Continue.dev 1.0 graduates from beta as open-source AI coding extension

Continue.dev has shipped version 1.0, moving out of beta as a fully open-source AI coding extension for popular editors. The release gives developers a way to add autocomplete, chat, and inline code editing to their existing workflow without switching to a separate proprietary IDE.

The project works with both VS Code and JetBrains editors, which covers a large share of professional software teams. According to Continue.dev, the extension is designed to plug into the editor people already use, rather than forcing them into a new environment just to get AI help.

That matters because AI coding tools have split into two broad camps. Some are built as closed products with their own interfaces and subscription plans, while others are extensions that sit inside established development tools. Continue.dev is positioning itself firmly in the second group, and it is doing so with open-source code that users can inspect, modify, and self-host.

The extension’s core features are the same ones most developers now expect from AI coding tools: autocomplete for finishing lines or blocks of code, a chat interface for asking questions about the codebase, and inline editing for changing code directly in the file you are working on. In practice, that makes it useful for writing new code, understanding unfamiliar projects, and making small refactors without bouncing between tools.

A key part of Continue.dev’s pitch is model flexibility. The extension can connect to different model backends, so teams are not locked into a single AI provider. That is a significant difference from products tied to one company’s hosted service, because it lets organizations choose models based on cost, privacy, latency, or internal policy.

One of the most notable options is local model support through Ollama, a tool that runs large language models on a user’s own machine or server. For teams that want to keep code and prompts in-house, that is an obvious draw. It also makes Continue.dev a candidate for air-gapped or restricted environments where cloud-based assistants are harder to approve.

This flexibility is part of why open-source developer tools continue to gain traction. Many teams are comfortable using AI assistance, but they do not want the toolchain to depend on a single vendor or require every code query to leave their environment. Continue.dev’s 1.0 release is aimed at that audience, with support for local deployment and third-party model connections built into the product rather than bolted on later.

The timing also puts Continue.dev more directly in the same conversation as products like Cursor and GitHub Copilot, which have become the default references for AI-assisted coding. Those tools are widely used, but they are also tied to commercial pricing and provider-controlled infrastructure. Continue.dev is offering an alternative path, one where the editor extension itself is open source and the model choice stays in the user’s hands.

With the beta label now dropped, the project is signaling that the extension has reached a more stable and supported stage. The release centers on the same basic workflow developers already know, while making the backend and deployment model much more open-ended than the mainstream subscription tools.