# Qwen Code
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@qwen-code/qwen-code)
[](./LICENSE)
[](https://nodejs.org/)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@qwen-code/qwen-code)
**AI-powered command-line workflow tool for developers**
[Installation](#installation) • [Quick Start](#quick-start) • [Features](#key-features) • [Documentation](./docs/) • [Contributing](./CONTRIBUTING.md)
Qwen Code is a powerful command-line AI workflow tool adapted from [**Gemini CLI**](https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli), specifically optimized for [Qwen3-Coder](https://github.com/QwenLM/Qwen3-Coder) models. It enhances your development workflow with advanced code understanding, automated tasks, and intelligent assistance.
## 📌 Why Qwen Code？
**🌱 Seamless Integration & Immediate Setup**
- Free & Open Source: Completely free to use with generous daily quotas (up
to 2,000 requests/day)
- Quick Start in 30 Seconds: One-click authentication with **Qwen OAuth**, no
complex configuration needed
**🧠 Advanced Code Intelligence**
- Deep Code Understanding: Grasp complex codebases beyond traditional context
limits, instantly understanding architecture, dependencies, and data flows
- Multi-Language Support and Smart Refactoring: Optimize, debug, and refactor code with AI-powered insights that follow industry standards
**🔧 Comprehensive Development Assistance**
- Error Debugging Made Easy: Paste error logs directly for instant root cause
analysis and actionable solutions
- Git Workflow Enhancement: Generate standardized commit messages, explain Git
commands, and assist with code reviews
- Documentation & Testing: Automatically generate comprehensive documentation,
JSDoc comments, and unit tests with edge cases
**💼 Professional [VS Code Integration](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/integration-vscode/)**
- Sidebar Companion: Install the VS Code extension for seamless integration
with native diffing, interactive chat, and file system operations
- Context-Aware Assistance: Get AI-powered help without leaving your
preferred development environment
**🌐 Flexible Authentication**
- Multiple Free Tiers: Access regional free options (Mainland China:
ModelScope, International: OpenRouter) with up to 2,000 free API calls per
day
- OpenAI-Compatible: Use existing API keys from various providers (Alibaba
Cloud, OpenRouter, etc.)
>👉 Know more [workflows](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/common-workflow/)
>
> 📦 The extension is currently in development. For installation, features, and development guide, see the [VS Code Extension README](./packages/vscode-ide-companion/README.md).
## ❓ How to use Qwen Code?
### Prerequisites
Ensure you have [Node.js version 20](https://nodejs.org/en/download) or higher installed.
```bash
curl -qL https://www.npmjs.com/install.sh | sh
```
### Install from npm
```bash
npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code@latest
```
## 🚀 Quick Start
```bash
# Start Qwen Code
qwen
# Example commands
> What does this project do?
> Explain this codebase structure
> Help me refactor this function
> Generate unit tests for this module
```
## Usage Examples
If you want to learn more about common workflows, click [Common Workflows](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/common-workflow/) to view.
### 🔍 Explore Codebases
```bash
cd your-project/
qwen
# Architecture analysis
> Describe the main pieces of this system's architecture
> What are the key dependencies and how do they interact?
> Find all API endpoints and their authentication methods
```
### 💻 Code Development
```bash
# Refactoring
> Refactor this function to improve readability and performance
> Convert this class to use dependency injection
> Split this large module into smaller, focused components
# Code generation
> Create a REST API endpoint for user management
> Generate unit tests for the authentication module
> Add error handling to all database operations
```
### 🔄 Automate Workflows
```bash
# Git automation
> Analyze git commits from the last 7 days, grouped by feature
> Create a changelog from recent commits
> Find all TODO comments and create GitHub issues
# File operations
> Convert all images in this directory to PNG format
> Rename all test files to follow the *.test.ts pattern
> Find and remove all console.log statements
```
### 🐛 Debugging & Analysis
```bash
# Performance analysis
> Identify performance bottlenecks in this React component
> Find all N+1 query problems in the codebase
# Security audit
> Check for potential SQL injection vulnerabilities
> Find all hardcoded credentials or API keys
```
## Popular Tasks
### 📚 Understand New Codebases
```text
> What are the core business logic components?
> What security mechanisms are in place?
> How does the data flow through the system?
> What are the main design patterns used?
> Generate a dependency graph for this module
```
### 🔨 Code Refactoring & Optimization
```text
> What parts of this module can be optimized?
> Help me refactor this class to follow SOLID principles
> Add proper error handling and logging
> Convert callbacks to async/await pattern
> Implement caching for expensive operations
```
### 📝 Documentation & Testing
```text
> Generate comprehensive JSDoc comments for all public APIs
> Write unit tests with edge cases for this component
> Create API documentation in OpenAPI format
> Add inline comments explaining complex algorithms
> Generate a README for this module
```
### 🚀 Development Acceleration
```text
> Set up a new Express server with authentication
> Create a React component with TypeScript and tests
> Implement a rate limiter middleware
> Add database migrations for new schema
> Configure CI/CD pipeline for this project
```
## Commands & Shortcuts
### Session Commands
- `/help` - Display available commands
- `/clear` - Clear conversation history
- `/compress` - Compress history to save tokens
- `/stats` - Show current session information
- `/exit` or `/quit` - Exit Qwen Code
### Keyboard Shortcuts
- `Ctrl+C` - Cancel current operation
- `Ctrl+D` - Exit (on empty line)
- `Up/Down` - Navigate command history
## 💬 Session Management
Control your token usage with configurable session limits to optimize costs and performance.
### Configure Session Token Limit
Create or edit `.qwen/settings.json` in your home directory:
```json
{
"sessionTokenLimit": 32000
}
```
### Session Commands
- **`/compress`** - Compress conversation history to continue within token limits
- **`/clear`** - Clear all conversation history and start fresh
- **`/stats`** - Check current token usage and limits
> [!note]
>
> 📝 **Note**: Session token limit applies to a single conversation, not cumulative API calls.
## Vision Model Configuration
Qwen Code includes intelligent vision model auto-switching that detects images in your input and can automatically switch to vision-capable models for multimodal analysis. **This feature is enabled by default** - when you include images in your queries, you'll see a dialog asking how you'd like to handle the vision model switch.
### Skip the Switch Dialog (Optional)
If you don't want to see the interactive dialog each time, configure the default behavior in your `.qwen/settings.json`:
```json
{
"experimental": {
"vlmSwitchMode": "once"
}
}
```
**Available modes:**
- **`"once"`** - Switch to vision model for this query only, then revert
- **`"session"`** - Switch to vision model for the entire session
- **`"persist"`** - Continue with current model (no switching)
- **Not set** - Show interactive dialog each time (default)
#### Command Line Override
You can also set the behavior via command line:
```bash
# Switch once per query
qwen --vlm-switch-mode once
# Switch for entire session
qwen --vlm-switch-mode session
# Never switch automatically
qwen --vlm-switch-mode persist
```
### Disable Vision Models (Optional)
To completely disable vision model support, add to your `.qwen/settings.json`:
```json
{
"experimental": {
"visionModelPreview": false
}
}
```
> 👉 Know more about [Commands](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/features/commands/)
>
> 💡 **Tip**: In YOLO mode (`--yolo`), vision switching happens automatically without prompts when images are detected. Know more about [Approval Mode](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/features/approval-mode/)
## Benchmark Results
### Terminal-Bench Performance
| Agent | Model | Accuracy |
| --------- | ------------------ | -------- |
| Qwen Code | Qwen3-Coder-480A35 | 37.5% |
| Qwen Code | Qwen3-Coder-30BA3B | 31.3% |
## Development & Contributing
See [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/developers/contributing/) to learn how to contribute to the project.
For detailed authentication setup, see the [authentication guide](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/configuration/auth/).
## Troubleshooting
If you encounter issues, check the [troubleshooting guide](https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/support/troubleshooting/).
## Acknowledgments
This project is based on [Google Gemini CLI](https://github.com/google-gemini/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.
## License
[LICENSE](./LICENSE)
## Star History
[](https://www.star-history.com/#QwenLM/qwen-code&Date)