vav

Watch the agent work.

Local coding workstation — tools, files, and terminal on your machine.

Download Source

Built for how agents work

Not a chat box with a file picker — five habits of a real workstation, each shown as it runs.

01

Ask & edit

Open a file in its own pane — mind map, diagram, sheet, or deck — and ask beside it. Select what matters, get an answer grounded in the file, edit without leaving the window.

Preview + agent share one surface. The file stays the source of truth.

vav mind map file with agent asking about priorities
02

Agent + filesystem

The agent reads, searches, and writes real paths on disk. Tool cards show every step — Read, search, Write — so you watch the change land in the repo you already have open.

Not a hypothetical plan. A write that hits src/… on your machine.

vav agent reading, searching, and writing project files with tool cards
03

⌘⇧↵ quick ask

From anywhere on your Mac, ⌘⇧↵ pops a floating session. Ask one thing — a path join, a regex, a naming call — get the answer, close it. No full workspace ceremony.

Built for the interrupt: short, local, done.

vav floating quick-ask session
04

Skills on disk

Load a skill, then write the artifact into the project — a one-page PDF report, a deck tweak, a sheet change. The tool trail stays in the transcript.

load_skill → Write file — from chat to a real path.

vav agent loading the PDF skill and writing docs/ops-q3.pdf
05

Bash agent

Sticky PTY tabs under the chat — the agent can drive real shell commands while you keep the same terminal. Run, inspect, approve; you stay in control.

Same cwd as the session. Same shell you already trust. Folder dock sits beside the terminal when you need the tree.

vav chat with sticky bash terminal and folder dock below

Open any document window

PDF, decks, sheets, Markdown — preview on one side, agent on the other.

vav PDF window with summary and Mermaid
PDF Stand-up summary from the brief, then a Mermaid follow-up flow — same window, same turn.
vav PowerPoint window with edit tool calls
PPTX Load a deck skill, rename a slide, tighten bullets — tool cards show every write.
vav CSV window with Vega-Lite and PDF report
CSV / TSV Ask over the sheet, get Vega-Lite in chat, write a one-page PDF report to disk.
vav Excel window with agent editing
DOCX / XLSX Skill-backed edits on workbooks and briefs — add a column, refresh, stay in the window.
vav Markdown window with read and write tools
Markdown Read the notes, rewrite install steps — every fs_read / fs_write stays auditable in the transcript.
vav chat with Mermaid diagram and Vega-Lite chart
Charts in chat Mermaid flows and Vega-Lite plots render inline — copy, download, keep moving.

Format knowledge

What each type can do in a document window — preview, ask beside it, edit in place, or convert first. Capabilities match the app, not a wish list.

Format Capabilities Notes
.docx Word (OOXML)
Preview Ask Edit Skill

Opens in Read by default; switch to Edit or use the docx skill to write the open path.

.doc Word (legacy)
Preview Ask Convert Read-only

Preview via convert to DOCX/HTML (macOS). Edit means Convert → Save As .docx; original stays put.

.xlsx Excel (OOXML)
Preview Ask Edit Skill

Sheet preview + agent edits through the xlsx skill on the same workbook path.

.xls Excel (legacy)
Preview Ask Convert Read-only

Opens in the spreadsheet preview. To edit, Convert → Save As .xlsx; original untouched.

.pptx PowerPoint (OOXML)
Preview Ask Edit Skill

Slide canvas + pptx skill for renames, bullets, and deck writes.

.ppt PowerPoint (legacy)
Read-only Convert

No built-in .ppt converter. Export to .pptx first, or open with the system default app.

.pdf PDF
Preview Ask Read-only Skill

Preview and ask only in the window. Create, fill, or reformat via the PDF skill to a new path.

.csv .tsv Tables
Preview Ask Edit

Grid preview, charts in chat, direct text writes back to the sheet.

.md .txt Markdown & text
Preview Ask Edit

Full in-place edit; agent fs_read / fs_write on the open file.

.mm .mmd Mind maps & diagrams
Preview Ask Edit

Rendered canvas with pick-to-ask; source stays editable text on disk.

.heic HEIC image
Preview Convert Read-only

View in-app; Edit converts to JPEG via Save As. Original HEIC unchanged.

.zip ZIP archive
Preview Read-only

Structure preview only — not a full archive utility.

Get vav

Latest GitHub Release builds. Follow install notes if your OS warns on open.

macOS · Apple Silicon Windows · x64 Install notes

From a terminal, vav . opens a session in the current directory (Settings → vav command).