side-by-side comparison.
2. Every Claim Cites: Binary, Address, Xref Source, Last-Verified Date
The minimum citation per entry. Anything shorter is a vague memory dressed up as a fact.
The required fields per entry:
| Field | Why |
|---|
id | Stable cross-reference for offsets.em and patch logs |
name | Human-readable label (matches the constant in offsets.em) |
binary_hash | The binary this claim is verified against |
rva (or sig) | Where the thing is |
xref_source | Function symbol, sig pattern, or string xref that found it |
derived_via | How: pattern scan? SDK header lookup? Struct dump? |
last_verified | Date of the most recent successful run on this binary |
verified_against | The in-game observation that confirmed it works |
## E-001 — entity_list global pointer
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | `OFF_ENTITY_LIST` |
| kind | RIP-relative pointer (loaded by LEA) |
| rva | 0x04A2B100 (resolved from sig hit at 0x00872F40) |
| sig | `48 8D 0D ?? ?? ?? ?? E8 ?? ?? ?? ?? 48 8B D8` |
| sig_uniqueness | UNIQUE (margin=5, per `tools/sig-uniqueness-checker.py`) |
| xref_source | Called by `CGameWorld::Update`, identified via string xref "entity_list_full" |
| derived_via | Pattern scan + RIP resolve (disp@+3, insn_len=7) |
| last_verified | 2026-06-17 |
| verified_against | ESP showed 12 entities in a match; entity count matched scoreboard |
WRONG — the kind of "evidence" that's actually nothing:
## entity_list
Found in some function, +0x18 or +0x20, I think? Worked last time I checked.
This will cost you an hour the next time you touch it.
RIGHT — every field present, every claim verifiable:
## E-001 — entity_list
hash 7a3f4d1c..., rva 0x04A2B100, sig "48 8D 0D ?? ...", from CGameWorld::Update,
verified 2026-06-17 against the scoreboard entity count.
The detail level is up to you — a table per entry or a single dense line — but the fields are mandatory.
Why: Three months from now, you will not remember which function you found this in. The patch-day playbook Step 4 (re-sig with near-miss) needs the original derived_via to know what the sig was trying to match. A teammate reviewing your offsets needs xref_source to know where to look themselves. The last_verified date is the brittleness signal (rule #5).
3. Sigs Cite the Disassembly They Were Derived From
A sig alone is a number. A sig with its disassembly context is a hypothesis you can re-derive. When the sig breaks, the disassembly tells you what the instruction was, so you can find what it became in the patched binary.
Format: the sig as a literal, then a small fenced block of the instructions it covers, then a one-line explanation of which bytes are wildcarded and why.
## E-001 — entity_list (sig derivation)
sig: `48 8D 0D ?? ?? ?? ?? E8 ?? ?? ?? ?? 48 8B D8`
Derived from (game.exe v1.42.3, at .text+0x00872F40):
48 8D 0D 5B 80 1B 04 LEA rcx, [rip+0x041B805B] ; -> &g_entity_list
E8 2A 4F 12 00 CALL CGameWorld::Lookup ; ret in rax
48 8B D8 MOV rbx, rax ; save list ptr
Wildcards:
- bytes 3..6 (4-byte RIP disp32 in the LEA — relocatable)
- bytes 8..11 (4-byte CALL target relative disp — relocatable)
Total signature length: 15 bytes.
Unique-match verdict at derivation time: UNIQUE (margin=5).
When this sig later returns 0 after a patch, you have exactly what to look for in the new binary: a LEA rcx, [rip+disp] immediately followed by a CALL and MOV rbx, rax, near the same string xref ("entity_list_full") that originally led you here.
Why: A bare hex string strips out everything you knew when you wrote it. The disassembly preserves the intent: this is the LEA that loads the entity-list pointer into RCX, called immediately. If the compiler changed MOV to LEA in the patch (different opcode, different sig), you still know what to look for.
4. Struct Layouts Cite SDK Header AND In-Memory Verification
Most struct layouts are partially known: some fields come from a community SDK header, others from your own struct dumping, others from guessing. Flag which are which.
When a struct layout is wrong, the bug is silent — your script reads garbage that doesn't crash. The cost of being wrong is high; the cost of citing your source per field is two lines.
## E-004 — CEntity struct layout (partial)
source: `r5sdk/include/game/server/entity.h` (commit 8a4c2e7, fetched 2026-06-10)
in-memory verification: 2026-06-17, walked g_entity_list[0..3] in a live match
| offset | size | field | source | confidence |
|---------|------|---------------|---------------------|------------|
| 0x0000 | 8 | vtable_ptr | SDK header | HIGH |
| 0x0008 | 4 | netvar_id | SDK header | HIGH |
| 0x0040 | 4 | m_iHealth | SDK header | HIGH |
| 0x0044 | 4 | m_iMaxHealth | SDK header | HIGH |
| 0x00F0 | 4 | m_iTeamNum | SDK header | HIGH |
| 0x0170 | 12 | m_vecOrigin | SDK header | HIGH |
| 0x017C | 12 | m_vecVelocity | OBSERVED (struct dump, three entities, values match expected ranges) | MEDIUM |
| 0x0188 | 4 | m_flAimYaw | GUESS (correlated with on-screen view direction) | LOW |
| 0x1234 | 8 | m_pPlayerCtl | GUESS (looks like a pointer; value is within module range) | LOW |
Three confidence tiers, three response policies:
HIGH — SDK-cited or directly observed. Use without ceremony.MEDIUM — observed but not SDK-confirmed. Flag in offsets.em with a one-line comment.LOW — guess. Mark UNVERIFIED per game-cheat-guidelines rule #1. Treat reads as suspect; cross-validate (e.g. compare the supposed m_flAimYaw against the on-screen view direction over 100 frames before trusting it).
When code-reviewing, the question "where did you get this field?" is answered by looking at the table.
Why: Partial-layout bugs are the worst class of RE error. The script "works" — it draws ESP, it reads health, it pulls coords — but one field is wrong and the feature using that field silently produces garbage. Marking confidence per field makes the wrong-field call inspectable instead of invisible.
5. Update the Verified-On Date After Every Successful Run
The age of the last verification is the brittleness signal. A sig last verified six months ago is more suspect than one verified yesterday, even if both are technically "in the log."
The discipline: at the end of any session where the script ran correctly against the live target, walk through the log and bump last_verified for every claim that was actually exercised. Five seconds of editing per session.
## E-001 — entity_list
last_verified: 2026-06-17 ← yesterday, fresh
last_verified: 2026-04-02 ← two months old, recheck before trusting
last_verified: 2025-12-15 ← six months — assume stale; revalidate or re-derive
At code-review time or before a release, sort entries by age:
grep -E '^last_verified:' evidence/*.md | sort -k2 | head -10
The oldest entries are the next ones to verify (or retire if they're no longer used by any feature).
A second related discipline: when you add a NEW claim, also list which claims it depends on. If E-006 is "CEntity::m_pPlayer reads CPlayer at the pointed address" and CPlayer's layout is E-007, then E-006's evidence cites "depends on E-007." When E-007 becomes stale, the dependent claim is suspect too.
Why: Without freshness tracking, every entry has the same epistemic weight, which is wrong. A six-month-old "I verified this once" is closer to a guess than to fresh evidence. Dating gives you a triage signal for free, the cost of which is one date edit per session.
6. Cite Negative Results Too
"Tried sig X, returned 0; tried sig Y, returned 3 hits; settled on sig Z" is data. Future-you debugging a regression needs to know what's already been ruled out.
Most evidence logs record only the successful derivation. The next time the sig breaks and you reach for one of the other candidates you ruled out months ago, you'll re-rule it out again — costing the same hour.
Format: under each entry, a brief "Considered and rejected" subsection.
## E-001 — entity_list
[main entry as above]
### Considered and rejected
- Sig `48 8B 0D ?? ?? ?? ??` (just the MOV form): too short, matched 47 places in .text.
- Hardcoded offset 0x04A2B100: that's the resolved address from THIS binary; will not
survive a patch. Kept as the resolved value but the sig is the canonical source.
- Walking from `CGameWorld::Init` (xref candidate): the init function is in .data
and gets re-inlined per build; brittle xref starting point.
- Reading PEB.LdrData to find a "game module" data segment: technically possible
but adds a per-frame cost we don't want.
The same pattern applies to struct layout dead-ends ("field at +0x180 looked like a vec3 origin but the values were screen-space coords, not world; it's actually the last frame's m_vecOldPosition") and to struct-walking dead-ends ("the second pointer in this list is null in solo play; only populated in team modes — don't use as a liveness check").
Why: Negative results are the second-most-valuable thing in the log after positive ones. A teammate looking at this log can immediately see "ah, the obvious short sig is ambiguous — that's why we have a long one." The cost of recording is one line; the cost of not recording is rediscovery.
Template
Drop-in skeleton for evidence/<hash>.md — copy, fill in:
# Evidence Log — <binary_name> <version>
SHA-256: <full hash>
Module size: <bytes> (.text <start>–<end>)
First verified: <YYYY-MM-DD>
Last verified: <YYYY-MM-DD>
Cross-reference: this file lists entries E-001..E-NNN; each entry's ID is
stable across patches and is referenced from `offsets.em` and `patch-log.md`.
---
## E-001 — <short name matching offsets.em constant>
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | `OFF_X` |
| kind | <RIP-relative pointer / direct address / field offset / sig> |
| rva | <0x...> (resolved from sig hit at <0x...>) |
| sig | `<bytes>` |
| sig_uniqueness | <UNIQUE margin=N / AMBIGUOUS / etc per sig-uniqueness-checker.py> |
| xref_source | <function, string xref, or other anchor> |
| derived_via | <pattern scan + RIP resolve / SDK header / struct dump / xref walk> |
| last_verified | <YYYY-MM-DD> |
| verified_against | <in-game observation that confirmed it works> |
| depends_on | <E-NNN, E-NNN — or "none"> |
Disassembly context (for sigs):
<4-6 lines of asm covering the matched bytes; wildcards explained below>
Wildcards:
- bytes A..B (<what relocatable thing they cover>)
### Considered and rejected
- <alternative sig / approach / source>: <why it didn't pan out>
---
## E-002 — ...
A second template for struct entries:
## E-NNN — <StructName> layout (<partial|complete>)
source: <SDK header path or "self-derived">
in-memory verification: <date>, <how many instances walked>
| offset | size | field | source | confidence |
|--------|------|-------|--------|------------|
| 0x0000 | 8 | vtable_ptr | SDK / observed | HIGH |
| ... | | | | |
### Considered and rejected
- <field-shape alternative>: <why rejected>
Summary
| # | Rule | One-liner |
|---|
| 1 | One file per binary, one entry per claim | Stable IDs (E-NNN) cross-reference offsets.em and patch logs |
| 2 | Cite binary + address + xref + date | Six fields mandatory per entry; vague memory is not evidence |
| 3 | Sigs cite their disassembly | The intent of the sig is the hypothesis you re-derive from |
| 4 | Structs cite source + verification per field | HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW confidence tiers; LOW = UNVERIFIED in code |
| 5 | Update last_verified per successful run | Age is the brittleness signal — six months old is suspect |
| 6 | Cite negative results too | "Tried and rejected" prevents the next person re-deriving the same dead end |
Cross-references: skill://pcx-re-discipline (the discipline rules), skill://pcx-patch-day-playbook (Step 7 writes a per-patch log entry), knowledge/offset-methodology.md (the mechanics being cited), tools/sig-uniqueness-checker.py (produces the sig_uniqueness field value), tools/offset-diff.py (per-patch diff feeds the negative-results section).
