Continue

Overview

Continue is a powerful, open-source AI code assistant designed to seamlessly integrate directly into your preferred development environment. Currently available as an extension for Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs, it aims to revolutionize how developers interact with their codebase by bringing advanced AI capabilities right to their fingertips. Whether you are a seasoned software engineer looking to speed up your workflow or a beginner trying to understand complex logic, Continue provides a versatile toolkit without forcing you to break your concentration by switching to an external browser window.

At its core, Continue functions as an interactive coding companion that lives inside your editor. It leverages the power of large language models (LLMs) to provide real-time, context-aware assistance. One of the tool’s most compelling features is its compatibility with open-source LLMs facilitated through Ollama. This means you can run state-of-the-art models locally on your own machine. This local execution capability is a massive advantage for developers working with sensitive proprietary information, as it guarantees that no code snippets or contextual data are ever transmitted to external servers, ensuring complete privacy and data security.

The practical use cases for Continue are extensive and cater to the everyday needs of a developer. For instance, if you are dealing with a dense and undocumented code segment, you can simply highlight the text and ask Continue to explain the logic. If you need to scaffold a new feature or write a tricky utility function, the assistant can generate accurate code snippets based on the surrounding context of your project. Furthermore, it excels at refactoring existing code, suggesting optimizations, and instantly answering specific coding questions. By handling these tasks directly in-editor, Continue drastically reduces cognitive friction and keeps you in the zone.

However, it is important to acknowledge the trade-offs associated with a highly customizable, open-source tool. Because Continue relies on external applications like Ollama to manage and run the LLMs, the initial setup and configuration can be somewhat daunting. Users must manually download, configure, and manage these models, which requires a basic understanding of terminal commands and local compute resources. Despite this setup curve, the overarching benefits are hard to ignore. Continue is entirely free to use, offers exceptional integration with the world's most popular IDEs, and empowers developers to take full control of their AI coding experience. For anyone willing to tinker with local models, it stands out as an indispensable, privacy-first code assistant.

Screenshot

Core Features

• Open-source AI coding assistant
• Integration with Visual Studio Code and JetBrains
• Support for open-source LLMs through Ollama
• Direct in-editor code generation and assistance

Use Cases

• Generating code snippets based on context
• Explaining complex code segments
• Refactoring existing code
• Answering coding questions without leaving the IDE

Pricing

Continue is an open-source tool and is completely free to use.

Pros

• Entirely open-source and free
• Seamless integration with popular IDEs
• Allows local execution of models for privacy using Ollama

Cons

• Requires manual setup and configuration of Ollama and LLMs

Frequently Asked Questions

Summarized from the official site: https://ollama.com/blog/continue-code-assistant

Is Continue free to use?

Yes, Continue is entirely free to use. It is an open-source AI code assistant that provides a versatile toolkit for developers without any cost.

Is Continue open source?

Yes, Continue is an open-source tool. Being highly customizable, its source code is openly available to empower developers to take full control of their AI coding experience.

Which IDEs are compatible with Continue?

Continue is currently available as an extension for Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs. This allows it to seamlessly integrate directly into your preferred development environment.

Can I run local LLMs privately with Continue for sensitive code?

Yes, you can run models locally using Ollama to ensure complete privacy and data security. This guarantees that your sensitive proprietary code and contextual data are never transmitted to external servers.

What can Continue help me with inside my code editor?

Continue provides direct in-editor assistance such as explaining complex code segments, generating code snippets based on context, and refactoring existing code. This drastically reduces cognitive friction by handling these everyday tasks without making you switch to an external browser.