Completely uninstall extension for clear installation. (Missing docs?)

[djObsidian]

Validations

• I believe this is a way to improve. I'll try to join the Continue Discord for questions
• I'm not able to find an open issue that requests the same enhancement

Problem

I'm trying to completely uninstall continue to do a clean install. However, after I uninstall the extension, restart the vscod and reinstall - the configuration and chats are in place. Deleting via rmdir %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions /s did not help either.

Solution

Add the ability to delete the entire extension including chat history and all configurations or clarify where is everyting is stored and what needs to be deleted in order to do a clean install

[RomneyDa]

@djObsidian you can delete your global continue directory to achieve this

rmdir %USERPROFILE%\.continue

[RomneyDa]

Will leave open till docs are updated on this:
Add somewhere in docs:

For a fully clean installation, uninstall the extension, delete the Continue Global Directory at ~/.continue, and clear the application local storage in the web dev tools.

Or similar

[coolbluewater]

Hi, running in to the same issue.
Please don't take it the wrong way, but this:

clear the application local storage in the web dev tools.

is entirely too frustrating for a normal user. It needs to be spelled out in a paragraph with a couple of pictures.

I actually opened VSCode's dev tools and entered
window.localStorage.clear();
in the console. I also quit VSCode, deleted the ~/.continue and the ~/.vscode/extensions/continue<version> folder and restarted VSCode. I then reinstalled continue (the pre-release version for good measure) and still the chat history persists.

The reason I'm doing all this is because I saw this interview with the co-founder Nate where he mentions (at around 6:30) that the starting screen asks whether you want to run entirely locally (which I do) and if so sets up everything to do so.

None of this works. Cannot delete the chat history and cannot get to this startup screen. Please help.

[im-rotaru]

Uninstall the extension from VScode
delete %USERPROFILE%.vscode\extensions[the continue folder]
delete %USERPROFILE%.continue

And only after this I was able to have a clean install:
I deleted %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Code\Local Storage
(might have worked with just that folder but to be sure I also deleted these folders Cache, Backups, CachedExtensionVSIXs)

Now you can reinstall the continue extension and set it up like it was the first time.

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue hasn't been updated in 90 days and will be closed after an additional 10 days without activity. If it's still important, please leave a comment and share any new information that would help us address the issue.

[mattalxndr]

@dosubot added [os:windows]

I'm having this issue on Arch Linux.

[dosubot[bot]]

To completely uninstall the Continue extension and remove all configuration and chat history on Arch Linux, follow these steps:

1. Uninstall the Continue extension from VS Code
   Use the Extensions sidebar in VS Code to uninstall Continue.

2. Delete the Continue global directory
   In your terminal, run:

   rm -rf ~/.continue

3. Delete the extension directory from VS Code
   Run:

   rm -rf ~/.vscode/extensions/continue*

4. Clear VS Code's local storage
   VS Code stores some persistent data in its local storage. To clear this:

   • Open VS Code.
   • Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P), type Developer: Open Webview Developer Tools, and select it.
   • In the DevTools window, go to the Application tab.
   • In the left sidebar, expand Local Storage and select vscode-webview://<some-id>.
   • Find and delete the key named persist:root (or clear all local storage for a full reset)
     This step is important for removing persistent chat history and settings that survive reinstalls.
     (Reference)

5. (Optional) Remove other VS Code user data
   If you want to be extra thorough, you can also clear VS Code's user data:

   rm -rf ~/.config/Code/Local\ Storage
   rm -rf ~/.config/Code/Cache
   rm -rf ~/.config/Code/Backups
   rm -rf ~/.config/Code/CachedExtensionVSIXs

   (Replace Code with Code - OSS if you use the open source version.)

After these steps, reinstalling Continue should give you a fresh, first-time setup experience.

For more technical details, the extension's own "cleanSlate" logic removes ~/.continue and clears local storage, specifically the persist:root value, which is what persists redux state and chat history in the extension's UI
(Reference).

Let me know if you need more details or run into any issues!

To continue talking to Dosu, mention @dosu-bot.

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