Qwen Code: An AI-Powered Command-Line Workflow Tool for Developers

Introduction

Qwen Code is a powerful command-line AI workflow tool specifically optimized for Qwen3-Coder models. It significantly enhances your development workflow by providing advanced code understanding, automated tasks, and intelligent assistance directly from your terminal. Based on the excellent work of the Google Gemini CLI, Qwen Code focuses on parser-level adaptations to better support Qwen-Coder models, making it an indispensable asset for developers.

Key features include querying and editing large codebases, automating operational tasks like handling pull requests, an enhanced parser, and vision model support for multimodal analysis.

Installation

To get started with Qwen Code, ensure you have Node.js version 20 or higher installed.

Prerequisites

curl -qL https://www.npmjs.com/install.sh | sh

Install from npm

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

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/QwenLM/qwen-code.git
cd qwen-code
npm install
npm install -g .

Install globally with Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install qwen-code

Examples

Qwen Code offers a wide range of functionalities to assist with various development tasks. Here are some examples:

Quick Start

# Start Qwen Code
qwen

# Example commands
> Explain this codebase structure
> Help me refactor this function
> Generate unit tests for this module

Explore Codebases

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

# 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

# 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

# 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

Why Use Qwen Code?

Qwen Code stands out as an AI-powered command-line tool for several compelling reasons:

Intelligent Assistance: Leverage AI for code understanding, generation, refactoring, and debugging, going beyond traditional context window limits.
Workflow Automation: Automate repetitive and complex development tasks, from Git operations to file management, saving significant time.
Optimized for Qwen3-Coder: Benefit from a parser specifically adapted for Qwen3-Coder models, ensuring high accuracy and performance.
Vision Model Support: Seamlessly integrate multimodal analysis by automatically detecting images in your input and switching to vision-capable models.
Free Options Available: Get started at no cost with generous daily request limits through Qwen OAuth, ModelScope (for Mainland China), or OpenRouter (international).
Session Management: Control token usage and optimize costs with configurable session limits and commands like /compress and /clear.