louis_lifu/qwen-code

An open-source AI agent that lives in your terminal.

Qwen Code is an open-source AI agent for the terminal, optimized for Qwen3-Coder. It helps you understand large codebases, automate tedious work, and ship faster.

Why Qwen Code?

OpenAI-compatible, OAuth free tier: use an OpenAI-compatible API, or sign in with Qwen OAuth to get 2,000 free requests/day.
Open-source, co-evolving: both the framework and the Qwen3-Coder model are open-source—and they ship and evolve together.
Agentic workflow, feature-rich: rich built-in tools (Skills, SubAgents, Plan Mode) for a full agentic workflow and a Claude Code-like experience.
Terminal-first, IDE-friendly: built for developers who live in the command line, with optional integration for VS Code and Zed.

Installation

Prerequisites

# Node.js 20+
curl -qL https://www.npmjs.com/install.sh | sh

NPM (recommended)

npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code@latest

Homebrew (macOS, Linux)

brew install qwen-code

Quick Start

# Start Qwen Code (interactive)
qwen

# Then, in the session:
/help
/auth

On first use, you’ll be prompted to sign in. You can run /auth anytime to switch authentication methods.

Example prompts:

What does this project do?
Explain the codebase structure.
Help me refactor this function.
Generate unit tests for this module.

Click to watch a demo video

Authentication

Qwen Code supports two authentication methods:

Qwen OAuth (recommended & free): sign in with your qwen.ai account in a browser.
OpenAI-compatible API: use OPENAI_API_KEY (and optionally a custom base URL / model).

Qwen OAuth (recommended)

Start qwen, then run:

/auth

Choose Qwen OAuth and complete the browser flow. Your credentials are cached locally so you usually won’t need to log in again.

OpenAI-compatible API (API key)

Environment variables (recommended for CI / headless environments):

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"  # optional
export OPENAI_MODEL="gpt-4o"                        # optional

For details (including .qwen/.env loading and security notes), see the authentication guide.

Usage

As an open-source terminal agent, you can use Qwen Code in four primary ways:

Interactive mode (terminal UI)
Headless mode (scripts, CI)
IDE integration (VS Code, Zed)
TypeScript SDK

Interactive mode

cd your-project/
qwen

Run qwen in your project folder to launch the interactive terminal UI. Use @ to reference local files (for example @src/main.ts).

Headless mode

cd your-project/
qwen -p "your question"

Use -p to run Qwen Code without the interactive UI—ideal for scripts, automation, and CI/CD. Learn more: Headless mode.

IDE integration

Use Qwen Code inside your editor (VS Code and Zed):

TypeScript SDK

Build on top of Qwen Code with the TypeScript SDK:

Use the Qwen Code SDK

Commands & Shortcuts

Session Commands

/help - Display available commands
/clear - Clear conversation history
/compress - Compress history to save tokens
/stats - Show current session information
/bug - Submit a bug report
/exit or /quit - Exit Qwen Code

Keyboard Shortcuts

Ctrl+C - Cancel current operation
Ctrl+D - Exit (on empty line)
Up/Down - Navigate command history

Learn more about Commands

Tip: In YOLO mode (--yolo), vision switching happens automatically without prompts when images are detected. Learn more about Approval Mode

Configuration

Qwen Code can be configured via settings.json, environment variables, and CLI flags.

User settings: ~/.qwen/settings.json
Project settings: .qwen/settings.json

See settings for available options and precedence.

Benchmark Results

Terminal-Bench Performance

Agent	Model	Accuracy
Qwen Code	Qwen3-Coder-480A35	37.5%
Qwen Code	Qwen3-Coder-30BA3B	31.3%

Ecosystem

Looking for a graphical interface?

AionUi A modern GUI for command-line AI tools including Qwen Code
Gemini CLI Desktop A cross-platform desktop/web/mobile UI for Qwen Code

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, check the troubleshooting guide.

To report a bug from within the CLI, run /bug and include a short title and repro steps.

Acknowledgments

This project is based on Google Gemini CLI. We acknowledge and appreciate the excellent work of the Gemini CLI team. Our main contribution focuses on parser-level adaptations to better support Qwen-Coder models.