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Adding AI to IntelliJ IDEA using Continue and Generative APIs

AI-driven coding is revolutionizing software development by automating repetitive tasks, generating code snippets, improving code quality, and identifying potential bugs. By integrating AI-powered tools, developers can significantly enhance productivity and optimize workflows. This guide will help you integrate AI-powered code models into JetBrain's IntelliJ IDEA using Continue and Scaleway’s Generative APIs.

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

You can install Continue from the JetBrains marketplace:

  1. Open IntelliJ IDEA and go to Preferences/Settings (Ctrl+Alt+S on Windows/Linux, Cmd+, on macOS).
  2. Navigate to Plugins, then click Marketplace.
  3. Search for Continue and click Install.
  4. Restart IntelliJ IDEA after installation.

Configure Continue to use Scaleway’s Generative APIs

Configure Continue through the graphical interface

To link Continue with Scaleway's Generative APIs, you can use built-in menus from Continue in IntelliJ IDEA.

  • Click Continue in the menu on the right. .
  • In the prompt section, click on Select model dropdown, then on Add Chat model.
  • Select Scaleway as provider.
  • Select the model you want to use (we recommend Qwen 2.5 Coder 32b to get started with chat and autocompletion only).
  • Enter your Scaleway secret key.
    Tip

    To start with, we recommend you use a Scaleway secret key having access to your default Scaleway project.

These actions will automatically edit your config.yaml file. To edit it manually, see Configure Continue through configuration file.

Note

Agents, embeddings and autocomplete models are not yet supported through graphical interface configuration. To enable them, you need to edit the configuration manually, see Configure Continue through configuration file.

Configure Continue through configuration file

To link Continue with Scaleway’s Generative APIs, you need to configure the settings file:

  • Open your config.yaml settings file:
    • If you have already configured a Local Assistant, click Local Assistant then click the wheel icon to open your existing config.yaml
    • Otherwise, create a config.yaml file inside your .continue directory.
  • Add the following configuration to enable Scaleway's Generative API. This configuration uses three different models for each task:
    • devstral-small-2505 for agentic workflows through a chat interface
    • qwen2.5-coder-32b-instruct for autocompletion when editing a file
    • bge-multilingual-gemma2 for embedding and retrieving code context 
      name: Continue Config
version: 0.0.1
models:
  - name: Devstral - Scaleway
    provider: openai
    model: devstral-small-2505
    apiBase: https://api.scaleway.ai/v1/
    apiKey: ###SCW_SECRET_KEY###
    defaultCompletionOptions:
      maxTokens: 8000
      contextLength: 50000
    roles:
      - chat
      - apply
      - embed
      - edit
    capabilities:
      - tool_use
  - name: Autocomplete - Scaleway
    provider: openai
    model: qwen2.5-coder-32b-instruct
    apiBase: https://api.scaleway.ai/v1/
    apiKey: ###SCW_SECRET_KEY###
    defaultCompletionOptions:
      maxTokens: 8000
      contextLength: 50000
    roles:
      - autocomplete
  - name: Embeddings Model - Scaleway
    provider: openai
    model: bge-multilingual-gemma2
    apiBase: https://api.scaleway.ai/v1/
    apiKey: ###SCW_SECRET_KEY###
    roles:
      - embed
    embedOptions:
      maxChunkSize: 256
      maxBatchSize: 32
context:
  - provider: problems
  - provider: tree
  - provider: url
  - provider: search
  - provider: folder
  - provider: codebase
  - provider: web
    params:
      n: 3
  - provider: open
    params:
      onlyPinned: true
  - provider: docs
  - provider: terminal
  - provider: code
  - provider: diff
  - provider: currentFile
  • Save the file at the correct location:
    • Linux/macOS: ~/.continue/config.yaml
    • Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.continue\config.yaml
  • In Local Assistant, click on Reload config or restart IntelliJ IDEA.

Alternatively, a config.json file can be used with the following format. Note that this format is deprecated, and we recommend using config.yaml instead.

{
  "models": [
    {
      "model": "devstral-small-2505",
      "title": "Devstral - Scaleway",
      "provider": "openai",
      "apiKey": "###SCW_SECRET_KEY###"
    }
  ],
  "embeddingsProvider": {
    "model": "bge-multilingual-gemma2",
    "provider": "openai",
    "apiKey": "###SCW_SECRET_KEY###"
  },
  "tabAutocompleteModel": {
    "model": "qwen2.5-coder-32b-instruct",
    "title": "Autocomplete - Scaleway",
    "provider": "openai",
    "apiKey": "###SCW_SECRET_KEY###"
  }
}
Tip

For more details on configuring config.yaml, refer to the official Continue documentation. If you want to limit access to a specific Scaleway Project, you should add the field "apiBase": "https://api.scaleway.ai/###PROJECT_ID###/v1/" for each model (ie. models, embeddingsProvider and tabAutocompleteModel) since the default URL https://api.scaleway.ai/v1/ can only be used with the default project.

Activate Continue in IntelliJ IDEA

After configuring the API, activate Continue in IntelliJ IDEA:

  • Open the Command Search (PressShift twice quickly on Windows/Linux/macOS).
  • Type "Continue" and select the appropriate command to enable AI-powered assistance.
Important

Enabling tab completion may lead to higher token consumption as the model generates predictions for every keystroke. Be mindful of your API usage and adjust settings accordingly to avoid unexpected costs. For more information, refer to the official Continue documentation.

Going further

You can add more parameters to configure your model's behavior by editing config.yaml. For instance, you can add the following chatOptions.baseSystemMessage value to modify LLM messages "role":"system" and/or "role":"developer" and provide less verbose answers:

model:...
chatOptions:
  baseSystemMessage: "You are an expert developer. Only write concise answers."
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