Qwen Code (Alibaba / QwenLM)

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

<a href="https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/zh/users/overview">中文</a> | <a href="https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/de/users/overview">Deutsch</a> | <a href="https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/fr/users/overview">français</a> | <a href="https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/ja/users/overview">日本語</a> | <a href="https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/ru/users/overview">Русский</a> | <a href="https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/pt-BR/users/overview">Português (Brasil)</a>

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🎉 News (2026-02-16): Qwen3.5-Plus is now live! Sign in via Qwen OAuth to use it directly, or get an API key from Alibaba Cloud ModelStudio to access it through the OpenAI-compatible API.

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?

• Multi-protocol, OAuth free tier: use OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini-compatible APIs, or sign in with Qwen OAuth for 1,000 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) 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, Zed, and JetBrains IDEs.

Installation

Quick Install (Recommended)

Linux / macOS

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://qwen-code-assets.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/installation/install-qwen.sh)"

Windows (Run as Administrator CMD)

curl -fsSL -o %TEMP%\install-qwen.bat https://qwen-code-assets.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/installation/install-qwen.bat && %TEMP%\install-qwen.bat

Note: It's recommended to restart your terminal after installation to ensure environment variables take effect.

Manual Installation

Prerequisites

Make sure you have Node.js 20 or later installed. Download it from nodejs.org.

NPM

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.

<details> <summary>Click to watch a demo video</summary> <video src="https://cloud.video.taobao.com/vod/HLfyppnCHplRV9Qhz2xSqeazHeRzYtG-EYJnHAqtzkQ.mp4" controls> Your browser does not support the video tag. </video> </details>

Authentication

Qwen Code supports two authentication methods:

• Qwen OAuth (recommended & free): sign in with your qwen.ai account in a browser.
• API-KEY: use an API key to connect to any supported provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google GenAI, Alibaba Cloud Bailian, and other compatible endpoints).

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.

Note: In non-interactive or headless environments (e.g., CI, SSH, containers), you typically cannot complete the OAuth browser login flow. In these cases, please use the API-KEY authentication method.

API-KEY (flexible)

Use this if you want more flexibility over which provider and model to use. Supports multiple protocols:

• OpenAI-compatible: Alibaba Cloud Bailian, ModelScope, OpenAI, OpenRouter, and other OpenAI-compatible providers
• Anthropic: Claude models
• Google GenAI: Gemini models

The recommended way to configure models and providers is by editing ~/.qwen/settings.json (create it if it doesn't exist). This file lets you define all available models, API keys, and default settings in one place.

Quick Setup in 3 Steps

Step 1: Create or edit ~/.qwen/settings.json

Here is a complete example:

{
  "modelProviders": {
    "openai": [
      {
        "id": "qwen3-coder-plus",
        "name": "qwen3-coder-plus",
        "baseUrl": "https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1",
        "description": "Qwen3-Coder via Dashscope",