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Cline and Continue are popular open-source AI coding agents in VS Code.

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Cline

1

Install

Search for Cline in the VS Code extensions and install it.
2

Choose an API provider

Open Cline in the sidebar → settings icon → API Configuration. Set Provider to OpenAI Compatible.
3

Fill in the connection

  • Base URL: https://openp.ai/v1
  • API Key: sk-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
  • Model ID: claude-opus-4-8 (recommended, strong at code) or gpt-5.5
4

Enable Plan / Act mode

Cline autonomously plans → executes → reviews file changes inside the editor.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is Cline’s officially recommended best companion; OpenPAI offers the same model with token-based billing.

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Continue

1

Install

Search for Continue in the VS Code extensions and install it.
2

Edit the config file

Open ~/.continue/config.json (%USERPROFILE%\.continue\config.json on Windows) and add to the models array:
{
  "models": [
    {
      "title": "OpenPAI Claude Sonnet 4.6",
      "provider": "openai",
      "model": "claude-opus-4-8",
      "apiKey": "sk-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "apiBase": "https://openp.ai/v1"
    },
    {
      "title": "OpenPAI GPT-4o",
      "provider": "openai",
      "model": "gpt-5.5",
      "apiKey": "sk-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
      "apiBase": "https://openp.ai/v1"
    }
  ],
  "tabAutocompleteModel": {
    "title": "OpenPAI Autocomplete",
    "provider": "openai",
    "model": "gpt-5.5",
    "apiKey": "sk-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
    "apiBase": "https://openp.ai/v1"
  }
}
After saving, Continue reloads automatically and the models appear in the main dropdown.
Use caseRecommendation
Main chat / agentclaude-opus-4-8, gpt-5.5
Autocomplete (Tab)gpt-5.4-mini (low latency, cheap)
Inline editclaude-haiku-4-5, gpt-5.5
Explain codegpt-5.5, claude-opus-4-8

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Tips

  • Cline includes a lot of context in requests (the whole workspace index), which can consume many tokens — set a quota cap for that token.
  • Enabling Claude prompt caching can significantly cut the cost of repeated conversations; Cline sends cache_control markers by default.