Continue bringing VS Code's Extension Host to a halt

[jtabox]

Before submitting your bug report

• I believe this is a bug. I'll try to join the Continue Discord for questions
• 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

- OS: Windows 11 Pro (Build 10.0.26100.4202)
- Continue version: Pre-release 1.1.45
- IDE version: VS Code 1.100.3 (user setup)

Description

Suddenly Continue has started throwing multiple errors in the console about "The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value" and appears to keep the whole Extension Host thread occupied, to the point where any other extension gets stuck when it tries to do something (e.g. Git Graph looking like it's loading forever). The task manager shows the Extension Host's thread constantly using the CPU until I kill it, at which point a new one spawns and gets stuck within a few seconds, like the previous one.

I'm not exactly sure when this started, but I noticed it earlier today, maybe 5-6 hours ago. I've spent the last hour trying to find out if there was some other factor affecting Continue, but I haven't found any.

Thinking initially it was some kind of corruption issue, I started from the basics. Specifically:

• I ran chkdsk, sfc /scannow, dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth, etc on the system drive -> No issues.
• Individually checked Continue's and VS Code's files for errors -> No issues
• Ran multiple registry scans -> No issues
• Uninstalled and then reinstalled VS Code and Continue -> Issue persisted
• Disabled all extensions -> Issue disappeared
• Activated Continue -> Issue reappeared.

To reproduce

I just open VS Code, open a folder/workspace and then after a few seconds the console is spammed with this:

Details

Here's the relevant text too:

Details

l.onmessage @ localProcessExtensionHost.ts:378
console.ts:137 [Extension Host] Failed to parse rolled assistant: 
log.ts:460   ERR [Extension Host] Failed to unroll block [object Object]: Failed to parse assistant:
: Expected object, received null
error @ log.ts:460
error @ log.ts:565
error @ logService.ts:51
gws @ remoteConsoleUtil.ts:58
$logExtensionHostMessage @ mainThreadConsole.ts:38
S @ rpcProtocol.ts:458
Q @ rpcProtocol.ts:443
M @ rpcProtocol.ts:373
L @ rpcProtocol.ts:299
(anonymous) @ rpcProtocol.ts:161
B @ event.ts:1208
fire @ event.ts:1239
fire @ ipc.net.ts:652
l.onmessage @ localProcessExtensionHost.ts:378
console.ts:137 [Extension Host] Failed to unroll block [object Object]: Failed to parse assistant:
: Expected object, received null
dws @ console.ts:137
$logExtensionHostMessage @ mainThreadConsole.ts:39
S @ rpcProtocol.ts:458
Q @ rpcProtocol.ts:443
M @ rpcProtocol.ts:373
L @ rpcProtocol.ts:299
(anonymous) @ rpcProtocol.ts:161
B @ event.ts:1208
fire @ event.ts:1239
fire @ ipc.net.ts:652
l.onmessage @ localProcessExtensionHost.ts:378
localProcessExtensionHost.ts:275 Extension Host
localProcessExtensionHost.ts:276 ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.
log.ts:460   ERR [Extension Host] ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.
error @ log.ts:460
error @ log.ts:565
error @ logService.ts:51
gws @ remoteConsoleUtil.ts:58
$logExtensionHostMessage @ mainThreadConsole.ts:38
S @ rpcProtocol.ts:458
Q @ rpcProtocol.ts:443
M @ rpcProtocol.ts:373
L @ rpcProtocol.ts:299
(anonymous) @ rpcProtocol.ts:161
B @ event.ts:1208
fire @ event.ts:1239
fire @ ipc.net.ts:652
l.onmessage @ localProcessExtensionHost.ts:378
console.ts:137 [Extension Host] ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value.
dws @ console.ts:137
$logExtensionHostMessage @ mainThreadConsole.ts:39

Log output

[devinpadron1]

I am also encountering this issue. It pretty much bricks all of the extensions. Curious if you found a workaround.

[jtabox]

I am also encountering this issue. It pretty much bricks all of the extensions. Curious if you found a workaround.

Not a workaround exactly, I just changed to another coding assistant for now because I didn't have the time or energy to troubleshoot stuff 😅 Will probably try using Continue again when I have more time.

[jtabox]

I am also encountering this issue. It pretty much bricks all of the extensions. Curious if you found a workaround.

Update:

So I re-installed Continue today to see if it was fixed and it looked like it initially, but after 5 mins or so I started having seemingly unrelated problems. Specifically the Git extension was freaking out, wouldn't recognize repos it was already in, etc, and it ended up in the whole Extension Host restarting multiple times.

So I got a message if I wanted to run Extension Bisect, which essentially deactivates extensions and has you trying to reproduce the issue, and as kinda half-expected:

There seems to be an issue about it, not sure if you saw it:

#6612

There's a temporary solution to essentially rename the .continue config folder, reinstall Continue and then restore your config. Haven't tried it yet.

[Patrick-Erichsen]

Thanks for the detailed writeups here @jtabox ! I'm hoping that 1) the original issue has been resolved, and 2) the new issue you encountered above has been solved in 1.1.63 release.

[jtabox]

Thanks for the detailed writeups here @jtabox ! I'm hoping that 1) the original issue has been resolved, and 2) the new issue you encountered above has been solved in 1.1.63 release.

No problems. Aye, seems like 1.1.63 solved the issue. Guess I'll close this issue since it's been resolved, feel free to reopen otherwise.