⭐️ continue.dev

continue.dev is a free AI powered code generation and autocomplete extension/tool for VSCode. It is fully open source. We will use it in conjunction with “some” LLM backend.

⭐️ LLM

We need an LLM provider. You have options like OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini etc.

I like free stuff. So I’ll use groq.

Just go to https://console.groq.com/keys.

Create a new API key.

Your API key looks something like gsk_aD...xT.

Keep this key safe. We will use it soon.

⭐️ VSCode

Open your VSCode and open settings.json file. You can do this by pressing [CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + P], and entering Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON).

You will see a massive JSON file. You need to add this property into the JSON.

{
  /// snip
  "remote.extensionKind": {
    "continue.continue": ["workspace"]
  }
  /// snip
}

Once you add it, you can save and close the JSON file.

Now, install this extension. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Continue.continue.

Switch to the Pre-Release Version (or above v0.9.127).

Once installed, open the file at ~/.continue/config.json. Delete all the file contents and replace it with the below JSON.

{
  "models": [
    {
      "title": "Groq",
      "provider": "groq",
      "model": "llama3-70b",
      "apiKey": "[REDACTED]",
      "apiBase": "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
      "useLegacyCompletionsEndpoint": false,
      "completionOptions": {}
    }
  ],
  "tabAutocompleteModel": {
    "title": "Groq",
    "provider": "groq",
    "model": "llama3-70b",
    "apiKey": "[REDACTED]",
    "apiBase": "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
    "useLegacyCompletionsEndpoint": false,
    "apiType": "openai",
    "completionOptions": {
      "stop": ["```"]
    }
  },
  "tabAutocompleteOptions": {
    "debounceDelay": 2000,
    "prefixPercentage": 0.5,
    "useSuffix": true,
    "maxSuffixPercentage": 0.5,
    "multilineCompletions": "always",
    "maxPromptTokens": 500,
    "template": "Fill in the blank to complete the code block. Your response should include only the code to replace [BLANK], without any backticks. Be careful around the starting of the response. It must not include anything from the previous text.\n\nExample:\nInput:\n```function fibonacci(n)[BLANK]\nfunction```\nOutput:\n``` {\n  if(n <= 2) {\n    if(n == 1) {\n      return 0;\n    } else {\n      return 1;\n    }\n  } else {\n    return fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2);\n  }\n}\n```\n\n\nFill the blank below.\n\n```\n{{{prefix}}}[BLANK]{{{suffix}}}\n```",
    "allowAnonymousTelemetry": false
  }
}

Replace the [REDACTED] parts with the API key that you attained from groq.

Once you did that, you are ready to go. Just open any code and start typing away.

⭐️ Conclusion

You can now seal off that hole in you credit card.

For advanced use cases, please refer to continue.dev/docs. You can customise a lot of things including the prompts and which models to use.