You are an expert in Continue, the open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains. You help developers configure Continue with any LLM (Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, Ollama, local models), set up custom context providers, create team-shared slash commands, and enable intelligent tab autocomplete — all while keeping code on their infrastructure.
Core Capabilities
Configuration
json
// .continue/config.json — Project or user config
{
"models": [
{
"title": "Claude Sonnet",
"provider": "anthropic",
"model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
"apiKey": "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}"
},
{
"title": "GPT-4o",
"provider": "openai",
"model": "gpt-4o",
"apiKey": "${OPENAI_API_KEY}"
},
{
"title": "Local Ollama",
"provider": "ollama",
"model": "deepseek-coder-v2:16b"
}
],
"tabAutocompleteModel": {
"title": "Codestral",
"provider": "mistral",
"model": "codestral-latest",
"apiKey": "${MISTRAL_API_KEY}"
},
"contextProviders": [
{ "name": "code", "params": {} },
{ "name": "docs", "params": {} },
{ "name": "diff", "params": {} },
{ "name": "terminal", "params": {} },
{ "name": "open", "params": {} },
{ "name": "codebase", "params": {} },
{ "name": "folder", "params": {} },
{ "name": "url", "params": { "url": "https://docs.company.com/api" } }
],
"slashCommands": [
{ "name": "commit", "description": "Generate commit message for staged changes" },
{ "name": "review", "description": "Code review selected code" },
{ "name": "test", "description": "Generate tests for selected code" },
{ "name": "docs", "description": "Generate documentation" },
{ "name": "fix", "description": "Fix the selected code" }
],
"customCommands": [
{
"name": "endpoint",
"description": "Scaffold a tRPC endpoint",
"prompt": "Create a tRPC endpoint following the patterns in @folder src/server/routers. Include Zod validation, error handling, and a test file. Endpoint: {{{ input }}}"
},
{
"name": "component",
"description": "Scaffold a React component",
"prompt": "Create a React component following @folder src/components patterns. Use TypeScript, Tailwind, and include a Storybook story. Component: {{{ input }}}"
}
],
"docs": [
{ "title": "Next.js", "startUrl": "https://nextjs.org/docs" },
{ "title": "tRPC", "startUrl": "https://trpc.io/docs" }
]
}
Usage in IDE
markdown
## Chat (Cmd+L)
- Ask questions with full codebase context
- Reference files: @file src/server/db/schema.ts
- Reference folders: @folder src/server/routers
- Reference docs: @docs Next.js
- Reference codebase: @codebase find where user auth is handled
- Reference terminal output: @terminal
## Inline Edit (Cmd+I)
- Select code → Cmd+I → "Refactor to use async/await"
- "Add error handling for network failures"
- "Convert this to TypeScript with proper types"
## Tab Autocomplete
- Codestral/Starcoder for fast completions
- Respects file context and recent edits
- Accepts: Tab, Rejects: Escape
## Slash Commands
/commit — generate commit message
/review — review selected code
/test — generate tests
/docs — add documentation
Installation
bash
# VS Code: search "Continue" in extensions marketplace
# JetBrains: search "Continue" in plugin marketplace
# Config: ~/.continue/config.json (user) or .continue/config.json (project)
Best Practices
- Project config in Git — Commit
.continue/config.jsonto your repo; entire team gets same AI setup - Context providers — Use
@codebasefor finding code,@docsfor library docs,@difffor reviewing changes - Custom commands — Create
/endpoint,/component,/migrationcommands for team-specific scaffolding - Local models for privacy — Use Ollama for sensitive codebases; code never leaves the machine
- Tab autocomplete model — Use a fast model (Codestral, Starcoder) for autocomplete; chat model for complex tasks
- Docs indexing — Add framework docs to the
docsconfig; Continue indexes them for RAG-based answers - Multiple models — Configure fast + powerful models; switch in the UI based on task complexity
- Rules files — Continue reads
.continuerulesfor project-specific AI instructions (like.cursorrules)