What is Continue used for?

Continue is an open-source coding agent for the command line, VS Code and JetBrains; the repository is now read-only and no longer maintained. It is a good fit for studying the code of an AI coding assistant and forking a coding agent as a starting point.

Is Continue open source?

Yes. Continue is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at continuedev/continue and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Yes. Continue is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What is Continue an alternative to?

Continue is an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code and Amazon Q Developer. Other open-source alternatives to GitHub Copilot include Kilo Code, Aider and Cline.

Is Continue actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Continue was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.0.0-vscode, published on 19 June 2026. The project has 36k stars on GitHub.

Continue: open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot, Cursor

About Continue

Continue is an open-source coding agent that was offered as a command-line tool, a VS Code extension and a JetBrains plugin. It is written in TypeScript and released under the Apache-2.0 license. According to the README, the project's GitHub repository has stopped receiving active maintenance and is now read-only, so new features and fixes should not be expected from it.

The team shipped a final 2.0.0 release for the VS Code extension, the CLI and the JetBrains plugin. That release removed anonymous telemetry and authentication, and fixed a batch of bugs. The maintainers recommend the CLI over the JetBrains plugin, and they point to the documentation for configuration and customization. The project describes the codebase as a foundation that others can build on, which makes it relevant as reference code more than as an actively developed product.

Key features

Agent-style assistant usable from a terminal CLI
VS Code extension and JetBrains plugin
Configurable through project documentation
Final release removed telemetry and authentication
Apache-2.0 codebase open for reuse
Repository archived as read-only

Good fit for

→Studying the code of an AI coding assistant
→Forking a coding agent as a starting point

Built with: TypeScript
Tags: coding-agent; ai; developer-tools; vscode; jetbrains; cli; typescript; archived

Continue: questions and answers

What is Continue used for?: Continue is an open-source coding agent for the command line, VS Code and JetBrains; the repository is now read-only and no longer maintained. It is a good fit for studying the code of an AI coding assistant and forking a coding agent as a starting point.
Is Continue open source?: Yes. Continue is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at continuedev/continue and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Continue free?: Yes. Continue is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What is Continue an alternative to?: Continue is an open-source alternative to GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code and Amazon Q Developer. Other open-source alternatives to GitHub Copilot include Kilo Code, Aider and Cline.
Is Continue actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Continue was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.0.0-vscode, published on 19 June 2026. The project has 36k stars on GitHub.