Continue

Free

continue.dev

Leading open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains enabling developers to connect any local or cloud LLM.

About Continue

Continue is the leading open-source artificial intelligence coding assistant extension designed for Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs. Built on the conviction that developers should have complete ownership and flexibility over their coding companion, Continue allows engineers to connect any local or commercial model—including Ollama, LM Studio, Claude, and GPT-4o—directly inside their code editor.

The extension provides a complete suite of developer-centric AI capabilities, including inline code autocompletion, interactive sidebar chat with contextual codebase awareness, automated refactoring, and natural language terminal command generation. Continue allows developers to @mention specific files, Git diffs, documentation websites, and terminal outputs to provide precise context to the model.

Continue is 100% free and open-source software under the Apache 2.0 license, available directly on the VS Code Marketplace and JetBrains Marketplace. With zero proprietary lock-in and support for offline local inference, it has become the preferred AI coding assistant for security-conscious enterprise engineering teams.

Key Features

Core capabilities and technical highlights of Continue

Open architecture supporting any LLM provider including Ollama, LM Studio, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Groq.

Inline code autocomplete engine providing fast, tab-completion suggestions as developers write code.

Context provider system enabling developers to @mention files, folders, docs, and git diffs in chat prompts.

100% open-source Apache 2.0 codebase ensuring complete privacy, zero telemetry, and full customizability.

Popular Use Cases

How teams, developers, and creators get value from Continue

1Receive real-time inline code completions while coding in VS Code powered by private local Ollama models.

2Highlight complex code blocks and ask the AI assistant to refactor them, add comments, or write unit tests.

3Reference specific files, terminal outputs, and Git diffs in chat using `@` context mentions to solve tricky bugs.

4Generate complex bash and terminal shell commands from natural language instructions directly inside the IDE.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions and answers regarding Continue

Is Continue free to use?

Yes, Continue is 100% free and open-source software under the Apache 2.0 license, with no fees or feature paywalls.

Which code editors support Continue?

Continue is available as an extension for Visual Studio Code, VS Code forks (like VSCodium), and JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm).

Can Continue run completely offline?

Yes, when connected to a local LLM server like Ollama or LM Studio, Continue operates entirely offline with zero code sent to external servers.

How does Continue compare to GitHub Copilot?

Unlike Copilot which is closed-source and locks you into OpenAI models, Continue is fully open-source and lets you choose any model provider or local model.

What are Context Providers in Continue?

Context Providers let you type `@` in the chat to easily attach relevant code files, terminal commands, web docs, or git history to your prompts.