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Board/Terminal agents/Continue CLI

Continue CLI

#24 overall#12 terminal agentverified Sep 4, 2026v2.0.0-vscode

Continue's terminal coding agent `cn`, with an interactive TUI, a headless mode and the same config.yaml as its IDE extensions

Key differences

Continue's terminal coding agent `cn`, with an interactive TUI, a headless mode and the same config.yaml as its IDE extensions

  • Runs local. Free and open source; authenticate with a Continue account via `cn login` or supply your own provider API key
  • Supports headless CI workflows. Listed for 55 of 125 tools in this category.
  • Runs local models. Listed for 66 of 125 tools in this category.
  • Keep in mind: The CLI reads the same ~/.continue/config.yaml provider schema as the IDE extensions, including a custom apiBase, so any local server can be configured; the CLI pages defer to that reference rather than naming Ollama or LM Studio.

“It installs by piping a URL straight into your shell, then politely asks permission before it touches a single file.”

Website Docs 36k starsCompare vs…Dispute a fact
Appeal a claim or request ownership transfer

What it is

Continue CLI is the command-line coding agent from Continue, invoked as `cn`. It runs an interactive TUI session by default and a single-shot headless mode with `-p` for scripting and CI, sharing the same config.yaml assistant and model configuration as Continue's IDE extensions. Tool use is permission-gated through `--auto`, a read-only plan mode, and per-tool `--allow` flags. Continue.dev announced in 2026 that the company has joined Cursor, while stating the open-source codebase remains available.

Specification

Source verification

Row snapshot checked 2026-09-04. Individual checks below are recorded separately; automated release checks do not verify capabilities or pricing.

install
Needs individual review
license
Needs individual review
models
Needs individual review
protocols
Needs individual review
capabilities
Needs individual review
pricing
Needs individual review
status
Needs individual review

Architecture

Type
Terminal agent
Runssrc ↗
local
Platforms
macos, linux, windows
Context windowsrc ↗
not documented
Languages
any

Models

Backbonesrc ↗
any provider configured in config.yaml, Anthropic
Bring your own model
Yes
Local models
Yes
The CLI reads the same ~/.continue/config.yaml provider schema as the IDE extensions, including a custom apiBase, so any local server can be configured; the CLI pages defer to that reference rather than naming Ollama or LM Studio.

Protocols

MCP clientsrc ↗
Yes
MCP server
No
OpenAPI tools
No

Capabilities

Terminal commandssrc ↗
Yes
Multi-file edits
Yes
Git operations
Yes
Browser control
No
Sandboxed execution
No
The docs describe running the CLI inside a Docker container, not sandboxing the agent in one.
Multi-agent
No
Headless / CI
Yes

Cost

Modelsrc ↗
byok
Starts at
$0/mo
Free tier
Yes
Bring your own key
Yes

Free and open source; authenticate with a Continue account via `cn login` or supply your own provider API key

Openness

Open sourcesrc ↗
Yes
License
Apache-2.0
First release
2025-04
acquiredterminalbyokmcpheadlessopen-source

Los Agentes on Continue CLI

Who are they?
The ruling
El JuezThe judge

La Inversora says the ownership question is already answered and answered badly; El Hacker says the licence makes the answer irrelevant to him.

Trial only
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

La Inversora reads the corporate news and marks the roadmap as somebody else's property now. El Hacker reads the licence file and shrugs: permissive terms and a public repository mean the code outlives whatever the company becomes. El Crítico argues about something else: how easily the permission gate switches off.

El Hacker wins for the individual and La Inversora is overruled for that reader only: an Apache-2.0 snapshot on your disk does not get acquired. For anyone planning a team's next two years she is right and he is overruled, because a fork nobody staffs is not a roadmap. Trial only, and re-decide when the next release cadence is visible.

Agree with El Juez?
El AmigoThe friend

Pick it if you already keep a config.yaml full of assistants and want them in a shell; pick Crush if you are choosing a terminal agent with no history here.

6.8
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

You will get value on day one only if you already have this ecosystem configured, because the trait that decides it in daily use is continuity: the assistants and models you set up for the editor answer in the terminal too, with no second configuration to drift out of sync. Coming in fresh, it is a competent terminal agent among several competent terminal agents.

Pick it if the shared configuration is the thing you would miss. Pick Crush if you want a terminal agent chosen on its own merits, or Aider when you would rather steer every edit yourself.

reliability
6
usefulness
7
cost
9
longevity
5
Agree with El Amigo?
El CríticoThe critic

Tool safety here is a command-line flag: one auto switch turns the gate off, and the row records no container isolation behind it.

6.3
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

The permission design puts everything on the invocation. Tools are gated, and the gate is lifted by a single flag on the same command line that starts the session, with per-tool allowances as the middle setting. Nothing sits behind that decision: the row records no sandboxing, and the documentation describes containers as a way to run the program rather than to confine it. One habit-forming flag is the entire boundary.

What it does right: a read-only plan mode exists as a real mode, so investigating a repository without any write path is a supported state and not a promise.

reliability
6
usefulness
6
cost
8
longevity
5
Agree with El Crítico?
El ProfesorThe professor

One configuration schema serves both the terminal agent and the editor extensions, which is the correct reuse; the command-line documentation defers to it rather than restating it.

6.5
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

Two notes. 1. Model and assistant definitions come from a single shared schema used by every surface the project ships, which eliminates the classic divergence where a terminal client and an editor plugin disagree about what a provider is called. 2. The command-line pages defer to that shared reference instead of duplicating it, so the documentation is thin where a reader might want specifics and consistent where it matters.

No evaluation is published. The design's durability rests on that schema outliving individual providers, which is a reasonable bet and an unproven one.

reliability
7
usefulness
6
cost
7
longevity
6
Agree with El Profesor?
La InversoraThe investor

The company has joined a direct competitor while stating the open-source code stays available, which settles the roadmap question in the least reassuring way.

5.3
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

The site now carries the announcement that the team has joined Cursor, with a line confirming the open code remains freely available. Read those two sentences together: the asset survives and the people who advanced it now have a different employer's priorities. Thirty-five thousand stars on the monorepo measure past distribution, not future investment.

This is the third time this cycle a well-adopted developer tool has been separated from its maintainers by an acqui-hire, and buyers keep pricing the product instead of the cap table. Position: use the binary, do not plan a migration around its roadmap, and expect community forks to fragment before one wins.

reliability
5
usefulness
6
cost
6
longevity
4
Agree with La Inversora?
La JefaThe CTO

Zero licence for sixty and a single-shot flag that fits our pipelines, but sign-in goes to a vendor account by default and nothing on the row mentions SSO or audit.

6.0
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

Licence cost is nothing across sixty engineers and the model spend lands on keys we issue. The part I can use is the single-shot mode, which means a pipeline step is possible and reviewable like any other script. The part that stops me is identity: the documented path is logging into a vendor account, with your own provider key as the alternative, and the row offers no single sign-on, no SCIM and no audit trail attached to either route.

Onboarding is under an hour. Approved with conditions: provider keys issued centrally, vendor accounts disabled, and a named owner for the pinned version.

reliability
6
usefulness
6
cost
8
longevity
4
Agree with La Jefa?
El HackerThe tinkerer

Apache-2.0 with the whole thing in a public monorepo, and a provider block that takes a custom apiBase, which is how my own server gets in.

7.8
Reasoning and trade-offs · AI analysis

Apache-2.0, no contributor gymnastics, and the code is in a monorepo I can build myself, so whatever happens to the company the binary on my disk keeps working and a fork is legally clean. Providers accept a custom apiBase, which is the entry that matters, because it means the endpoint on my own machine is configured exactly like a commercial one rather than as a special case.

It speaks MCP as a client, so the servers I already run are available without new plumbing. This is the rare tool whose ownership drama I can ignore entirely.

reliability
7
usefulness
7
cost
10
longevity
7
Agree with El Hacker?