How Continue is building a customizable AI coding assistant for every developer

Continue, an AI-powered code assistant, is seeking a software engineer to enhance its autocomplete and codebase retrieval capabilities. The San Francisco-based YC S23 startup has gained significant traction with over 24,000 GitHub stars and one million downloads, including adoption by large organizations like Siemens. Founded in 2023 by Ty Dunn and Nate Sesti, Continue focuses on amplifying rather than automating developers through open-source IDE extensions and AI tools.

The big picture: Continue is building technology that enables developers to create, share, and use custom AI code assistants through their platform of models, rules, prompts, and documentation.

• The company is backed by Heavybit and angel investors including Julien Chaumond (Hugging Face co-founder), Lisha Li (Rosebud AI founder), and Florian Leibert (Mesosphere co-founder).
• With a team of seven people, Continue describes itself as working at the intersection of AI and developer tools.

Key qualifications: The role requires proficiency in TypeScript, Node.js, and React/Next.js, with strong attention to detail and willingness to make pragmatic trade-offs.

• Candidates should have an interest in AI engineering or machine learning.
• Good design sense is emphasized as important for the position.
• The job posting notes that candidates don’t need to meet all requirements if they’re confident in their ability to perform the role.

Role responsibilities: The engineer will focus on improving core metrics like autocomplete acceptance rate and codebase retrieval accuracy in Continue’s open-source products.

• The position involves taking ownership of UI details, running experiments, and iterating based on user feedback.
• The engineer will design abstractions that may serve as open-source standards for the industry.
• Community engagement through GitHub and Discord will be part of the role, including answering questions and resolving user problems.

Company philosophy: Continue emphasizes creating a future where developers are “amplified, not automated” through their AI assistant technology.

• The startup environment requires flexibility to “do whatever is required to accomplish our mission.”
• The open-source nature of the product appears central to the company’s approach to development and community building.