# Use AlphaNeural with Continue (VS Code and JetBrains)

### Create a local secret for your AlphaNeural key

Continue can load secrets from `.env` files (workspace or global), then reference them from `config.yaml`.

Pick one of these locations (searched in this order):

* `<workspace-root>/.env`
* `<workspace-root>/.continue/.env`
* `~/.continue/.env` (global)

Example `~/.continue/.env`:

```bash
ALPHANEURAL_API_KEY=your_key_here
```

### Configure Continue to use AlphaNeural

Edit (or create) your local config file:

* macOS/Linux: `~/.continue/config.yaml`
* Windows: `%USERPROFILE%\.continue\config.yaml`

Minimal config using AlphaNeural as an OpenAI-compatible provider:

```yaml
name: AlphaNeural
version: 0.0.1
schema: v1

models:
  - name: AlphaNeural Chat
    provider: openai
    model: qwen3
    apiBase: https://proxy.alfnrl.io/v1
    apiKey: ${{ secrets.ALPHANEURAL_API_KEY }}
    roles: [chat, edit, apply]

  - name: AlphaNeural Autocomplete
    provider: openai
    model: qwen3
    apiBase: https://proxy.alfnrl.io/v1
    apiKey: ${{ secrets.ALPHANEURAL_API_KEY }}
    roles: [autocomplete]
```

* Continue’s OpenAI provider supports overriding `apiBase` for OpenAI-compatible servers.
* Continue lets you reference secrets from `.env` using the `secrets` namespace.
* `roles` controls where the model is available (chat vs autocomplete, etc).

### Reload Continue

If your model does not show up, reload VS Code so extensions re-read the config.

* Command palette: type **Reload Window**

For JetBrains, restarting the IDE is the simplest equivalent.

### Select the model and run a smoke test

Open the Continue sidebar, choose **AlphaNeural Chat**, then try:

* “Summarise this file and suggest improvements”
* “Explain this stack trace and propose a fix”

### Optional. Enable tools and vision explicitly

If Agent mode is disabled or tools are flaky, you can force capabilities in the model block.

```yaml
capabilities: [tool_use, image_input]
```

This is especially useful when you are routing through proxies where capability auto-detection is imperfect.