Using the Continue VSCode Extension and Local LLMs for Improved Coding
Welcome back to another post on local LLMs. In this post, we’ll look at setting up a fully local coding assistant inside VSCode using the Continue extension and Ollama. Let’s get started.
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Overview
We’ve covered Ollama and Local LLMs in previous blog posts (linked below), but here’s a quick summary.
Ollama is a tool that lets you run large language models (LLMs) directly on your local machine. Local LLMs are language models that run on your computer instead of relying on cloud-based services like ChatGPT. This means you can use them without sending your data to external servers, which is great for privacy. They also work offline, so you’re not dependent on an Internet connection.
That said, it’s important to note that local models, especially on smaller setups, won’t match the speed or performance of cloud-based models like ChatGPT. These cloud models are powered by massive infrastructure, so they’re faster and often more accurate. However, the trade-off is privacy and offline access, which local LLMs provide.
