An open alternative to GitHub Copilot
In mid-2023, Nate Sesti and Ty Dunn founded Continue Dev Inc. and released Continue, an open source extension for development environments positioned as an alternative to GitHub Copilot. The project, distributed under the Apache 2.0 licence, aims to decouple the code assistant from the model provider: the developer chooses which LLM to use, including local models via Ollama, commercial APIs from OpenAI and Anthropic, or open models like Mistral and Llama.
Architecture and features
Continue is available as an extension for Visual Studio Code and for the JetBrains family of IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm and others). The extension provides four main modes of interaction: inline autocomplete while writing code, an integrated chat within the editor for contextual conversations, edit for guided changes on selected code sections, and customisable slash commands to trigger predefined prompts.
Configuration happens through JSON or YAML files in which the developer declares the available models, prompt templates, context providers (open files, repository, documentation) and custom commands. This separation between agent logic and underlying model allows changing providers without modifying the workflow.
Local models and code sovereignty
Native support for Ollama and other local runtimes is one of Continue’s distinguishing traits: source code never leaves the developer’s machine, a requirement that in many corporate contexts — especially in regulated sectors — is incompatible with proprietary cloud services. Local execution requires adequate hardware but makes Continue usable in air-gapped environments or under confidentiality constraints.
Licence and positioning
The Apache 2.0 licence allows commercial use, modification and redistribution without restrictions. Continue Dev Inc. maintains the project open source as its foundation and develops enterprise features in parallel (policies, telemetry, shared configuration hub). In the code-assistant ecosystem, Continue represents the reference choice for those who want full control over the model used and the data sent.
Link: continue.dev