Capability · Framework — agents

Continue.dev

Continue is the leading open-source AI IDE extension. Where Cursor is a fork of VS Code and Copilot is locked to OpenAI/GitHub, Continue plugs into vanilla VS Code or JetBrains and lets teams pick their own models, context providers, and tools via a config file. The 'Continue Hub' adds shared team configs and assistant templates, and its MCP and agent modes make it a full Copilot replacement for most workflows.

Framework facts

Category: agents
Language: TypeScript
License: Apache 2.0
Repository: https://github.com/continuedev/continue

Install

# VS Code Marketplace: search for 'Continue'
# Or JetBrains plugin marketplace
# CLI install:
code --install-extension Continue.continue

Quickstart

# ~/.continue/config.yaml
models:
  - name: Claude Opus 4.7
    provider: anthropic
    model: claude-opus-4-7
    apiKey: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
  - name: Local Llama
    provider: ollama
    model: llama3.1:8b

contextProviders:
  - provider: codebase
  - provider: docs

Alternatives

Cursor — full IDE fork
GitHub Copilot — proprietary, OpenAI-only
Cline — VS Code-only agent
Aider — terminal alternative

Frequently asked questions

Why use Continue over Cursor?

Cursor is a polished product but is a closed, separate IDE. Continue keeps you in your familiar VS Code/JetBrains setup and is fully open-source, which matters for companies that can't send code to third parties or want to mandate local models.

Does autocomplete work with local models?

Yes — Continue supports Ollama / vLLM / any OpenAI-compatible endpoint for both chat and tab-complete. Qwen 2.5 Coder 7B and DeepSeek-Coder-V2-Lite give usable local autocomplete on modern laptops.

Sources

Continue — docs — accessed 2026-04-20
Continue on GitHub — accessed 2026-04-20