Qwen Code overview

Learn about Qwen Code, Qwen's agentic coding tool that lives in your terminal and helps you turn ideas into code faster than ever before.

Get started in 30 seconds

Install Qwen Code:

The recommended installer uses a standalone archive when one is available for your platform. If it falls back to npm, Node.js 22 or later with npm must be available on PATH.

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

[!note]

It's recommended to restart your terminal after installation if qwen is not immediately available on PATH. If the installation fails, please refer to Manual Installation in the Quickstart guide. For offline installation, download a release archive and run the installer with --archive PATH; keep SHA256SUMS next to the archive.

Start using Qwen Code:

cd your-project
qwen

On first launch you'll be prompted to connect a model provider. The menu offers Alibaba ModelStudio (Coding Plan, Token Plan, or Standard API Key), Third-party Providers (built-in providers such as DeepSeek, MiniMax, Z.AI, and OpenRouter, connected with an API key), and Custom Provider (a local server, proxy, or unsupported provider). For the Alibaba Cloud Coding Plan (intl), choose Alibaba ModelStudio → Coding Plan; to use a ModelStudio API key, choose Alibaba ModelStudio → Standard API Key and follow the API setup guide (Beijing / intl). Then let's start with understanding your codebase. Try one of these commands:

what does this project do?

You'll be prompted to log in on first use. That's it! Continue with Quickstart (5 mins) →

[!tip]

See troubleshooting if you hit issues.

[!note]

New VS Code Extension (Beta): Prefer a graphical interface? Our new VS Code extension provides an easy-to-use native IDE experience without requiring terminal familiarity. Simply install from the marketplace and start coding with Qwen Code directly in your sidebar. Download and install the Qwen Code Companion now.

What Qwen Code does for you

• Build features from descriptions: Tell Qwen Code what you want to build in plain language. It will make a plan, write the code, and ensure it works.
• Debug and fix issues: Describe a bug or paste an error message. Qwen Code will analyze your codebase, identify the problem, and implement a fix.
• Navigate any codebase: Ask anything about your team's codebase, and get a thoughtful answer back. Qwen Code maintains awareness of your entire project structure, can find up-to-date information from the web, and with MCP can pull from external datasources like Google Drive, Figma, and Slack.
• Automate tedious tasks: Fix fiddly lint issues, resolve merge conflicts, and write release notes. Do all this in a single command from your developer machines, or automatically in CI.
• Followup suggestions: Qwen Code predicts what you want to type next and shows it as ghost text. Press Tab to accept, or just keep typing to dismiss.

Why developers love Qwen Code

• Works in your terminal: Not another chat window. Not another IDE. Qwen Code meets you where you already work, with the tools you already love.
• Takes action: Qwen Code can directly edit files, run commands, and create commits. Need more? MCP lets Qwen Code read your design docs in Google Drive, update your tickets in Jira, or use your custom developer tooling.
• Unix philosophy: Qwen Code is composable and scriptable. tail -f app.log | qwen -p "Slack me if you see any anomalies appear in this log stream" works. Your CI can run qwen -p "If there are new text strings, translate them into French and raise a PR for @lang-fr-team to review".