Configuring Models, Rules, and Tools

What Are Models, Rules, and Tools?

Continue configs are built from three main types of configuration:

There are two places where you can define these configurations:

Local

Local configurations let you create custom models, rules, and tools that automatically apply to multiple configs, reducing duplication and ensuring consistency across your setup.

Perfect for project-specific setups like TypeScript rules for web apps or the Playwright MCP tool.

Hub

Continue hub uses a slug in the format of owner/item-name to resolve blocks.

For example, to use the Claude 4 Sonnet model, you'd reference it as anthropic/claude-4-sonnet.

Import from Mission Control using the uses syntax alongside your custom configurations:

name: Team Config
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1

models:
  - uses: anthropic/claude-4-sonnet
    with:
      ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }} # Use a hub secret

Organization

Organize your local configurations using these directories:

Working with Secrets

Models, and many MCP servers, require a secret for things like API keys.

On Mission Control, you can configure secrets when adding a model or MCP server.

This will use mustache notation to pass the secret, eg ${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }}

When configuring a local model or MCP server, you can use the same mustache notation for secrets which read from:

For most use cases, use ${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }} directly in your configuration. This is the recommended approach for both personal and organizational workflows.

Use ${{ inputs.INPUT_NAME }} only when you need flexibility to:

• Allow users to customize which secret a block uses without editing the block itself
• Change the secret name without modifying the block configuration
• Create reusable blocks where different users may have differently-named secrets

This pattern is inspired by GitHub Actions, where inputs provide an abstraction layer between block definitions and user-specific values. For most scenarios, directly referencing secrets. keeps configuration simpler and more straightforward. </Info>

Overriding Properties

You can directly override properties using the override syntax:

name: myprofile/custom-config
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1

models:
  - uses: myprofile/custom-model
    with:
      ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.MY_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY }}
      TEMP: 0.9
    override:
      roles:
        - chat

Advanced

Inputs

Models and MCP server authors can configure inputs that require the user to provide a secret value by defining a ${{ inputs.SECRET_NAME }} value.

For example, here is how you could require that the user provide a value for the apiKey property on a model:

name: myprofile/custom-model
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1

models:
  - name: My Favorite Model
    # ... other model properties ...
    apiKey: ${{ inputs.SECRET_NAME }}

Users then map their secret to this input using a ${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }} value that maps to a property name which matches the required input, e.g. SECRET_NAME.

name: myprofile/custom-config
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1

models:
  - uses: myprofile/custom-model
    with:
      SECRET_NAME: ${{ secrets.SECRET_NAME }}

Next Steps

Now that you understand how models, rules, and tools work, explore:

• Config Reference: Detailed documentation of all available properties
• Continue Mission Control: Browse community models, rules, and tools
• Custom Context Providers: Create advanced context integrations
• Model Roles: Understanding how different models work together