Continued is an elite AI coding assistant built directly into your VS Code sidebar. It orchestrates a seamless multi-model experience by combining local offline LLMs with advanced cloud providers to assist you with conversational chat, file creation, and precise repository modifications.
Features
Dual-Engine Model Hub: Access local Ollama instances (e.g., llama3) alongside remote high-performance cloud clusters via the Blablador API (such as alias-code or alias-large).
Agent Operations (File Auto-Editing & Deletion): Shift your chat panel into Agent Mode or Agent Auto-Edit to empower the AI to dynamically generate file contents using <write_file> tags or clean up workspace paths with <delete_file /> tags.
Safe Approval Gateway: Maintain absolute control over your filesystem. In standard Agent Mode, every change or file destruction requires an explicit confirmation click in your sidebar before executing.
Transaction Rollbacks / Undo: Did the model write an unwanted change? Use the built-in Discard / Undo loop to cleanly roll back the targeted file to its original snapshot instantly.
Secure Credential Allocation: Cloud provider endpoint tokens are safely managed inside VS Code's OS-level encrypted SecretStorage keychain.
Workspace Settings & Configurations
Continued allows you to switch between model endpoints directly from the sidebar. Tap the ⚙️ (Settings Gear Icon) at the top of the panel to bring up the Provider Registration panel.
Setting up Cloud Providers (Blablador)
To connect your Helmholtz Blablador remote workspace models:
Click the ⚙️ icon in the sidebar control row.
Input your Personal Access Token obtained via your Helmholtz Codebase profile.
The panel will automatically query the API endpoint (https://api.blablador.fz-juelich.de/v1/models) and cleanly populate your dropdown menu with prefix tags like blablador/alias-code.
Extension Settings
This extension contributes the following internal command allocations:
continued.addProvider: Invokes the secure user token setup modal.
continued.helloWorld: Launches inline command box inputs inside active editors.
Prerequisites & Requirements
Local Inference: To access local models offline, ensure you have Ollama running locally (http://localhost:11434) with at least one model pulled (e.g., ollama pull llama3).
Cloud Infrastructure: A GitLab account registered with an EduGAIN or university network is required to claim your Blablador API token for remote usage.
Release Notes
0.0.5
Bug Fixes
Fixed continued.refreshModels command never being registered — saving a cloud provider API key now correctly triggers a model list refresh in the sidebar dropdown
Fixed agent tool-tag leakage in chat bubbles (<run_shell .../>, <write_file ...>, <delete_file ...>) so users now see clean assistant responses
Fixed command/tool-call responses not being properly restored after reload
Inline Code Completion
New ContinuedCompletionProvider registered for all file types, powered by whichever model is currently selected in the sidebar
Sends up to 2000 chars of prefix context and 500 chars of suffix for fill-in-the-middle (FIM) support
Works with local Ollama (/api/generate) and cloud providers (Blablador, OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic)
Cancels in-flight requests immediately when you continue typing
Persistence & State Restore
Last selected model is saved and automatically restored on next launch
Last active chat session is saved and auto-loaded when VS Code is relaunched — picks up exactly where you left off
Session history and model preference are now workspace-scoped (per opened folder/workspace), so chats no longer bleed across unrelated projects
Provider Coverage
Added OpenAI chat/model support (openai/...)
Added Gemini chat/model support (gemini/...)
Added Anthropic chat/model support (anthropic/...)
Agent & Tooling UX
Agent can execute shell commands via <run_shell command="..."/> with approval in Agent Mode and automatic execution in Agent Auto-Edit
Shell command results are now presented as assistant-style narrative responses with compact tool-result notes
Command results are persisted into session history and restored with formatting
Chat UI Improvements
Cleaner Markdown rendering for headings, lists, links, blockquotes, inline code, and fenced code blocks
Removed the blue left accent stripe from assistant responses
Modernized command approval prompt to a cleaner, compact style
0.0.4
0.0.3
Visual & UX
Modern glassmorphic UI with fluid animations and pill-shaped inputs
Native VS Code scrollbar integration
Model Management
Dynamic model syncing - no restart required for credential updates
Instant model list refresh after API key configuration
Session Management
Improved session caching with clean title generation
Individual chat deletion with × button interface
Stability
Stream buffer optimization with line-buffering for SSE parsing
Enhanced error handling for broken JSON packets
0.0.2
0.0.1
Initial Release of the modularized core.
Implemented the sidebar panel architecture containing historic chat session caching.
Added multi-mode execution: Chat, Agent, and Agent Auto-Edit.
Unified Local Ollama tags with OpenAI-compatible streaming endpoints from Blablador.
Enjoy a frictionless assistant experience with Continued!
