sooo i was looking into this earlier and honestly, i think u gotta be a bit careful with how u integrate these. if ur worried about latency and security, here's my take based on some technical testing: - Continue extension for VS Code: this is basically the most reliable one for daily driving. it handles the api calls super clean, but *make sure* u use the local indexing feature. it keeps ur code context private which is a huge plus for security.
- Cline for VS Code: it's amazing for big, agentic tasks, but ngl, the latency can spike when it starts looping through ur files. i would suggest only using this when u need an agent to actually write complex logic, not just for quick autocompletes.
- CodeGPT for JetBrains IDEs: for intellij, this is probably the most 'native' feeling way to get deepseek working without a ton of bloat. it's low-friction but u gotta manually tune the prompt templates for the best results. idk but definitely keep an eye on ur api usage limits. deepseek is awesome but their servers sometimes get slammed... anyway hope that helps, gl!

In my experience, I'd suggest sticking with Continue extension for VS Code. it's SO much smoother for DeepSeek than the others I've tested over the years. - Continue: Fast, low-latency, and the codebase indexing actually works.
- Roo Code: Cool for agentic stuff but definitely feels laggier. I'm super satisfied with Continue... it basically feels native and the API integration works well without any fuss. gl!

Good to know!

I'm literally in the middle of this exact same struggle right now and it's so frustrating. Years of dev work haven't prepared me for how janky these AI integrations can feel. It's been about three weeks of searching and honestly, a native experience still feels miles away. Before we get too deep into it, I wanted to ask what kind of hardware you're using? My testing has shown:

• indexing can be a total resource hog depending on the plugin
• you gotta be careful with how these things handle your tokens
• some just have terrible lag when you're working in a large codebase The whole situation is just exhausting. It seems like every time a new extension pops up, it ends up having some weird bug or it's just too slow for actual daily use. I'm right there with you, just searching for something that actually works as advertised...

I've been through this - tried a bunch of setups over the years to save cash. I looked at a few plugins, but Continue extension for VS Code paired with DeepSeek-V3 API is the winner for me. Idk if it's the fastest for everyone, but it's way cheaper than a sub and the indexing actually works well. I'm really happy with it... basically the best value right now. gl!

Would love to know this too

Same boat, watching this