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.
About Continue
Continue is an open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains, built around bring-your-own-key and local models.
Its edge is control: Apache-2.0 licensed and fully customizable, with first-class local-model support via Ollama and llama.cpp, and custom slash commands and context providers through simple YAML config.
It's for developers who want to own their setup and run models locally or via their own keys. The trade-offs are honest: onboarding is less polished than Copilot's, it needs manual configuration, and output quality depends entirely on the model you bring.
It's the open, BYOK option where Copilot and Cursor are managed and opinionated.
Sources: continue.dev, this listing
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 →Roo Code
Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code, forked from Cline with multi-mode workflows.
- 02Free →Chatbox
Open-source desktop AI chat client that supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and local models via Ollama.
- 03Freemium →CrewAI
Open-source framework for orchestrating role-playing multi-agent teams in Python.
- 04Free →Cline
Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code, formerly known as Claude Dev.
- 05Free →Aider
Open-source CLI coding agent that pair-programs in your terminal and commits to git automatically.
- 06Freemium →n8n
Open-source workflow automation with native LLM nodes — self-host on your own infrastructure.
Featured in
- 6 Best GitHub Copilot Alternatives in 2026
The strongest GitHub Copilot alternative for agentic work is Cursor — an AI-native editor whose multi-file agent goes further than Copilot's. Windsurf is the other agent-first editor. For free unlimited completion, use Codeium; for open-source, bring-your-own-key control, try Cline, Aider, or Continue. Every option here has a free tier.
- 7 Best Cursor Alternatives in 2026
The closest Cursor alternative is Windsurf — the other AI-native editor, with a multi-step Cascade agent and a more generous free tier. To leave the IDE for a terminal agent, use Claude Code or Aider. For free, open-source, bring-your-own-key tools, try Cline or Continue. Every option here has a free tier.
Related reading
- How to Do Your Own SEO with Claude Code
Claude Code can do most of your SEO — build a crawlable static site, write and optimize pages, fix the technical layer, even bottle the whole workflow into a reusable skill. What it can't do is invent authority or pick keywords, and if you let it generate 10,000 pages you'll get de-indexed, not ranked. Here's the honest, hands-on version for a maker whose site shipped last week.
Read guide → - The Best Vibe Coding Tools
The best vibe-coding tools aren't another AI model — they're the open-source Claude Code repos you stack on top of it. The right ones turn the agent from a fancy autocomplete into a disciplined senior engineer: it plans before it codes, designs properly, maps your codebase, and gets scanned for security. Here are eight worth installing.
Read guide → - How to Build an MVP with AI
You don't start by building. You start by finding the one assumption that would kill the idea, then build the smallest thing that tests it. Here's the full idea-to-deployed workflow from a live AI build session: research the market with ChatGPT, pick a segment on unit economics, have AI write the PRD, then vibe-code and ship with Claude Code — in a couple of hours, not a quarter.
Read guide →
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.
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</a>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.