Quickstart

Interactive Setup (Recommended)

The fastest way to get started is with our interactive CLI:

npx continum init

This will:

Detect your existing framework (Next.js, Fastify, etc.) or help you set one up
Guide you through configuration (product type, providers, compliance frameworks)
Install the SDK automatically
Generate config files and example code
Set up real-time alerts (Slack, PagerDuty, Discord, Webhooks)

Starting from scratch? Run npx continum init in an empty folder and it will help you set up a complete project with your chosen framework and Continum built-in!

Manual Setup

1. Get your API key

Get your API key from the dashboard:

Sign in with GitHub
Create a customer account (Individual or Company)
Generate an API key
Save it securely (you won’t see it again)

2. Install the SDK

npm install @continum/sdk

yarn add @continum/sdk

pnpm add @continum/sdk

3. Basic usage

Wrap any LLM call with protect():

import { protect } from '@continum/sdk';
import OpenAI from 'openai';

const openai = new OpenAI();

const response = await protect(
  () => openai.chat.completions.create({
    model: 'gpt-4',
    messages: [
      { role: 'system', content: 'You are a helpful assistant.' },
      { role: 'user', content: 'What is the capital of France?' }
    ]
  }),
  {
    apiKey: process.env.CONTINUM_API_KEY!
  },
  {
    preset: 'customer-support',
    comply: ['GDPR', 'SOC2']
  }
);

console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);

import { protect } from '@continum/sdk';
import Anthropic from '@anthropic-ai/sdk';

const anthropic = new Anthropic();

const response = await protect(
  () => anthropic.messages.create({
    model: 'claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022',
    max_tokens: 1024,
    messages: [
      { role: 'user', content: 'What is the capital of France?' }
    ]
  }),
  {
    apiKey: process.env.CONTINUM_API_KEY!
  },
  {
    preset: 'customer-support',
    comply: ['GDPR', 'SOC2']
  }
);

console.log(response.content[0].text);

import { protect } from '@continum/sdk';
import { GoogleGenerativeAI } from '@google/generative-ai';

const genai = new GoogleGenerativeAI(process.env.GOOGLE_API_KEY!);
const model = genai.getGenerativeModel({ model: 'gemini-2.5-pro' });

const response = await protect(
  () => model.generateContent('What is the capital of France?'),
  {
    apiKey: process.env.CONTINUM_API_KEY!
  },
  {
    preset: 'customer-support',
    comply: ['GDPR', 'SOC2']
  }
);

console.log(response.response.text());

4. Global configuration (recommended)

For production, configure once and use everywhere:

import { continum } from '@continum/sdk';

continum.configure({
  apiKey: process.env.CONTINUM_API_KEY!,
  preset: 'customer-support',
  comply: ['GDPR', 'SOC2'],
  alerts: {
    slack: process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL,
    pagerduty: process.env.PAGERDUTY_KEY
  }
});

// Now use protect() without passing config every time
const response = await continum.protect(
  () => openai.chat.completions.create({...})
);

What happens next?

Instant response: Your user gets the LLM response immediately (0ms added latency)
Async audit: The interaction is audited for compliance violations
Real-time alerts: Violations trigger alerts to your configured channels
Signal stored: Results appear in your dashboard within seconds

Presets & Compliance Frameworks

Continum uses presets to automatically configure the right detection types for your use case:

// Customer support bot
{ preset: 'customer-support' }  // → PII, content policy, bias

// Financial services
{ preset: 'fintech-ai', comply: ['FINRA', 'SOC2'] }  // → PII, financial compliance, security

// Healthcare application
{ preset: 'healthcare-ai', comply: ['HIPAA'] }  // → PII, content policy, bias, hallucination

// AI agent with tool use
{ preset: 'agent' }  // → Agent safety, prompt injection, data exfiltration

Available presets:

customer-support, legal-ai, fintech-ai, healthcare-ai
coding-assistant, agent, content-generation
internal-tool, data-pipeline, education-ai

Supported compliance frameworks:

GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, SOC2, ISO_27001
EU_AI_ACT, FINRA, PCI_DSS, NIST_AI_RMF

Real-time Alerts

Get notified instantly when violations are detected:

continum.configure({
  apiKey: process.env.CONTINUM_API_KEY!,
  preset: 'customer-support',
  alerts: {
    slack: process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL,      // HIGH/CRITICAL violations
    pagerduty: process.env.PAGERDUTY_KEY,      // CRITICAL violations only
    discord: process.env.DISCORD_WEBHOOK_URL,  // MEDIUM/LOW violations
    webhook: process.env.CUSTOM_WEBHOOK_URL    // All violations
  }
});

Alerts are automatically routed by risk level without any dashboard configuration needed.

Blocking Mode

For high-risk scenarios, use blocking mode to wait for audit results:

import { protect, ContinumBlockedError } from '@continum/sdk';

try {
  const response = await protect(
    () => openai.chat.completions.create({...}),
    {
      apiKey: process.env.CONTINUM_API_KEY!,
      blockOn: 'HIGH'  // Block if risk level is HIGH or CRITICAL
    }
  );
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof ContinumBlockedError) {
    console.log('Blocked:', error.signal.violations);
    console.log('Risk level:', error.signal.riskLevel);
    // Handle blocked request
  }
}

View your signals

Navigate to your dashboard to see compliance signals:

Risk level breakdown (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, CRITICAL)
Violation types and reasoning
Filter by provider, model, date range
Export for compliance reports

Next steps

Configure SDK

Learn about advanced SDK configuration options

Interactive CLI

Use npx continum init for guided setup

Presets & Compliance

Explore presets and compliance frameworks

API reference

Explore the REST API endpoints

Dev plan limits: The DEV plan includes 1,000 audits per month. Upgrade to PRO for unlimited audits and advanced features.

Getting Started

SDK

CLI

Core Concepts

Compliance

Dashboard

Interactive Setup (Recommended)

Manual Setup

1. Get your API key

2. Install the SDK

3. Basic usage

4. Global configuration (recommended)

What happens next?

Presets & Compliance Frameworks

Real-time Alerts

Blocking Mode

View your signals

Next steps

Configure SDK

Interactive CLI

Presets & Compliance

API reference

​Interactive Setup (Recommended)

​Manual Setup

​1. Get your API key

​2. Install the SDK

​3. Basic usage

​4. Global configuration (recommended)

​What happens next?

​Presets & Compliance Frameworks

​Real-time Alerts

​Blocking Mode

​View your signals

​Next steps

Configure SDK

Interactive CLI

Presets & Compliance

API reference

Interactive Setup (Recommended)

Manual Setup

1. Get your API key

2. Install the SDK

3. Basic usage

4. Global configuration (recommended)

What happens next?

Presets & Compliance Frameworks

Real-time Alerts

Blocking Mode

View your signals

Next steps