Claude Code vs Qwen Code

Claude Code

Claude Code is an agentic coding tool that lives in your terminal, understands your codebase, and helps you code faster by executing routine tasks, explaining complex code, and handling git workflows -- all through natural language commands. Use it in your terminal, IDE, or tag @claude on Github.

Learn more in the official documentation.

Get started

[!NOTE]
Installation via npm is deprecated. Use one of the recommended methods below.

For more installation options, uninstall steps, and troubleshooting, see the setup documentation.

1. Install Claude Code:

   MacOS/Linux (Recommended):

   curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
   

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   Homebrew (MacOS/Linux):

   brew install --cask claude-code
   

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   Windows (Recommended):

   irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex
   

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   WinGet (Windows):

   winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode
   

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   NPM (Deprecated):

   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
   

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2. Navigate to your project directory and run claude.

Plugins

Anthropic's Claude Code plugins are developed in claude-plugins-official. See the plugins directory for more about plugins.

Reporting Bugs

We welcome your feedback. Use the /bug command to report issues directly within Claude Code, or file a GitHub issue.

Connect on Discord

Join the Claude Developers Discord to connect with other developers using Claude Code. Get help, share feedback, and discuss your projects with the community.

Data collection, usage, and retention

When you use Claude Code, we collect feedback, which includes usage data (such as code acceptance or rejections), associated conversation data, and user feedback submitted via the /bug command.

How we use your data

See our data usage policies.

Privacy safeguards

We have implemented several safeguards to protect your data, including limited retention periods for sensitive information, restricted access to user session data, and clear policies against using feedback for model training.

For full details, please review our Commercial Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

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, Web UI, SDKs, and chat integrations (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

Looking for Qwen Code 1.0 Preview? Get started here. The instructions below are for the main version.

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

brew install qwen-code

Quick Start

Open a terminal in your project and start Qwen Code:

cd /path/to/your-project
qwen

Inside the session, run /auth and choose Qwen Account with Subscription to sign in with your Plus or Pro subscription, or configure a provider with an API key. Then try:

Explain this repository and show me where to start.

See the Authentication Guide and Settings Reference for detailed setup.

How to Use Qwen Code

Choose the interface that fits your workflow:

For automation and custom integrations:

• Headless — Run qwen -p "..." in scripts, CI/CD, or batch jobs.
• SDKs — Build with TypeScript, Python, or Java.
• Daemon — Run qwen serve to connect clients over HTTP + SSE (ACP). (experimental) Daemon guide.
• Computer Use — Set up native MCP tools or Node REPL + SDK in Qwen Code, Claude Code, or Codex.

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())

Daemon Mode

Run Qwen Code as a long-lived service when you want browser, editor, SDK, and automation clients to share agent sessions without each starting a separate process. The daemon provides the built-in Web Shell and an HTTP + SSE API, supports multiple workspaces, and lets clients reconnect to active sessions.

Start it in the foreground and open the Web Shell:

qwen serve --open

The default address is http://127.0.0.1:4170. To run and manage it in the background instead:

qwen daemon start
qwen daemon status
qwen daemon logs -f
qwen daemon stop

By default, the daemon listens on loopback without bearer authentication; any local process that can reach it can use the full API, including code execution. On shared or untrusted hosts, set QWEN_SERVER_TOKEN and use --require-auth. See the Daemon guide for workspaces, authentication, remote access, and the API.

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.

Qwen Code Evaluation

On SWE-bench Verified, seven Qwen Code versions scored 76.40%–77.80% on average using the same Qwen 3.7 Max model (500 tasks, three trials per version).

Full results and evaluation configuration →

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-audio-agent — Realtime full-duplex voice frontend for Qwen Code over ACP — talk hands-free with barge-in and a local wake word

• 🦞 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

Privacy

See the Terms of Service and Privacy Notice, including Chrome extension and Browser Use data handling.

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.