The open-source AI coding agent that lives in your terminal.
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Why Qwen Code?
-
Agentic out of the box — Auto-Memory, Auto-Skills, SubAgents, Agent Teams, and MCP. Dynamic workflows, zero setup.
-
Open-source, inside and out — The framework and the Qwen models are open-source. They evolve together. No vendor lock-in.
-
Multi-protocol — Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and Qwen APIs. Any third-party provider or local model (Ollama / vLLM). Switch at runtime.
-
Beyond the terminal — IDE plugins, Desktop app, daemon mode, SDKs, and IM bots (Telegram / DingTalk / WeChat / Feishu).
[!TIP] Qwen Code is actively iterating on itself — using its own agent and models to file issues, submit PRs, review code, and run tests. Powered by the community, driven by AI.
Installation
Linux / macOS:
curl -fsSL https://qwen-code-assets.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/installation/install-qwen-standalone.sh | bash
Windows:
irm https://qwen-code-assets.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/installation/install-qwen-standalone.ps1 | iex
Restart your terminal after installation to ensure environment variables take effect.
NPM (requires Node.js 22+):
npm install -g @qwen-code/qwen-code@latest
Homebrew (macOS / Linux):
brew install qwen-code
Quick Start
qwen # Launch interactive terminal UI
# Inside the session:
/auth # Configure your provider and API key
See the Authentication Guide and Settings Reference for detailed setup.
How to Use Qwen Code
Mode Command Use Case
Interactive
qwen
Terminal UI with rich rendering, @file references, slash commands
Headless
qwen -p "..."
Scripts, CI/CD, batch processing — no UI
Desktop — Qwen Code Desktop — GUI for macOS, Windows, Linux
Daemon
qwen serve
Shared agent session over HTTP+SSE (ACP). Multiple clients, one agent. (experimental) Docs
SDK — TypeScript, Python, Java
IM Bot
qwen channel
Connect to Telegram, DingTalk, WeChat, or Feishu
import asyncio
from qwen_code_sdk import is_sdk_result_message, query
async def main() -> None:
result = query(
"Summarize the repository layout.",
{
"cwd": "/path/to/project",
"path_to_qwen_executable": "qwen",
},
)
async for message in result:
if is_sdk_result_message(message):
print(message["result"])
asyncio.run(main())
Capabilities
If you know Claude Code, you already know Qwen Code — and then some. We've put significant effort into bringing Qwen Code to feature parity with Claude Code, improving both breadth and reliability across the board.
Feature Qwen Code Claude Code
SubAgents, Agent Teams, Dynamic Workflows ✓ ✓
Auto-Memory, Auto-Skills, Hooks ✓ ✓
Built-in Skills (/review, /batch, /loop, /bugfix…) ✓ ✓
MCP, Plan Mode, LSP Integration ✓ ✓
Auto Mode, Sandbox, Git Worktrees ✓ ✓
Computer Use (desktop automation) ✓ ✓
IDE Plugins (VS Code / JetBrains / Zed) ✓ ✓
SDK ✓ ✓
Headless Mode, Session Management ✓ ✓
Open-source — model and framework ✓ —
Multi-protocol (OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini / Qwen + any provider) ✓ —
Agent Arena (multi-model head-to-head on same task) ✓ —
Daemon Mode — qwen serve (multi-client shared agent)
✓
—
IM Channels (Telegram / DingTalk / WeChat / Feishu) ✓ —
Ecosystem
Qwen Code Desktop — Official desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux
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
🦞 Qwen Code Claw — Let other agents (Claude, Codex, etc.) delegate coding tasks to Qwen Code via ACP. Paste this prompt into your agent:
Use Qwen Code as a coding agent. First, fetch and read this skill reference:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/QwenLM/qwen-code/refs/heads/main/.qwen/skills/qwen-code-claw/SKILL.md
Then follow the instructions inside to install, authenticate, and use Qwen Code via acpx for all coding tasks.
- Aliyun Model Studio CLI — Official CLI for Aliyun's AI platform (
bailian-cli). Extends Qwen Code with image/video generation, knowledge retrieval, app orchestration, and model deployment
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
Acknowledgments
This project was originally based on Google Gemini CLI v0.8.2. We gratefully acknowledge the Gemini CLI team's excellent work. Starting from Qwen Code v0.1, we stopped syncing with upstream and began independent development as a multi-protocol, multi-platform agent framework with deep integrations for Qwen models and beyond.