Documentation isn't clear about how to make continue aware of all or some files in the project tree

[i-love-coffee-i-love-tea]

Before submitting your bug report

• I've tried using the "Ask AI" feature on the Continue docs site to see if the docs have an answer
• I'm not able to find a related conversation on GitHub discussions that reports the same bug
• I'm not able to find an open issue that reports the same bug
• I've seen the troubleshooting guide on the Continue Docs

Relevant environment info

- config:
  
name: Local Config
version: 1.0.0
schema: v1
models:
  - name: Autodetect
    provider: ollama
    apiBase: http://192.168.0.221:11434
    model: AUTODETECT
    roles:
      - chat
      - autocomplete
      - edit
      - apply
      - embed
  - name: deepseek r1
    provider: ollama
    model: deepseek/deepseek-r1
    apiBase: http://192.168.0.221:11434
context:
  - provider: file
  - provider: code
  - provider: diff

Description

No response

To reproduce

The relevant guide in the documentation does mention what is possible, but does not specify HOW to do it.

I tried to find out via the context providers documentation, but it is not very clear about how to use providers:

https://docs.continue.dev/customize/deep-dives/custom-providers

For example, the file provider:

I have to guess what this means. I assume it principally enables the file context, but does not add any files via configuration.

None of the providers seem to give access to the full source tree without adding files manually to the agent or chat.

I guess the idea is that the agent picks the files it needs to look at itself, by looking at the output of the tree context provider, but when I ask to explain my project it says I should add the files.

Log output

[i-love-coffee-i-love-tea]

Now that I wrote it, it became clear to me. I notice I was missing the tree provider and that is why it asked me to add the files. A description what the context providers do and whether they are required for features to work would be helpful.

I believe it works now, after adding the tree provider to the config, although i am not sure about it. It tells me class names of files, I don't have open, but halucinates a package structure of com/yourcompany/xy

[uinstinct]

For claude, gpt, qwen3, the agent goes on to list the file and directory structures using either directory tool or terminal tools.
For other models like deepseek, adding context provider including tree and file is useful.

Adding @bdougie for visibiity