AI Coding

If you're tired of being told which model to use, which IDE to live in, and which subscription to pay for, Continue.dev is the antidote. Open source, model-agnostic, and stupidly configurable.

The Setup

Continue ships as a VS Code or JetBrains extension. The whole thing is driven by a config.yaml file you commit to your repo, so every dev on the team gets the same setup. Switch models per task. Mix providers. Run a local model for autocomplete and a frontier model for chat.

name: aidxn-design
version: 1.0.0

models:
  - name: Claude Sonnet
    provider: anthropic
    model: claude-sonnet-4
    apiKey: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
    roles: [chat, edit]

  - name: Local Autocomplete
    provider: ollama
    model: qwen2.5-coder:7b
    roles: [autocomplete]

context:
  - provider: codebase
  - provider: docs
    params:
      sites:
        - https://docs.astro.build
        - https://supabase.com/docs

rules:
  - Stack is Astro 5 + Supabase + Tailwind 4
  - Forms: React Hook Form + Zod
  - Never edit globals.css

The Money Pattern

Local autocomplete + frontier chat is the dream combo. Qwen2.5 Coder running on my M4 Mac handles every keystroke completion for free. Claude only fires when I open the chat for the hard stuff. Token bill dropped by 80% the week I switched.

The custom context providers are the other unlock. Point Continue at your own docs, your Notion, your Supabase schema — it embeds them and uses them as context for chat. Suddenly your AI knows your business, not just your code.

The Catch

Setup is heavier than Cursor. You need to wire API keys, pick models, possibly install Ollama. For a junior dev who just wants to autocomplete, this is friction. For a senior who wants control, it's freedom.

The Plan/Act-style agent mode is still less polished than Cline or Roo. Continue is best as a chat + edit + autocomplete tool, not a full autonomous agent.

The Verdict

Continue.dev is what every team using a closed-source AI IDE should be running. Open source, customizable, BYO model. Pair it with a local autocomplete and you stop being a tenant in someone else's product. You own the stack again.