genie in Continue.dev

Continue speaks MCP over stdio, SSE, and Streamable HTTP. Two configuration details are worth calling out:

• type is optional in current Continue. Continue's official stdio quick-start omits it, and the schema shipped with Continue CLI 1.5.47 marks type optional for both command- and URL-keyed servers. The snippets below keep type explicit because it makes the intended transport unambiguous to a reader. If omitted, a command entry selects stdio; a URL entry tries Streamable HTTP and then falls back to SSE.
• Continue interpolates secrets as ${{ secrets.NAME }}. For remote MCP authentication, put the resulting header under requestOptions.headers. Continue resolves the placeholder from its secrets sources at config-load time; never put a literal token in the YAML.

Behavior and version were rechecked against the published @continuedev/cli@1.5.47, Continue's CLI documentation, and its current mcpServerSchema on 2026-07-15.

Register the server

Continue reads a full config passed to cn --config, the user-level ~/.continue/config.yaml, or standalone project blocks under .continue/mcpServers/. This is the canonical block for a deployed genie instance:

name: genie
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
mcpServers:
  - name: genie
    type: streamable-http
    url: "https://genie.<operator-domain>/mcp"
    requestOptions:
      headers:
        Authorization: Bearer ${{ secrets.GENIE_TOKEN }}

type: streamable-http is explicit here to document intent, not because the current schema demands it. ${{ secrets.GENIE_TOKEN }} resolves from Continue's secret sources, including a matching environment variable for local CLI use. Never hardcode a bearer token in requestOptions.headers.

Local stdio (a checked-out genie build)

name: genie
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
mcpServers:
  - name: genie
    type: stdio
    command: node
    args:
      - "/absolute/path/to/genie/packages/server/dist/cli.js"
      - "--transport"
      - "stdio"
    env:
      GENIE_LLM_BASE_URL: ${{ secrets.GENIE_LLM_BASE_URL }}
      GENIE_LLM_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.GENIE_LLM_API_KEY }}

The explicit type: stdio is likewise optional. The LLM base URL must end in /v1; route both values through Continue secrets rather than literal YAML values. OAUTH_HS256_KEY is optional and HTTP-only, so do not add it to this stdio configuration.

MCP only works in agent mode

MCP can only be used in agent mode. Continue chat mode and autocomplete do not offer MCP tools to the model. In the IDE, switch the session to agent mode before asking it to run conjure → plan → write_files → preview.

Continue CLI 1.5.47 provides the same agent loop in scriptable headless form:

cn -p --config ./continue.yaml --allow "*" \
  "Use genie to build a button and preview it"

cn -p exits after the agent turn. Headless tools that need approval are otherwise excluded, so automation must grant the intended MCP tools with --allow (use narrower names than "*" outside an isolated smoke test).

Using it in Continue

Install the Agent Skill

Continue's current CLI and IDE code both load Agent Skills. cn@1.5.47 scans project-level .continue/skills and .claude/skills, plus the user-level ~/.continue/skills directory. The IDE's read_skill tool uses the parallel core/config/markdown/loadMarkdownSkills.ts loader during config loading. For a user-level install:

mkdir -p ~/.continue/skills
cp -R packages/plugin/skills/genie ~/.continue/skills/genie

For a project-only install, copy the same directory to .continue/skills/genie. The Skill teaches the four-verb workflow; tool descriptions remain the fallback when it is not installed.

Preview behavior differs by surface

Current Continue IDE source includes both the read_skill loader and an MCP App renderer. It consumes the tool-level _meta.ui.resourceUri that genie advertises in tools/list, so the IDE can render the inline grid. The published Continue CLI 1.5.47 is different only on rendering: cn initializes its MCP client without the MCP Apps UI capability and passes only the MCP result's model-visible content into the agent loop. That text contains the viewer URL or file:// fallback, not a ui:// pointer. cn does not mount an inline grid; open the returned URL to view the generated component.

Smoke-testing a genie/Continue registration

packages/e2e/test/m5-smoke-continue.test.ts runs the published Continue CLI, not a generic MCP SDK stand-in. The test:

1. Parses the canonical YAML blocks above and checks their explicit transport values and unresolved ${{ secrets.NAME }} placeholders.
2. Starts @continuedev/cli@1.5.47 as cn -p with a temporary config derived from the stdio block above. Continue itself loads the config, starts genie's built server, exposes its MCP tools, and invokes them through its headless agent loop.
3. Uses a deterministic loopback OpenAI-compatible model seam for both the Continue agent and genie's conjure call. It verifies one contiguous conjure → plan → write_files → preview flow: the generated file paths and bytes feed plan and write_files, the file lands on disk unchanged, and Continue CLI prints preview's plain-text result.

The deterministic leg needs no external model credentials and does not skip in the dedicated command. Run it from a clean checkout with:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm --filter @ambitresearch/genie-e2e test:e2e:continue

That command builds @ambitresearch/genie-viewer and @ambitresearch/genie first and fails if either the built server or the pinned Continue CLI is unavailable.