⚠️ Continue.dev Has Been Discontinued
Continue.dev was acquired by Cursor and shut down in June 2026. The FAQ below is preserved for reference but describes a product that is no longer actively developed. For a current recommendation, see Cline — the closest free, open-source, BYOK replacement. Full details: Continue.dev: What Happened and Where to Go Instead.
Originally published May 2026 · Archived
Continue was an open-source AI coding assistant that ran as a VS Code extension and a JetBrains plugin. It provided tab autocomplete, chat, and codebase-aware assistance — connecting to any AI model you configured. Unlike Cursor or Windsurf, it was not a standalone editor; it plugged into your existing IDE.
Yes. The extension was free and open source (Apache 2.0), BYOK — you paid the model provider directly with no markup. A paid Continue Hub tier existed for team management, but the core extension was free.
VS Code and JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, Rider, and others) — one of its main differentiators, since most AI coding tools only support VS Code. If you're looking for that same JetBrains coverage today in an actively maintained tool, see Best AI Coding Tool for Go, Java, and Kotlin for current options (GitHub Copilot and JetBrains AI Assistant are the mature choices now).
Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, plus native integrations with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Mistral, Ollama (local models), AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, and OpenRouter.
Cursor is a standalone editor with deeply integrated AI. Continue was an extension that added AI to your existing editor, with more model flexibility and IDE choice. For a current comparison of Cursor against active alternatives, see Cursor vs GitHub Copilot or Cursor vs Cline.
Both were free, open-source VS Code extensions. Continue focused on chat and autocomplete with strong JetBrains support; Cline is a fully autonomous agent that edits multiple files and runs terminal commands. Cline is the actively maintained option today — see the Cline Rules guide to get started.
Yes, via Ollama — no data left your machine. For an actively maintained tool with the same local-model architecture today, Cline and Aider both support Ollama. See AI Coding Tools: Privacy & Security Compared for the current landscape.
If you already have it installed with a local config, it may continue to function since the extension hasn't been remotely disabled — but there will be no further updates, security patches, or fixes as model provider APIs change. Do not install it new. See the full shutdown notice and configuration archive: Continue.dev Rules guide.