Merge pull request #7226 from continuedev/bdougie/recommend-models

docs: add recommended models section with best models by role

Author: BekahHW

docs/customization/models.mdx

@@ -12,6 +12,20 @@ description: "These blocks form the foundation of the entire assistant experienc
 
 ![Model Blocks Overview](/images/customization/images/model-blocks-overview-36c30e7e01928d7a9b5b26ff1639c34b.png)
 
+## Recommended Models
+
+### Best Models by Role
+
+| Model role | Best open models | Best closed models | Notes |
+|:------------|:------------------|:-------------------|:--------|
+| Agent / Plan | Qwen 3 Coder (480B), Qwen 3 Coder (30B), Devstral (24B), GLM 4.5 (355B), GLM 4.5 Air (106B), Kimi K2 (1T), gpt-oss (120B), gpt-oss (20B) | [Claude Opus 4.1](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-4-1-opus), [Claude Sonnet 4](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-4-sonnet), [GPT-5](https://hub.continue.dev/openai/gpt-5), [Gemini 2.5 Pro](https://hub.continue.dev/google/gemini-2.5-pro) | Closed models are slightly better than open models |
+| Chat / Edit | Qwen 3 Coder (480B), Qwen 3 Coder (30B), gpt-oss (120B), gpt-oss (20B) | [Claude Opus 4.1](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-4-1-opus), [Claude Sonnet 4](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-4-sonnet), [GPT-5](https://hub.continue.dev/openai/gpt-5), [Gemini 2.5 Pro](https://hub.continue.dev/google/gemini-2.5-pro) | Closed and open models have pretty similar performance |
+| Autocomplete | [QwenCoder2.5 (1.5B)](https://hub.continue.dev/ollama/qwen2.5-coder-1.5b), QwenCoder2.5 (7B) | [Codestral](https://hub.continue.dev/mistral/codestral), Mercury Coder | Closed models are slightly better than open models |
+| Apply | N/A | [Relace Instant Apply](https://hub.continue.dev/relace/instant-apply), [Morph Fast Apply](https://hub.continue.dev/morphllm/morph-v2) | Open models are basically non-existent / not good enough for this model role |
+| Embed | N/A | [Voyage Code 3](https://hub.continue.dev/voyageai/voyage-code-3), [Morph Embeddings](https://hub.continue.dev/morphllm/morph-embedding-v2), Codestral Embed | Open models are basically non-existent / not good enough for this model role |
+| Rerank | zerank-1, zerank-1-small | rerank-2.5, Relace Code Rerank, [Morph Rerank](https://hub.continue.dev/morphllm/morph-rerank-v2) | Open models are beginning to emerge for this model role |
+| Next Edit | Zeta | Mercury Coder | Closed models are significantly better than open models |
+
 ## Learn More About Model Blocks
 
 Continue supports [many model providers](/customize/model-providers/top-level/openai), including Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama, Amazon Bedrock, Azure, xAI, DeepSeek, and more. Models can have various roles like `chat`, `edit`, `apply`, `autocomplete`, `embed`, and `rerank`.

docs/customize/deep-dives/autocomplete.mdx

@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@ keywords: [autocomplete]
 sidebarTitle: Autocomplete
 ---
 
+<Info>
+  For a comprehensive comparison of all autocomplete models, see our [model recommendations table](/customization/models#recommended-models).
+</Info>
+
 ## How to Set Up Autocomplete in Continue with Codestral (Recommended)
 
 If you want to have the best autocomplete experience, we recommend using Codestral, which is available through the [Mistral API](https://console.mistral.ai/). To do this, obtain an API key and add it to your config:

docs/customize/model-roles/00-intro.mdx

@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ Models in Continue can be configured to be used for various roles in the extensi
 
 These roles can be specified for a `config.yaml` model block using `roles`. See the [YAML Specification](/reference#models) for more details.
 
+<Info>
+  For recommendations on which models work best for each role, see our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models).
+</Info>
+
 ## Selecting model roles
 
 You can control which of the models in your assistant for a given role will be currently used for that role. Above the main input, click the 3 dots and then the cube icon to expand the `Models` section. Then you can use the dropdowns to select an active model for each role.

docs/customize/model-roles/apply.mdx

@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ When editing code, Chat and Edit model output often doesn't clearly align with e
 
 ## Recommended Apply models
 
+<Info>
+  For the latest Apply model recommendations, see our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models).
+</Info>
+
 We recommend [Morph Fast Apply](https://morphllm.com) or [Relace's Instant Apply model](https://hub.continue.dev/relace/instant-apply) for the fastest Apply experience. You can sign up for Morph's free tier [here](https://morphllm.com/dashboard) or get a Relace API key [here](https://app.relace.ai/settings/api-keys).
 
 However, most Chat models can also be used for applying code changes. We recommend smaller/cheaper models for the task, such as Claude 3.5 Haiku.

docs/customize/model-roles/autocomplete.mdx

@@ -12,7 +12,11 @@ In Continue, autocomplete models are used to display inline [Autocomplete](../..
 
 ## Recommended Autocomplete models
 
-Visit the [Autocomplete Deep Dive](../deep-dives/autocomplete) for recommended models and more details.
+<Info>
+  See our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models) for the best autocomplete models, including both open and closed options.
+</Info>
+
+Visit the [Autocomplete Deep Dive](../deep-dives/autocomplete) for detailed setup instructions and configuration options.
 
 ## Prompt templating
 

docs/customize/model-roles/chat.mdx

@@ -11,24 +11,28 @@ In Continue, these models are used for normal [Chat](../../features/chat/quick-s
 
 ## Recommended Chat models
 
+<Info>
+  For the latest and most comprehensive model recommendations, see our [model recommendations table](/customization/models#recommended-models).
+</Info>
+
 ## Best overall experience
 
 For the best overall Chat experience, you will want to use a 400B+ parameter model or one of the frontier models.
 
-### Claude Sonnet 3.7 from Anthropic
+### Claude Opus 4.1 and Claude Sonnet 4 from Anthropic
 
-Our current top recommendation is Claude 3.7 Sonnet from [Anthropic](../model-providers/top-level/anthropic).
+Our current top recommendations are Claude Opus 4.1 and Claude Sonnet 4 from [Anthropic](../model-providers/top-level/anthropic).
 
 <Tabs>
   <Tab title="Hub">
-  View the [Claude 3.7 Sonnet model block](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-3-7-sonnet) on the hub.
+  View the [Claude Opus 4.1 model block](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-4-1-opus) or [Claude Sonnet 4 model block](https://hub.continue.dev/anthropic/claude-4-sonnet) on the hub.
   </Tab>
   <Tab title="YAML">
   ```yaml title="config.yaml"
   models:
-    - name: Claude 3.7 Sonnet
+    - name: Claude Opus 4.1
       provider: anthropic
-      model: claude-3-7-sonnet-latest
+      model: claude-4-1-opus
       apiKey: <YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY>
   ```
   </Tab>
@@ -37,9 +41,9 @@ Our current top recommendation is Claude 3.7 Sonnet from [Anthropic](../model-pr
   {
     "models": [
       {
-        "title": "Claude 3.5 Sonnet",
+        "title": "Claude Opus 4.1",
         "provider": "anthropic",
-        "model": "claude-3-5-sonnet-latest",
+        "model": "claude-4-1-opus",
         "apiKey": "<YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY>"
       }
     ]

docs/customize/model-roles/edit.mdx

@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ In Continue, you can add `edit` to a model's roles to specify that it can be use
 
 Explore edit models in [the hub](https://hub.continue.dev/explore/models?roles=edit). Generally, our recommendations for Edit overlap with recommendations for Chat.
 
+<Info>
+  See our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models) for the best models for Edit and Chat roles.
+</Info>
+
 ## Prompt templating
 
 You can customize the prompt template used for editing code by setting the `promptTemplates.edit` property in your model configuration. Continue uses [Handlebars syntax](https://handlebarsjs.com/guide/) for templating.

docs/customize/model-roles/embeddings.mdx

@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ You can add `embed` to a model's `roles` to specify that it can be used to embed
 
 ## Recommended embedding models
 
+<Info>
+  See our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models) for the best embedding models comparison.
+</Info>
+
 If you have the ability to use any model, we recommend `voyage-code-3`, which is listed below along with the rest of the options for embeddings models.
 
 If you want to generate embeddings locally, we recommend using `nomic-embed-text` with [Ollama](../model-providers/top-level/ollama#embeddings-model).

docs/customize/model-roles/reranking.mdx

@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ In Continue, rerankers are designated using the `rerank` role and used by [@Code
 
 ## Recommended reranking models
 
+<Info>
+  For a comparison of all reranking models including open and closed options, see our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models).
+</Info>
+
 If you have the ability to use any model, we recommend `rerank-2` by Voyage AI, which is listed below along with the rest of the options for rerankers.
 
 ### Voyage AI

docs/features/agent/model-setup.mdx

@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ sidebarTitle: "Model Setup"
 
 The models you set up for Chat mode will be used with Agent mode if the model supports tool calling. The recommended models and how to set them up can be found [here](/features/chat/model-setup).
 
+<Info>
+  For the latest recommendations on the best models for Agent/Plan mode, see our [comprehensive model recommendations](/customization/models#recommended-models).
+</Info>
+
 ## How System Message Tools Work
 
 <Info>