A former CS student built GitNav, a Chrome extension designed to cut through the confusion of exploring new GitHub repositories. Faced with overwhelming codebases and missing documentation, the developer created a tool that analyzes a project in seconds, providing a clear, high-level view before a developer writes a single line of code.

The extension visualizes repository structure as an interactive graph, identifies used technologies, and evaluates codebase health. It also scans for potential security issues, breaks down dependencies, and highlights critical files to read first. The goal is to reduce friction for students and developers reviewing unfamiliar open-source projects.

Privacy is a core feature; GitNav runs entirely locally in the browser without collecting user data or using backend servers. The tool is free and open-source. It answers a simple question for anyone with limited time: where should you start when trying to understand a new codebase?