Is there a way to display a surfaces direction natively in grasshopper without installing an app?
Assuming that by direction you mean Normals: Just get a Normal Vector3d (at some u,v coords) and a Point3d (at same u, v) then use the VectorDisplay comp (or the VectorDisplayEx).
If you Reparam the Surface then u.v values should belong in the 0-1 Interval.
If the Surface is tricky … divide in u.v and get a collection of Vectors.