With the rise of AI PC capabilities, hosting own Visual Studio code assistant is at your reach. In this demo, we will showcase how to deploy local LLM serving with OVMS and integrate it with Continue extension. It will employ GPU acceleration.
- Windows (for standalone app) or Linux (using Docker)
- Python installed (for model preparation only)
- Intel Meteor Lake, Lunar Lake, Arrow Lake or Panther Lake.
- Memory requirements depend on the model size
::::{tab-set} :::{tab-item} OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int4-ov :sync: OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int4-ov
mkdir c:\models
ovms --model_repository_path c:\models --source_model OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int4-ov --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser qwen3coder --rest_port 8000 --cache_dir .ovcache --model_name Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-InstructNote: For deployment, the model requires ~16GB disk space and recommended 19GB+ of VRAM on the GPU.
Note: An int8 variant is also available:
OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int8-ov. It offers higher accuracy but requires 34GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. :::
:::{tab-item} OpenVINO/gpt-oss-20b-int4-ov :sync: OpenVINO/gpt-oss-20b-int4-ov
mkdir c:\models
ovms --model_repository_path c:\models --source_model OpenVINO/gpt-oss-20b-int4-ov --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser gptoss --reasoning_parser gptoss --rest_port 8000 --cache_dir .ovcache --model_name gpt-oss-20bNote: For deployment, the model requires ~12GB disk space and recommended 16GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. :::
:::{tab-item} OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov :sync: OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov
mkdir c:\models
ovms --model_repository_path c:\models --source_model OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser hermes3 --reasoning_parser qwen3 --rest_port 8000 --cache_dir .ovcache --model_name Qwen3-8BNote: For deployment, the model requires ~4GB disk space and recommended 6GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. ::: :::{tab-item} OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-cw-ov :sync: OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-cw-ov
mkdir c:\models
ovms --model_repository_path c:\models --source_model OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-cw-ov --task text_generation --target_device NPU --tool_parser hermes3 --rest_port 8000 --max_prompt_len 16384 --plugin_config "{\"NPUW_LLM_PREFILL_ATTENTION_HINT\":\"PYRAMID\"}" --cache_dir .ovcache --model_name Qwen3-8BNote: First model initialization might be long. With the compilation cache, sequential model loading will be fast. ::: :::{tab-item} Junrui2021/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-int4 :sync: Junrui2021/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-int4
mkdir c:\models
ovms --model_repository_path c:\models --source_model Junrui2021/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-int4 --task text_generation --target_device GPU --pipeline_type VLM_CB --rest_port 8000 --cache_dir .ovcache --model_name Qwen3-VL-8B-InstructNote: This is a Vision Language Model (VLM) that supports image inputs. For deployment, recommended 7GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. ::: ::::
::::{tab-set} :::{tab-item} OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int4-ov :sync: OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int4-ov
mkdir -p models
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --rm --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd)/models:/models/:rw --device /dev/dri --group-add=$(stat -c "%g" /dev/dri/render* | head -n 1) \
openvino/model_server:weekly \
--model_repository_path /models --source_model OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int4-ov --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser qwen3coder --rest_port 8000 --model_name Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-InstructNote: For deployment, the model requires ~16GB disk space and recommended 19GB+ of VRAM on the GPU.
Note: An int8 variant is also available:
OpenVINO/Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct-int8-ov. It offers higher accuracy but requires 34GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. :::
:::{tab-item} OpenVINO/gpt-oss-20B-int4-ov :sync: OpenVINO/gpt-oss-20B-int4-ov
mkdir -p models
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --rm --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd)/models:/models/:rw --device /dev/dri --group-add=$(stat -c "%g" /dev/dri/render* | head -n 1) \
openvino/model_server:weekly \
--model_repository_path /models --source_model OpenVINO/gpt-oss-20b-int4-ov --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser gptoss --reasoning_parser gptoss --rest_port 8000 --model_name gpt-oss-20bNote: For deployment, the model requires ~12GB disk space and recommended 16GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. :::
:::{tab-item} OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov :sync: OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov
mkdir c:\models
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --rm --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd)/models:/models/:rw --device /dev/dri --group-add=$(stat -c "%g" /dev/dri/render* | head -n 1) \
openvino/model_server:weekly \
--model_repository_path /models --source_model OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-ov --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser hermes3 --reasoning_parser qwen3 --rest_port 8000 --model_name Qwen3-8BNote: For deployment, the model requires ~4GB disk space and recommended 6GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. ::: :::{tab-item} OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-cw-ov :sync: OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-cw-ov
mkdir -p models
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --rm --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd)/models:/models/:rw --device /dev/accel --group-add=$(stat -c "%g" /dev/dri/render* | head -n 1) \
openvino/model_server:weekly \
--model_repository_path /models --source_model OpenVINO/Qwen3-8B-int4-cw-ov --task text_generation --target_device NPU --tool_parser hermes3 --rest_port 8000 --max_prompt_len 16384 --plugin_config '{"NPUW_LLM_PREFILL_ATTENTION_HINT":"PYRAMID"}' --model_name Qwen3-8BNote: First model initialization might be long. With the compilation cache, sequential model loading will be fast. ::: :::{tab-item} Junrui2021/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-int4 :sync: Junrui2021/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-int4
mkdir -p models
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 --rm --user $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd)/models:/models/:rw --device /dev/dri --group-add=$(stat -c "%g" /dev/dri/render* | head -n 1) \
openvino/model_server:weekly \
--model_repository_path /models --source_model Junrui2021/Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct-int4 --task text_generation --target_device GPU --pipeline_type VLM_CB --rest_port 8000 --model_name Qwen3-VL-8B-InstructNote: This is a Vision Language Model (VLM) that supports image inputs. For deployment, recommended 7GB+ of VRAM on the GPU. ::: ::::
Models which are not published in OpenVINO format can be exported and quantized with custom parameters. Below is an example how to export and deploy model Devstral-Small-2507.
mkdir models
python export_model.py text_generation --source_model unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507 --weight-format int4 --config_file_path models/config_all.json --model_repository_path models --tool_parser devstral --target_device GPU
curl -L -o models/unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507/chat_template.jinja https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openvinotoolkit/model_server/refs/heads/main/extras/chat_template_examples/chat_template_devstral.jinja
ovms --model_repository_path models --source_model unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507 --task text_generation --target_device GPU --tool_parser devstral --rest_port 8000 --cache_dir .ovcache
Note: Exporting models is a one time operation but might consume RAM at least of the model size and might take a lot of time depending on the model size.
Download Continue plugin
Note: This demo has been tested with Continue plugin version
1.2.11. While newer versions should work, some configuration options may vary.
We need to point Continue plugin to our OpenVINO Model Server instance. Open configuration file:
Prepare a config:
::::{tab-set} :::{tab-item} Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct :sync: Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct
name: Local Assistant
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
- name: OVMS Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct
provider: openai
model: Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct
apiKey: unused
apiBase: http://localhost:8000/v3
roles:
- chat
- edit
- apply
- autocomplete
capabilities:
- tool_use
autocompleteOptions:
maxPromptTokens: 500
debounceDelay: 124
modelTimeout: 400
onlyMyCode: true
useCache: true
context:
- provider: code
- provider: docs
- provider: diff
- provider: terminal
- provider: problems
- provider: folder
- provider: codebase
:::
:::{tab-item} gpt-oss-20b :sync: gpt-oss-20b
name: Local Assistant
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
- name: OVMS gpt-oss-20b
provider: openai
model: gpt-oss-20b
apiKey: unused
apiBase: http://localhost:8000/v3
roles:
- chat
- edit
- apply
capabilities:
- tool_use
- name: OVMS gpt-oss-20b autocomplete
provider: openai
model: gpt-oss-20b
apiKey: unused
apiBase: http://localhost:8000/v3
roles:
- autocomplete
capabilities:
- tool_use
requestOptions:
extraBodyProperties:
reasoning_effort:
none
autocompleteOptions:
maxPromptTokens: 500
debounceDelay: 124
useCache: true
onlyMyCode: true
modelTimeout: 400
context:
- provider: code
- provider: docs
- provider: diff
- provider: terminal
- provider: problems
- provider: folder
- provider: codebase
::: :::{tab-item} unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507 :sync: unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507
name: Local Assistant
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
- name: OVMS unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507
provider: openai
model: unsloth/Devstral-Small-2507
apiKey: unused
apiBase: http://localhost:8000/v3
roles:
- chat
- edit
- apply
- autocomplete
capabilities:
- tool_use
autocompleteOptions:
maxPromptTokens: 500
debounceDelay: 124
useCache: true
onlyMyCode: true
modelTimeout: 400
context:
- provider: code
- provider: docs
- provider: diff
- provider: terminal
- provider: problems
- provider: folder
- provider: codebase
::: :::{tab-item} Qwen3-8B :sync: Qwen3-8B
name: Local Assistant
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
- name: OVMS Qwen3-8B
provider: openai
model: Qwen3-8B
apiKey: unused
apiBase: http://localhost:8000/v3
roles:
- chat
- edit
- apply
capabilities:
- tool_use
requestOptions:
extraBodyProperties:
chat_template_kwargs:
enable_thinking: false
context:
- provider: code
- provider: docs
- provider: diff
- provider: terminal
- provider: problems
- provider: folder
- provider: codebase
::: :::{tab-item} Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct :sync: Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
name: Local Assistant
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
- name: OVMS Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
provider: openai
model: Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct
apiKey: unused
apiBase: http://localhost:8000/v3
roles:
- chat
- edit
- apply
capabilities:
- tool_use
- image_input
context:
- provider: code
- provider: docs
- provider: diff
- provider: terminal
- provider: problems
- provider: folder
- provider: codebase
::: ::::
Note: For Vision Language Models (VLM) like Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct, add
image_inputto thecapabilitieslist in the Continue config. This enables the image modality, allowing you to send images in chat messages for the model to analyze.
Note: For more information about this config, see configuration reference.
- to use chatting feature click continue button on the left sidebar
- use
CTRL+Ito select and include source in chat message - use
CTRL+Lto select and edit the source via chat request - simply write code to see code autocompletion (NOTE: this is turned off by default)
Continue.dev plugin is shipped with multiple built-in tools. For full list please visit Continue documentation.
To use them, select Agent Mode:
Select model that support tool calling from model list:
Example use cases for tools:
- Run terminal commands
- Look up web links
- Search files
- Image input
- Extending VRAM allocation to iGPU to enable loading bigger models









