Continue's open-source coding assistant remains available for VS Code, JetBrains and the terminal after its acquisition by Cursor. Its original repository is no longer actively maintained.
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Continue is an open-source AI coding assistant acquired by Cursor. Its original repository is no longer actively maintained and is read-only for all users. The acquisition notice says the open-source codebase remains freely available as a foundation for others. Its retained documentation describes a coding agent used through VS Code, JetBrains and a terminal interface.
Continue separates three modes: Chat has no tools, Plan has read-only tools, and Agent has tools for making changes. The choice determines whether a conversation can explore the codebase or act on it.
Continue documents separate model roles for chat, edit, apply, autocomplete, embedding and reranking. Different roles can use different models: conversational help, code transformation, targeted application and semantic retrieval need not share one configuration.
The retained Edit workflow works on a selected section of a file and presents changes for review:
Continue CLI is documented as a terminal coding agent called cn, able to edit files, run commands and work through multi-step tasks. Interactive mode accepts messages, file references with @, tool approvals and further conversation. Headless mode runs a prompt to completion and prints the response to standard output, with scripts, CI/CD and Git hooks listed as applications.
The CLI's documented controls include --readonly for read-only tools, --allow for selected tools, --exclude for excluded tools and --auto for all tools without prompting. Those flags define materially different execution permissions. A headless invocation and an interactive session can therefore have different approval behavior even when they address the same codebase.
The retained CLI quickstart includes Continue login and direct Anthropic API-key instructions. The final-release README separately says authentication was removed. These different surfaces do not establish that the old login, hosted assistants or account-based configuration still function.
The tutorial lists code review, debugging help, learning new concepts and brainstorming complex solutions as Chat use cases. Selected code and explicit file context can support a discussion without authorizing filesystem changes. These are model-assisted conversations, not independently validated reviews.
Edit is specifically positioned for small changes such as writing comments, generating unit tests and refactoring functions or methods. The selected range defines the immediate task; an inline diff exposes the proposed result for acceptance or rejection.
Continue supports multiple model providers for different tasks and documents self-hosted providers. It fits developers who want to choose the endpoint and model role and can manage credentials, hosting and capability matching.
.continue/rules, can be edited in the filesystem and version controlled alongside code.Continue's retained interfaces are the VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin and CLI. The final-release README describes a final 2.0.0 release covering all three and says that work included removing anonymous telemetry, pulling out authentication and fixing bugs. These release statements apply to that final handoff, rather than every older installed build.
The FAQ says IDE extensions cannot read shell environment variables, whereas process variables work with the CLI. The documented IDE setup uses .env files for keys; exporting a key in a terminal does not make it available to the editor extension.
Continue stores extension data in .continue under the user's home, with a corresponding %USERPROFILE% path on Windows. This local state is separate from an old hosted account or data processed by a model provider.
The open-source code is identified as Apache 2.0 and remains freely available. This source-code license does not include a universal allowance for remote language-model use. Model costs are described as ranging from free local options to premium cloud services; most cloud providers require API keys.
No active Continue plan table, trial quota or hosted token bundle was verified in the acquisition notice, installation docs or provider overview checked on October 27, 2026. The former pricing URL returned a 404; historical prices are not a verified current offer.
A June 22, 2026 independent report described disabled recurring billing and a July 15 export deadline before cloud-data deletion. This historical report does not verify completed deletion for every account or a live export route in October.
The still-accessible service terms contain several different refund provisions. They describe the former service relationship and are not a new subscription offer:
| Retained provision | Stated scope |
|---|---|
| Subscription cancellation | Generally no refund or credit unless otherwise stated in the terms or required by applicable law; refunds may also be discretionary. |
| Unused credits or subscription balances | Refunds available for up to one year from purchase, with further detail in incorporated pricing terms. |
| Termination without cause by Continue | Pro-rata reimbursement for services not provided during the remainder of the current subscription period. |
The credit provision also says credits are non-transferable, not redeemable for cash and usable only for Continue's services; it gives a validity floor of at least five years, subject to the incorporated expiration policies. This is a condition written in the retained terms, not confirmation that credit redemption remains available after shutdown.
Independent comparison listings and developer discussions place Cline and OpenCode in the same consideration set. The capabilities below are the alternatives' own descriptions, without an independent performance ranking or verified Continue-data migration.
The model guide warns that local models require enough VRAM and that limited tool-calling and reasoning can make Agent mode challenging. Local deployment alone does not establish successful multi-step tool use or parity with a cloud model.
Plan or Agent can be unavailable when the selected model, provider or Continue integration does not support tools. The FAQ describes a system-message-tool fallback for models without native tool support; it also notes provider-format and model-capability dependencies.
On x64 Linux, the FAQ identifies FMA and AVX2 CPU requirements for LanceDB-backed codebase search. It says autocomplete and chat can still work on unsupported processors while indexing-dependent commands are disabled. This is a specific hardware boundary for indexing, not a statement that the entire extension fails on every older computer.
The final-release README says anonymous telemetry was removed. The retained offline guide still instructs users to disable it, choose a local default model and restart VS Code. These surfaces describe different states; neither statement describes every older installed build.
Tool results feed back into the model as context. A local model changes that endpoint, while an external MCP server remains a separate connected system. Local editor installation alone does not establish local processing for every configured model and tool.
The February 5, 2026 privacy notice says personal data need not be provided to use the open-source software. Its supplied-data categories apply to direct interaction or non-open-source offerings, once available. Within that scope, customer content includes files, data and communications, used primarily to provide services and fulfill requests. It also permits disclosure of personal data to an employer where someone uses the service in connection with employment, including information about service usage.
The same notice describes automatic collection from open-source offerings unless the user opts out of sharing, and from non-open-source offerings including the website: log, analytics and location data. This collection scope is separate from required submissions and final-release telemetry removal.
Retention in that notice is purpose-based rather than a fixed number of days. It says personal data is usually kept no longer than reasonably necessary, but may be retained longer for legal requirements, disputes or protection of legal rights. Data that cannot yet be deleted or deidentified, such as backup data, may be isolated from further active processing until deletion or deidentification is possible.
No explicit model-training commitment was found in the captured privacy notice, final-release README or acquisition notice text. Telemetry removal does not establish the training, logging or retention policy of each external model provider.
Under the retained service terms, customers own Customer Content as between the parties. Subject to the agreement, Continue receives a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive license over that content, including names, voices and likenesses, in whole or part and in any existing or future medium or technology. Rights include use, hosting, storage, reproduction, modification, publication, processing, distribution, display and derivative works. Purposes cover providing, enhancing, developing, maintaining and offering the service; preventing or addressing service, security, support or technical issues; legal requirements; or express written customer permission. The customer warrants necessary rights, consents and authorizations for users’ and third parties’ content.
Section 3.2 separately permits collecting, analyzing, using and disclosing derived data during or after the term where anonymization and/or aggregation makes identification of the customer, any authorized user or third party impossible. Uses may serve any business purpose, including operating, analyzing, improving and marketing services and other products, with sharing to affiliates and business partners. Continue claims perpetual rights to use, store, transmit, distribute, modify, copy, display, sublicense and create derivative works of that derived data.
The Apache 2.0 label concerns the released source code. Under the retained terms, compliant users own output as between themselves and Continue. Continue also receives a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive output license for business purposes, including product and service improvement. The grant includes use, storage, modification, distribution, display and derivative works.
The service terms also say users must not represent output as human-generated or use it to train their own machine-learning models, and must use it according to applicable law.
The service terms warn that output may be non-unique or inaccurate and require evaluating accuracy, including human review as appropriate. A generated change, test or explanation is not an independently validated result.
The original repository says it is no longer actively maintained and is read-only for all users. The open-source code remains available, and the README describes a final 2.0.0 handoff release. Availability of the code and retained documentation does not establish ongoing vendor maintenance.
No universal model allowance is established by the Apache 2.0 source-code license. Continue's provider documentation separates free local options from premium cloud services and says most cloud providers require configured API keys. No current hosted Continue token bundle was verified here.
The captured notice confirms the acquisition and continued source availability. It does not establish an automatic transfer of Continue configuration, local history or provider accounts into Cursor. The retained CLI login instructions also should not be read as verification that the old hosted account workflow remains available.