Navy AI Coder
An autonomous AI coding assistant for VS Code. Navy works with any AI provider — local or cloud — to read your project, edit files, run commands, search the web, and manage dev servers, all with your approval before anything touches disk.
Preview release — core features are stable. Report bugs at github.com/zrnge/navy-coder/issues.
Features
- Agentic tool loop — Navy reads files, searches the codebase, runs commands, and applies edits autonomously until the task is done
- Diff approval gate — every file change is shown as a side-by-side diff; you approve or reject before it's written
- 11 AI providers — Ollama, LM Studio, OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, DeepSeek, Google Gemini, xAI Grok, z.ai, Groq, OpenRouter, and any custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint
- Per-provider API keys — switch providers without losing other keys
- Web search — built-in search via DuckDuckGo (no key needed), Brave Search, or Tavily
- Dev server management — start, monitor, and stop your dev server from the chat
- Git integration — status, diff, log, and blame tools available to the agent
- Inline completions — ghost-text suggestions as you type (opt-in, uses the active provider)
- Undo — revert the last edit or the entire last turn with one click
- Code Lens — "Ask Navy" buttons above functions in the editor
Installation
From the VS Code Marketplace (recommended)
Search for Navy AI Coder in the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X) and click Install.
From a VSIX file
- Download the
.vsix from the Releases page
- Open the Extensions panel, click
··· → Install from VSIX…, and select the file
Quick Start
Local model (Ollama — no API key needed)
- Install Ollama and pull a model:
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b
- Open VS Code, click the Navy anchor icon in the activity bar
- The provider defaults to Ollama — start chatting
Cloud provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
- Open the Navy sidebar and click the Settings gear
- Set Provider to your provider (e.g.
openai)
- Paste your API key — it's stored in VS Code's encrypted secrets, never on disk
- Set the Model (e.g.
gpt-4o, claude-sonnet-4-6, deepseek-coder)
- Start chatting
Providers
| Provider |
Key required |
Notes |
| Ollama |
No |
Local; set navy.host to your Ollama URL |
| LM Studio |
No |
Local OpenAI-compatible at http://localhost:1234 |
| OpenAI |
Yes |
GPT-4o, o3, etc. |
| Anthropic |
Yes |
Claude Sonnet, Haiku, Opus |
| DeepSeek |
Yes |
deepseek-coder, deepseek-chat |
| Google Gemini |
Yes |
gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-2.5-flash |
| xAI |
Yes |
Grok models |
| z.ai |
Yes |
z.ai models |
| Groq |
Yes |
Fast inference; llama, mixtral, etc. |
| OpenRouter |
Yes |
Routes to 100+ models |
| Custom |
Optional |
Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint; set navy.apiBase |
What the Agent Can Do
Navy runs an autonomous loop with these tools:
| Category |
Tools |
| Files |
Read, write, edit lines, apply surgical edits, delete |
| Search |
Search files by text/regex, search codebase with context |
| Shell |
Run commands, run tests (auto-detected), start/stop background processes |
| Web |
Web search (Brave / Tavily / DuckDuckGo), fetch any URL |
| Git |
Status, diff, log, blame |
| VS Code |
Get LSP diagnostics, read terminal output |
| Memory |
Remember project facts across sessions |
Settings
Open via File → Preferences → Settings and search for navy, or click the gear icon in the Navy sidebar.
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
navy.provider |
ollama |
AI provider: ollama, lmstudio, openai, anthropic, deepseek, gemini, xai, zai, groq, openrouter, custom |
navy.model |
kimi-k2.7-code:cloud |
Model name to use (e.g. gpt-4o, claude-sonnet-4-6, llama3.2) |
navy.host |
http://localhost:11434 |
Base URL for Ollama or LM Studio |
navy.apiBase |
(empty) |
API URL override for custom or self-hosted providers |
navy.temperature |
0.2 |
Sampling temperature (0 = deterministic, 2 = creative) |
navy.approvalMode |
ask-always |
ask-always shows a diff before every write; auto-approve writes immediately |
navy.editFormat |
search-replace |
search-replace for surgical edits; whole-file to rewrite the entire file |
navy.maxToolIterations |
50 |
Maximum agent loop iterations per turn |
navy.searchApiKey |
(empty) |
Web search key: Tavily (tvly-…) or Brave. Empty = DuckDuckGo (free) |
navy.inlineCompletions |
false |
Enable ghost-text completions as you type (uses the active provider) |
navy.codeLens |
true |
Show "Ask Navy" buttons above functions in the editor |
navy.systemPrompt |
(empty) |
Custom system prompt prepended to every conversation |
navy.maxContextChars |
12000 |
Max characters of active file/selection sent as context |
navy.projectRoot |
(empty) |
Override the project root directory (defaults to first workspace folder) |
API keys are not stored in settings — they are stored in VS Code's encrypted secrets store (same as your GitHub token). Set them via the Navy sidebar's Settings panel.
Commands & Keybindings
| Command |
Shortcut (Win/Linux) |
Shortcut (Mac) |
| Focus Chat |
Ctrl+Shift+O |
Cmd+Shift+O |
| Inline Edit Selection |
Ctrl+Shift+E |
Cmd+Shift+E |
| Undo Last Turn |
Ctrl+Shift+Z |
Cmd+Shift+Z |
| Generate Commit Message |
Ctrl+Shift+G |
Cmd+Shift+G |
| Run Tests |
Ctrl+Shift+T |
Cmd+Shift+T |
| Clear Chat |
Ctrl+Shift+K |
Cmd+Shift+K |
| Insert Last Reply |
Ctrl+Shift+I |
Cmd+Shift+I |
All commands are also accessible via the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) — search Navy.
Privacy
- Your code is sent to whichever AI provider you configure. With Ollama or LM Studio, everything stays local.
- API keys are stored in VS Code's OS keychain — never written to disk or sent anywhere except the configured provider.
- Navy has no telemetry.
License
MIT — see LICENSE
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