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@Docs

The @Docs context provider allows you to efficiently reference documentation directly within Continue.

Enabling the @Docs context provider​

To enable the @Docs context provider, add it to the list of context providers in your config.json file.

config.yaml
context:
  - provider: docs

How It Works​

The @Docs context provider works by

  1. Crawling specified documentation sites
  2. Generating embeddings for the chunked content
  3. Storing the embeddings locally on your machine
  4. Embedding chat input to include similar documentation chunks as context

Pre-indexed Documentation Sites​

In VS Code, Continue offers a selection of pre-indexed documentation sites for popular frameworks and libraries. You can view the list of available pre-indexed sites and request additions here.

Pre-indexed docs are only available in VS Code because the VS Code extension ships with the Transformers.js embedder built in, while Jetbrains currently does not. You can override a pre-indexed doc to index it with your own embeddings provider by adding it to your config (unique by startUrl). Otherwise, it will always use Transformers.js for queries.

Indexing Your Own Documentation​

Through the @Docs Context Provider​

To add a single documentation site, we recommend using the Add Documentation Form within the GUI. This can be accessed

  • from the @Docs context provider - type @Docs in the chat, hit Enter, and search for Add Docs
  • from the More page (three dots icon) in the @docs indexes section the @Docs context provider.

In the Add Documentation Form, enter a Title and Start URL for the site.

  • Title: The name of the documentation site, used for identification in the UI
  • Start URL: The URL where the indexing process should begin.

Indexing will begin upon submission. Progress can be viewed in the form or later in the @docs indexes section of the More page.

Documentation sources may be suggested based on package files in your repo. This currently works for Python requirements.txt files and Node.js (Javascript/Typescript) package.json files.

  • Packages with a valid documentation URL (with a + icon) can be clicked to immediately kick off indexing
  • Packages with partial information (with a pen icon) can be clicked to fill the form with the available information
  • Note that you can hover over the information icon to see where the package suggestion was found.

Add documentation form

Through global configuration​

For bulk documentation site adds or edits, we recommend editing your global configuration file directly. Documentation sites are stored in an array within docs in your global configuration, as follows:

config.yaml
docs:
  - title: Nest.js
    startUrl: https://docs.nestjs.com/
    faviconUrl: https://docs.nestjs.com/favicon.ico

See the config reference for all documentation site configuration options.

Indexing will re-sync upon saving the configuration file.

Configuration​

Using Your Embeddings Provider​

If you have set up an embeddings provider, @docs will use your embeddings provider. Switching embeddings providers will trigger a re-index of all documentation sites in your configuration.

Reranking​

As with @Codebase context provider configuration, you can adjust the reranking behavior of the @Docs context provider with the nRetrieve, nFinal, and useReranking.

config.yaml
context:
  - provider: docs
    params:
      nRetrieve: 25 # The number of docs to retreive from the embeddings query
      nFinal: 5 # The number of docs chunks to return IF reranking
      useReranking: true # use reranking if a reranker is configured (defaults to true)

Github​

The Github API rate limits public requests to 60 per hour. If you want to reliably index Github repos, you can add a github token to your config file:

config.yaml
context:
  - provider: docs
    params:
      githubToken: <GITHUB_TOKEN>

Local Crawling​

By default, Continue crawls documentation sites using a specialized crawling service that provides the best experience for most users and documentation sites.

If your documentation is private, you can skip the default crawler and use a local crawler instead by setting useLocalCrawling to true.

config.yaml
docs:
  - title: My Private Docs
    startUrl: http://10.2.1.2/docs
    faviconUrl: http://10.2.1.2/docs/assets/favicon.ico,
    useLocalCrawling: true

The default local crawler is a lightweight tool that cannot render sites that are dynamically generated using JavaScript. If your sites need to be rendered, you can enable the experimental Use Chromium for Docs Crawling feature from your User Settings Page This will download and install Chromium to ~/.continue/.utils, and use it as the local crawler.

Further notes:

  • If the site is only locally accessible, the default crawler will fail anyways and fall back to the local crawler. useLocalCrawling is especially useful if the URL itself is confidential.
  • For Github Repos this has no effect because only the Github Crawler will be used, and if the repo is private it can only be accessed with a priveleged Github token anyways.

Managing your docs indexes​

You can view indexing statuses and manage your documentation sites from the @docs indexes section of the More page (three dots)

  • Continue does not automatically re-index your docs. Use Click to re-index to trigger a reindex for a specific source
  • While a site is indexing, click Cancel indexing to cancel the process
  • Failed indexing attempts will show an error status bar and icon
  • Delete a documentation site from your configuration using the trash icon

More Page @docs indexes section

You can also view the overall status of currently indexing docs from a hideable progress bar at the bottom of the chat page Documentation indexing peek

You can also use the following IDE command to force a re-index of all docs: Continue: Docs Force Re-Index.

Examples​

VS Code minimal setup​

The following configuration example works out of the box for VS Code. This uses the built-in embeddings provider with no reranking. Pre-indexed docs will be accessible.

config.yaml
context:
  - provider: docs
  
docs:
  - title: Nest.js
    startUrl: https://docs.nestjs.com/

Jetbrains minimal setup​

Here is the equivalent minimal example for Jetbrains, which requires setting up an embeddings provider. Pre-indexed docs will not be accessible.

config.yaml
models:
  - name: LMStudio embedder
    provider: lmstudio
    model: nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5-GGUF
    roles:
      - embed
context:
  - provider: docs
docs:
  - title: Nest.js
    startUrl: https://docs.nestjs.com/

Full-power setup (VS Code or Jetbrains)​

The following configuration example includes:

  • Examples of both public and private documentation sources
  • A custom embeddings provider
  • A reranker model available, with reranking parameters customized
  • A Github token to enable Github crawling
config.yaml
models:
  - name: LMStudio Nomic Text
    provider: lmstudio
    model: nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5-GGUF
    roles:
      - embed
  - name: Voyage Rerank-2
    provider: voyage
    apiKey: <VOYAGE_API_KEY>
    model: rerank-2
    roles:
      - rerank
context:
  - provider: docs
    params:
       githubToken: <GITHUB_TOKEN>
       nRetrieve: 25
       nFinal: 5
       useReranking: true
docs:
  - title: Nest.js
    startUrl: https://docs.nestjs.com/
  - title: My Private Docs
    startUrl: http://10.2.1.2/docs
    faviconUrl: http://10.2.1.2/docs/assets/favicon.ico
    maxDepth: 4
    useLocalCrawling: true

This could also involve enabling Chromium as a backup for local documentation the User Settings Page.