postIntellijMessage is undefined - Continue Plugin v1.0.43 IntelliJ Integration Issue

[texzone]

Summary

Continue plugin v1.0.43 fails to initialize JavaScript bridge in IntelliJ IDEA, resulting in postIntellijMessage is undefined errors and complete plugin non-functionality. I cannot send a single message on Continue

Environment

• IntelliJ IDEA: Ultimate 2025.2 (Build #IU-252.25557.131, Aug 27 2025)
• Continue Plugin: v1.0.43
• OS: macOS 15.6.1 (ARM64)
• JRE: 21.0.8+9-b1038.71 (JetBrains s.r.o.)

Error Details

JavaScript Console Errors

Unable to send message: postIntellijMessage is undefined.  jetbrains/isOSREnabled undefined
index.js:218 Attempt 0 failed. Retrying...
Unable to send message: postIntellijMessage is undefined.  controlPlane/getFreeTrialStatus undefined
index.js:218 Attempt 0 failed. Retrying...
Unable to send message: postIntellijMessage is undefined.  getOpenFiles undefined
index.js:218 Attempt 0 failed. Retrying...
Unable to send message: postIntellijMessage is undefined.  config/getSerializedProfileInfo undefined
index.js:218 Attempt 0 failed. Retrying...
Unable to send message: postIntellijMessage is undefined.  jetbrains/getColors undefined
index.js:218 Attempt 0 failed. Retrying...
Unable to send message: postIntellijMessage is undefined.  jetbrains/onLoad undefined
index.js:218 Attempt 0 failed. Retrying...

IntelliJ Logs

2025-09-16 12:47:52,533 [318082] WARN - ContinueBrowser - Failed to execute the requested JS expression. The related JCEF browser in not initialized.
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to execute the requested JS expression. The related JCEF browser in not initialized.
	at com.intellij.ui.jcef.JBCefBrowserJsCall.invoke(JBCefBrowserJsCall.kt:113)
	at com.intellij.ui.jcef.JBCefBrowserJsCallKt.executeJavaScriptAsync(JBCefBrowserJsCall.kt:58)
	at com.github.continuedev.continueintellijextension.browser.ContinueBrowser.sendToWebview(ContinueBrowser.kt:88)

Root Cause Analysis

The issue appears to be that the Continue plugin's JavaScript bridge (postIntellijMessage function) is not being properly injected into the JCEF (Java Chromium Embedded Framework) browser context. This results in:

1. JCEF browser loads successfully - The webview initializes
2. Continue plugin webview loads - JavaScript executes
3. JavaScript bridge is missing - postIntellijMessage function is undefined
4. All plugin functionality fails - Cannot communicate with IntelliJ

Troubleshooting Attempted

1. Plugin Reinstallation

• Uninstalled/reinstalled plugin multiple times
• Cleared plugin caches and settings
• No improvement

2. JCEF Configuration Changes

Tried various JCEF settings in idea.vmoptions:

-Dide.browser.jcef.enabled=true
-Dide.browser.jcef.osr.enabled=false
-Dide.browser.jcef.sandbox.enable=false
-Dide.browser.jcef.contextMenu.enabled=true
-Dide.browser.jcef.debug.enabled=true

3. Configuration Reset

• Removed ContinueExtensionSettings.xml
• Cleared task and context cache files
• Reset Continue configuration (~/.continue/config.json)

4. IntelliJ Cache Invalidation

• Invalidated caches and restarted
• No improvement

Actual Behavior

• Plugin interface appears but is completely non-functional
• All JavaScript bridge calls fail with "undefined" errors
• Continuous retry attempts in console
• No way to interact with the plugin

Additional Context

JCEF Status

JCEF itself is working correctly:

JCEF_V(24:46:642): Found cef_server binary '/Users/user/Applications/IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Frameworks/cef_server.app/Contents/MacOS/cef_server'
JCEF_V(24:46:642): Created CefServer instance. Transport port=6188 (backward port=6189)

This issue makes the plugin completely unusable in IntelliJ IDEA despite multiple reinstallation attempts and configuration changes... any ideas?

[exigow]

Hey, thanks for the writeup! You must have put a lot of work into troubleshooting this. I wish all bug reports looked like yours. 🙇

Your JCEF browser is definitely working, but for some reason it failed to initialize the code responsible for communication with the browser (and this is the first case of this kind that I know of). I debugged this today and I'm pretty sure the problem lies somewhere in our custom resource handler that establishes connection with our GUI and the protocol, and this is the reason why basically nothing works in your case. I'm still debugging/testing ideas what's causing this, but if you happened to see anything in the logs that would point to some connection error with localhost or continue domain, please post (it would confirm my suspicions).

[texzone]

Exigow, I am so sorry, I am just seeing this. I would love to help you out more. If there is anything specific you would like me to investigate, please let me know - I have not noticed anything interesting in the logs, but if there is way for me to investigate deeper (mayeb there are logs i have missed), I would love to get those for you, just tell me how/where?

[texzone]

Interestingly, the plugin is now showing "nothing to show" when I open it. I tried uninstalling it and invalidating caches - same thing. Hm.