Context providers

Context Providers allow you to type '@' and see a dropdown of content that can all be fed to the LLM as context. Every context provider is a plugin, which means if you want to reference some source of information that you don't see here, you can request (or build!) a new context provider.

As an example, say you are working on solving a new GitHub Issue. You type '@Issue' and select the one you are working on. Continue can now see the issue title and contents. You also know that the issue is related to the files 'readme.md' and 'helloNested.py', so you type '@readme' and '@hello' to find and select them. Now these 3 "Context Items" are displayed inline with the rest of your input.

Context Items

Built-in Context Providers

To use any of the built-in context providers, open config.json and add it to the contextProviders list.

`@File`

Reference any file in your current workspace.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "file"
    }
  ]
}

`@Code`

Reference specific functions or classes from throughout your project.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "code"
    }
  ]
}

`@Git Diff`

Reference all of the changes you've made to your current branch. This is useful if you want to summarize what you've done or ask for a general review of your work before committing.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "diff"
    }
  ]
}

`@Terminal`

Reference the contents of your IDE's terminal.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "terminal"
    }
  ]
}

`@Docs`

Reference the contents from any documentation site.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "docs"
    }
  ]
}

Note that this will only enable the @Docs context provider.

To use it, you need to add a documentation site to your config.json. See the docs page for more information.

`@Open`

Reference the contents of all of your open files. Set onlyPinned to true to only reference pinned files.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "open",
      "params": {
        "onlyPinned": true
      }
    }
  ]
}

`@Codebase`

Reference the most relevant snippets from your codebase.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "codebase"
    }
  ]
}

Read more about indexing and retrieval here.

`@Folder`

Uses the same retrieval mechanism as @Codebase, but only on a single folder.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "folder"
    }
  ]
}

`@Search`

Reference the results of codebase search, just like the results you would get from VS Code search.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "search"
    }
  ]
}

This context provider is powered by ripgrep.

`@Url`

Reference the markdown converted contents of a given URL.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "url"
    }
  ]
}

`@Tree`

Reference the structure of your current workspace.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "tree"
    }
  ]
}

`@Google`

Reference the results of a Google search.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "google",
      "params": {
        "serperApiKey": "<your serper.dev api key>"
      }
    }
  ]
}

For example, type "@Google python tutorial" if you want to search and discuss ways of learning Python.

Note: You can get an API key for free at serper.dev.

`@Issue`

Reference the conversation in a GitHub issue.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "issue",
      "params": {
        "repos": [
          {
            "owner": "continuedev",
            "repo": "continue"
          }
        ],
        "githubToken": "ghp_xxx"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Make sure to include your own GitHub personal access token to avoid being rate-limited.

`@Gitlab Merge Request`

Reference an open MR for this branch on GitLab.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "gitlab-mr",
      "params": {
        "token": "..."
      }
    }
  ]
}

You will need to create a personal access token with the read_api scope.

Using Self-Hosted GitLab

You can specify the domain to communicate with by setting the domain parameter in your configurtion. By default this is set to gitlab.com.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "gitlab-mr",
      "params": {
        "token": "...",
        "domain": "gitlab.example.com"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Filtering Comments

If you select some code to be edited, you can have the context provider filter out comments for other files. To enable this feature, set filterComments to true.

`@Jira`

Reference the conversation in a Jira issue.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "jira",
      "params": {
        "domain": "company.atlassian.net",
        "token ": "ATATT..."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Make sure to include your own Atlassian API Token, or use your email and token, with token set to your password for basic authentication. If you use your own Atlassian API Token, don't configure your email.

Jira Datacenter Support

This context provider supports both Jira API version 2 and 3. It will use version 3 by default since that's what the cloud version uses, but if you have the datacenter version of Jira, you'll need to set the API Version to 2 using the apiVersion property.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "jira",
      "params": {
        "apiVersion": "2"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Issue Query

By default, the following query will be used to find issues:

assignee = currentUser() AND resolution = Unresolved order by updated DESC

You can override this query by setting the issueQuery parameter.

`@Postgres`

Reference the schema of a table, and some sample rows

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "postgres",
      "params": {
        "host": "localhost",
        "port": 5436,
        "user": "myuser",
        "password": "catsarecool",
        "database": "animals",
        "schema": "public",
        "sampleRows": 3
      }
    }
  ]
}

The only required settings are those for creating the database connection: host, port, user, password, and database.

By default, the schema filter is set to public, and the sampleRows is set to 3. You may unset the schema if you want to include tables from all schemas.

Here is a short demo.

`@Database`

Reference table schemas from Sqlite, Postgres, and MySQL databases.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "database",
      "params": {
        "connections": [
          {
            "name": "examplePostgres",
            "connection_type": "postgres",
            "connection": {
              "user": "username",
              "host": "localhost",
              "database": "exampleDB",
              "password": "yourPassword",
              "port": 5432
            }
          },
          {
            "name": "exampleSqlite",
            "connection_type": "sqlite",
            "connection": {
              "filename": "/path/to/your/sqlite/database.db"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Each connection should include a unique name, the connection_type, and the necessary connection parameters specific to each database type.

Available connection types:

postgres
mysql
sqlite

`@Locals`

Reference the contents of the local variables in the debugger.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "locals",
      "params": {
        "stackDepth": 3
      }
    }
  ]
}

Uses the top n levels (defaulting to 3) of the call stack for that thread.

`@Repository Map`

Reference the outline of your codebase.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "repo-map"
    }
  ]
}

Provides a list of files and the call signatures of top-level classes, functions, and methods in those files. This helps the model better understand how a particular piece of code relates to the rest of the codebase.

In the submenu that appears, you can select either Entire codebase, or specify a subfolder to generate the repostiory map from.

This context provider is inpsired by Aider's repository map.

`@Operating System`

Reference the architecture and platform of your current operating system.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "os"
    }
  ]
}

`@HTTP`

The HttpContextProvider makes a POST request to the url passed in the configuration. The server must return 200 OK with a ContextItem object or an array of ContextItems.

config.json
{
  "contextProviders": [
    {
      "name": "http",
      "params": {
        "url": "https://api.example.com/v1/users"
      }
    }
  ]
}

The receiving URL should expect to receive the following parameters:

POST parameters
{
  query: string,
  fullInput: string
}

The response 200 OK should be a JSON object with the following structure:

Response
[
  {
    "name": "",
    "description": "",
    "content": ""
  }
]

// OR
{
  "name": "",
  "description": "",
  "content": ""
}

Requesting Context Providers

Not seeing what you want? Create an issue here to request a new Context Provider.

Built-in Context Providers​

@File​

@Code​

@Git Diff​

@Terminal​

@Docs​

@Open​

@Codebase​

@Folder​

@Search​

@Url​

@Tree​

@Google​

@Issue​

@Gitlab Merge Request​

Using Self-Hosted GitLab​

Filtering Comments​

@Jira​

Jira Datacenter Support​

Issue Query​

@Postgres​

@Database​

@Locals​

@Repository Map​

@Operating System​

@HTTP​

Requesting Context Providers​