Continue
Open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains, with full BYOK and local-model support.
Continue is an open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains, with full BYOK and local-model support. Apache 2.0 licensed and fully self-customisable.
What it does well
- Apache 2.0 licensed and fully self-customisable.
- First-class support for local models via Ollama and llama.cpp.
- Custom slash commands and context providers via simple YAML config.
Where it falls short
- Requires manual configuration — less polished onboarding than Copilot.
- Quality depends entirely on the model you bring.
Tagged
- Bring Your Own Key
- Supports Claude
- Supports GPT
- Supports Local Models
- VS Code Extension
- JetBrains Plugin
- MCP Support
- Free
- Open Source
Compared with similar things
Picked by shared tags inside the Code Completion.
- 01Free →Cline
Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code, formerly known as Claude Dev.
- 02Free →Aider
Open-source CLI coding agent that pair-programs in your terminal and commits to git automatically.
- 03Freemium →Msty
Desktop AI chat app that connects to Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, and any custom endpoint with one interface.
- 04Free →Open WebUI
Self-hostable web UI for Ollama and OpenAI-compatible endpoints — feels like ChatGPT, runs on your own server.
- 05Freemium →Skyvern
LLM-powered browser automation that handles forms, captchas, and multi-page flows reliably.
- 06Freemium →OpenHands
Open-source autonomous coding agent platform, formerly OpenDevin, by All Hands AI.
Concepts you should know
- Code completion
The category of AI assistance that suggests next tokens, lines, or short blocks of code inside an existing editor. Implemented as IDE extensions; characterised by low-latency, model-server architecture and per-keystroke suggestions.
- Embedding
A fixed-length vector of floating-point numbers that represents the semantic meaning of a piece of text, image, or other input. Used for similarity search, clustering, and retrieval. Common embedding models output 768 to 3072 dimensions.
- Inline edit
An editing mode where the user selects a range of code, describes a change in natural language, and the AI rewrites the selection in place. Popularised by Cursor as "Cmd+K". Sits between tab completion and full agent mode.
- MCP
Model Context Protocol — an open protocol introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 that lets LLM clients (editors, agents, assistants) connect to external tools and data sources through a standard JSON-RPC interface.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Continue?
- Continue is an open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains, with full BYOK and local-model support.
- Is Continue free?
- Continue is free to use. There is no paid tier as of the last index update.
- What platforms does Continue support?
- Continue runs on vscode-ext, jetbrains-plugin.
- What category does Continue belong to?
- Continue is in the Code Completion category — Inline AI suggestion extensions for existing IDEs — Copilot-style autocomplete, low-latency model servers, BYOK.
- What are the downsides of Continue?
- Requires manual configuration — less polished onboarding than Copilot. Quality depends entirely on the model you bring.