4 Tools Every Developer Should Have on Their Radar: AI, Local Models and Security

The way we code changed more in the last two years than in the previous decade: assistants that complete code, agents that edit entire projects and models that run on your own machine. These are four tools and references worth having on your radar if you code, verified on their official sites.

1. GitHub Copilot Free: AI autocomplete without paying

GitHub Copilot has a free plan with up to 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests per month, according to its plans page. For heavy use, the Pro plan costs USD 10 per month. It is the simplest way to try AI-assisted coding inside your editor.

2. Claude Code: an agent that works in your repository

Claude Code, by Anthropic, is an agentic coding tool: it reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and integrates with your development tools, according to its documentation. It works in the terminal, in VS Code and JetBrains extensions, in a desktop app and in the browser. Most surfaces require a Claude subscription or an Anthropic Console account.

3. Ollama: language models on your own machine

Ollama lets you run language models locally — including Gemma, Qwen, DeepSeek and gpt-oss — with a REST API and command line. It is open source under the MIT license and runs on macOS, Windows, Linux and Docker, according to its official repository. Useful for prototyping with no per-use cost or when data must not leave your machine.

4. OWASP Top 10: the security minimum every developer should know

The OWASP Top 10 is "the reference standard for the most critical web application security risks", maintained by the nonprofit OWASP foundation, whose resources are free and open. The current edition is 2025. With AI writing more and more code, knowing how to review it with a security mindset matters more, not less.

How to get the most out of them

• Review everything the AI generates as you would a new teammate's code: tests, edge cases and security.
• Do not paste secrets (keys, tokens, customer data) into cloud tools without checking their terms.
• Combine them: an in-editor assistant for daily work, an agent for long tasks and a local model for sensitive work.

How We Approach It at SimCodec

At SimCodec we use these tools daily to build custom software, integrations and AI agents for companies, always with human review and testing before production. If you are looking for a team to build with you, write to us or call Cyntia at +593 99 726 6838.