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About Continue
Continue is an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot and Cursor — an AI coding assistant you can run with any model, including local ones via Ollama, directly inside VS Code or JetBrains IDEs. Because it's open source, you control exactly which model handles your code, including keeping everything fully local and private if you choose.
Key Features
- Works inside VS Code and JetBrains IDEs
- Bring your own model — OpenAI, Anthropic, local via Ollama, or others
- Inline autocomplete and chat-based editing
- Custom slash commands and context providers
- Fully open source and self-hostable
Best For
- Wanting Copilot-style autocomplete without vendor lock-in
- Coding fully offline with a local model for sensitive codebases
- Standardizing on a specific model provider for compliance reasons
Pros
- Free and open source (Apache 2.0)
- Model-agnostic — not locked into one AI provider
- Can run entirely offline with local models for full privacy
- Active community and plugin ecosystem
Cons
- Requires more setup than a plug-and-play tool like Copilot
- Quality depends heavily on which model you connect it to
- Smaller ecosystem/integrations than GitHub Copilot
