Continue: Open-Source AI Coding Assistant for IDEs

Continue is an open-source, deeply customizable AI coding companion designed to live inside your IDE rather than a separate browser tab. Built as an extension for VS Code and JetBrains, it functions like a personal autopilot for software development, letting you plug in the AI models and context sources that work best for your workflow instead of locking you into a single provider. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all chatbot, Continue focuses on giving developers full control: connect models like OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, Ollama, Azure OpenAI, Together, or LM Studio, then feed them context from your codebase, documentation, GitLab Issues, Confluence pages, or individual files. The result is a tailored assistant that understands your project and continuously learns from real development data, making suggestions more relevant over time. Whether you're tab-completing boilerplate, chatting about a tricky function, or highlighting a block of code to rewrite with a plain-English instruction, Continue keeps you in flow without leaving your editor. Its open-source nature also means transparency and extensibility for teams who want to adapt the tool to their own stack.

1. Install the Continue extension from the VS Code or JetBrains marketplace. 2. Connect your preferred AI model provider (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama) using your own API keys or local setup. 3. Add context sources such as your codebase, documentation, or Confluence/GitLab Issues. 4. Customize how autocomplete and chat behave to fit your workflow. 5. Use Tab to accept autocomplete suggestions, open chat to ask questions about your code, and highlight sections to edit them using natural language instructions.