How to Use Qwen3-Coder and Qwen Code

AI agents are becoming a regular part of my development workflow but most still come with serious tradeoffs: they lag, lose context, or don’t play nicely with the terminal. I wanted something faster, smarter, and more local without the fluff of bloated UIs.

That’s where Qwen Code, paired with Qwen3-Coder-Flash, really stood out for me.

It’s lightning-fast, context-aware, and works directly in the terminal. If you're like me and prefer tools that feel native to how you already work, this setup might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how I got started with Qwen3-Coder and Qwen Code from installation and setup to my favorite features and use cases, like automated git tasks, intelligent code analysis, and clean documentation workflows.

What Is Qwen3-Coder?

Qwen3-Coder is Alibaba's latest 30B parameter open-source model specifically fine-tuned for coding. It supports:

• Native 256K context and up to 1 million tokens using YaRN
• High-speed and accurate code generation
• Optimized function calling for agent workflows
• Seamless integration with tools like Qwen Code, Cline, Kilo Code, and Roo Code

If you've used Claude or GPT for dev tasks before, Qwen3-Coder offers a similar experience — but with better performance in large codebases, and free usage via OpenRouter or ModelScope.

What Is Qwen Code?

Qwen Code is a command-line AI coding assistant, adapted from Gemini CLI, and tightly integrated with Qwen3-Coder models.

It helps you:

• Edit large codebases with semantic awareness
• Generate or refactor code from simple commands
• Automate git tasks, changelogs, TODOs, and more
• Understand unfamiliar systems or audit code for security/performance issues

Installation (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Prerequisites

Ensure Node.js v20+ is installed:

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 . 

Getting Started

Start the CLI:

qwen 

Try a few commands:

> Explain this codebase structure > Refactor this function > Generate unit tests for this module 

📁 Chat With Files

Qwen Code shines when working with full codebases.

You can:

• Ask it to describe project structure
• Summarize key components
• Track down API endpoints or dependencies
• Generate READMEs or diagrams

Examples:

> What are the main services in this monorepo? > Describe the security model in this backend > Create a dependency graph for src/components 

Multimodal Support (Coming Soon)

While Qwen3-Coder is currently focused on text/code inputs, its roadmap includes multimodal capabilities — useful for:

• Reading UI screenshots and generating test plans
• Understanding diagrams or flowcharts
• Translating design assets into components

As Qwen continues integrating this into Qwen Code, expect richer multi-format prompts soon.

Documentation Writing

Use Qwen Code to instantly write or improve docs:

> Add JSDoc comments to all exported functions > Create OpenAPI docs for this Express app > Write a usage README for this CLI module 

It’s especially helpful when onboarding new developers or packaging modules.

🔄 Automate Git Workflows

Qwen Code can interact with your repo and simplify version control:

> Analyze commits from the last week grouped by feature > Generate a changelog > Convert TODOs into GitHub issues 

No need for external scripts it parses, groups, and edits git logs for you.

🔒 Debugging and Security Audits

Ask it to:

• Detect SQL injection risks
• Find hardcoded API keys
• List performance bottlenecks
• Suggest async refactoring

> Identify N+1 queries in this Prisma project > Check for credential leaks in .env files > Find functions with O(n^2) complexity 

Testing and QA Tasks

Testing is faster when offloaded to an agent:

> Generate unit tests for authService > Add input validation edge cases > Create integration tests using Jest 

Pair this with Apidog to test endpoints locally, even in disconnected environments.

📈 Benchmark Performance

According to Terminal-Bench, Qwen Code performs strongly across coding tasks:

It’s not just a toy assistant this tool competes at the level of advanced agents.

Session Token Control

To manage token usage, configure your session settings:

~/.qwen/settings.json

{ "sessionTokenLimit": 32000 } 

Available commands:

/compress — shrink history /clear — reset session /status — view current usage 

API Configuration

Qwen Code supports multiple providers:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_api_key" export OPENAI_BASE_URL="<https://api.example.com>" export OPENAI_MODEL="Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct" 

Or use a .env file in your project.

Free API Tiers

• ModelScope: 2,000 free calls/day (China)
• OpenRouter: 1,000 free calls/day (Global)

Summary: When to Use Qwen Code

Final Thoughts

Qwen Code isn’t here to replace your IDE and it doesn't try to be. Instead, it acts as a high-performance co-pilot in your terminal, designed to handle repetitive coding tasks, simplify large-scale code comprehension, and automate workflows that would otherwise consume hours. It shines particularly when paired with the Qwen3-Coder model, giving developers a serious productivity edge in complex or legacy projects where context depth and precision matter.

Whether you're navigating massive monorepos, automating git operations, or debugging unfamiliar modules, Qwen Code offers a natural language interface to get it done all within the comfort of your terminal.

Want to enhance your dev setup even further?

Consider DeepDocs for Seamless Documentation Automation

If Qwen Code makes development smoother, DeepDocs does the same for documentation. While Qwen helps you understand, restructure, and generate code locally, updating docs still takes effort:

• You need to prompt it every time
• You have to define the context

DeepDocs works differently. It silently listens for commits on GitHub and updates outdated docs in a separate branch—keeping things in sync without manual input. It is completely free to use, and you can install it from GitHub Marketplace.

Bringing It Together

Tools like Qwen Code and Deepdocs aren’t just flashy AI novelties they’re part of a growing shift toward context-aware, developer-first automation. Whether it’s code generation, codebase analysis, or documentation upkeep, these tools help reclaim time, reduce errors, and streamline the parts of development most of us don’t enjoy doing manually.

If you’re already working in terminal-heavy environments or managing large codebases, Qwen Code is a great place to start. And if you care about high-quality documentation (without spending late nights updating Markdown), Deepdocs fills that gap effortlessly.