Continue and Ollama: Building a Powerful Local AI Coding Stack

Continue and Ollama: Building a Powerful Local AI Coding Stack

Modern software development is rapidly changing thanks to AI-assisted coding tools. While many developers rely on cloud-based solutions, there is a growing demand for local, privacy-friendly AI workflows. This is exactly where Continue and Ollama shine—especially when used together.

What Is Continue?

Continue is an open-source AI coding assistant that integrates directly into popular IDEs such as Visual Studio Code and JetBrains products. Unlike traditional autocomplete tools, Continue acts more like a context-aware coding partner.

  • AI-powered code completion and refactoring
  • Natural-language chat directly inside your IDE
  • Repository-wide context awareness
  • Support for multiple large language models (LLMs)

What Is Ollama?

Ollama is a lightweight runtime that allows you to run large language models locally on your machine. With simple commands, you can download and run models such as LLaMA, Mistral, or code-focused variants without complex setups.

  • Fully local execution
  • Strong focus on privacy
  • Simple CLI workflow
  • Optimized for developer machines

Why Continue and Ollama Work So Well Together

When you connect Continue to Ollama, you combine a polished IDE experience with fast, local AI models. This enables offline coding assistance, secure handling of proprietary code, and full control over model choice.

Final Thoughts

Continue and Ollama represent a shift toward developer-controlled AI tooling. If you value privacy, flexibility, and performance, this local AI stack is well worth exploring.