qwen-code/docs/users/configuration/settings.md

Qwen Code Configuration

Tip

Authentication / API keys: Authentication (Qwen OAuth, Alibaba Cloud Coding Plan, or API Key) and auth-related environment variables (like OPENAI_API_KEY) are documented in Authentication.

Note

Note on New Configuration Format: The format of the settings.json file has been updated to a new, more organized structure. The old format will be migrated automatically. Qwen Code offers several ways to configure its behavior, including environment variables, command-line arguments, and settings files. This document outlines the different configuration methods and available settings.

Configuration layers

Configuration is applied in the following order of precedence (lower numbers are overridden by higher numbers):

Level	Configuration Source	Description
1	Default values	Hardcoded defaults within the application
2	System defaults file	System-wide default settings that can be overridden by other settings files
3	User settings file	Global settings for the current user
4	Project settings file	Project-specific settings
5	System settings file	System-wide settings that override all other settings files
6	Environment variables	System-wide or session-specific variables, potentially loaded from .env files
7	Command-line arguments	Values passed when launching the CLI

Settings files

Qwen Code uses JSON settings files for persistent configuration. There are four locations for these files:

File Type	Location	Scope
System defaults file	Linux: /etc/qwen-code/system-defaults.json Windows: C:\ProgramData\qwen-code\system-defaults.json macOS: /Library/Application Support/QwenCode/system-defaults.json The path can be overridden using the QWEN_CODE_SYSTEM_DEFAULTS_PATH environment variable.	Provides a base layer of system-wide default settings. These settings have the lowest precedence and are intended to be overridden by user, project, or system override settings.
User settings file	~/.qwen/settings.json (where ~ is your home directory).	Applies to all Qwen Code sessions for the current user.
Project settings file	.qwen/settings.json within your project's root directory.	Applies only when running Qwen Code from that specific project. Project settings override user settings.
System settings file	Linux： /etc/qwen-code/settings.json Windows: C:\ProgramData\qwen-code\settings.json macOS: /Library/Application Support/QwenCode/settings.json The path can be overridden using the QWEN_CODE_SYSTEM_SETTINGS_PATH environment variable.	Applies to all Qwen Code sessions on the system, for all users. System settings override user and project settings. May be useful for system administrators at enterprises to have controls over users' Qwen Code setups.

Note

Note on environment variables in settings: String values within your settings.json files can reference environment variables using either $VAR_NAME or ${VAR_NAME} syntax. These variables will be automatically resolved when the settings are loaded. For example, if you have an environment variable MY_API_TOKEN, you could use it in settings.json like this: "apiKey": "$MY_API_TOKEN".

The .qwen directory in your project

In addition to a project settings file, a project's .qwen directory can contain other project-specific files related to Qwen Code's operation, such as:

• Custom sandbox profiles (e.g. .qwen/sandbox-macos-custom.sb, .qwen/sandbox.Dockerfile).
• Agent Skills under .qwen/skills/ (each Skill is a directory containing a SKILL.md).

Configuration migration

Qwen Code automatically migrates legacy configuration settings to the new format. Old settings files are backed up before migration. The following settings have been renamed from negative (disable*) to positive (enable*) naming:

Old Setting	New Setting	Notes
disableAutoUpdate + disableUpdateNag	general.enableAutoUpdate	Consolidated into a single setting
disableLoadingPhrases	ui.accessibility.enableLoadingPhrases
disableFuzzySearch	context.fileFiltering.enableFuzzySearch
disableCacheControl	model.generationConfig.enableCacheControl

Note

Boolean value inversion: When migrating, boolean values are inverted (e.g., disableAutoUpdate: true becomes enableAutoUpdate: false).

Consolidation policy for disableAutoUpdate and disableUpdateNag

When both legacy settings are present with different values, the migration follows this policy: if either disableAutoUpdate or disableUpdateNag is true, then enableAutoUpdate becomes false:

disableAutoUpdate	disableUpdateNag	Migrated enableAutoUpdate
false	false	true
false	true	false
true	false	false
true	true	false

Available settings in settings.json

Settings are organized into categories. All settings should be placed within their corresponding top-level category object in your settings.json file.

general

Setting	Type	Description	Default
general.preferredEditor	string	The preferred editor to open files in.	undefined
general.vimMode	boolean	Enable Vim keybindings.	false
general.enableAutoUpdate	boolean	Enable automatic update checks and installations on startup.	true
general.gitCoAuthor	boolean	Automatically add a Co-authored-by trailer to git commit messages when commits are made through Qwen Code.	true
general.checkpointing.enabled	boolean	Enable session checkpointing for recovery.	false
general.defaultFileEncoding	string	Default encoding for new files. Use "utf-8" (default) for UTF-8 without BOM, or "utf-8-bom" for UTF-8 with BOM. Only change this if your project specifically requires BOM.	"utf-8"

output

Setting	Type	Description	Default	Possible Values
output.format	string	The format of the CLI output.	"text"	"text", "json"

ui

Setting	Type	Description	Default
ui.theme	string	The color theme for the UI. See Themes for available options.	undefined
ui.customThemes	object	Custom theme definitions.	{}
ui.statusLine	object	Custom status line configuration. A shell command whose output is shown in the footer's left section. See Status Line.	undefined
ui.hideWindowTitle	boolean	Hide the window title bar.	false
ui.hideTips	boolean	Hide all tips (startup and post-response) in the UI. See Contextual Tips.	false
ui.hideBanner	boolean	Hide the application banner.	false
ui.hideFooter	boolean	Hide the footer from the UI.	false
ui.showMemoryUsage	boolean	Display memory usage information in the UI.	false
ui.showLineNumbers	boolean	Show line numbers in code blocks in the CLI output.	true
ui.showCitations	boolean	Show citations for generated text in the chat.	true
ui.compactMode	boolean	Hide tool output and thinking for a cleaner view. Toggle with Ctrl+O during a session or via the Settings dialog. Tool approval prompts are never hidden, even in compact mode. The setting persists across sessions.	false
enableWelcomeBack	boolean	Show welcome back dialog when returning to a project with conversation history. When enabled, Qwen Code will automatically detect if you're returning to a project with a previously generated project summary (.qwen/PROJECT_SUMMARY.md) and show a dialog allowing you to continue your previous conversation or start fresh. If you choose Start new chat session, that choice is remembered for the current project until the project summary changes. This feature integrates with the /summary command and quit confirmation dialog.	true
ui.accessibility.enableLoadingPhrases	boolean	Enable loading phrases (disable for accessibility).	true
ui.accessibility.screenReader	boolean	Enables screen reader mode, which adjusts the TUI for better compatibility with screen readers.	false
ui.customWittyPhrases	array of strings	A list of custom phrases to display during loading states. When provided, the CLI will cycle through these phrases instead of the default ones.	[]
ui.enableFollowupSuggestions	boolean	Enable followup suggestions that predict what you want to type next after the model responds. Suggestions appear as ghost text and can be accepted with Tab, Enter, or Right Arrow.	true
ui.enableCacheSharing	boolean	Use cache-aware forked queries for suggestion generation. Reduces cost on providers that support prefix caching (experimental).	true
ui.enableSpeculation	boolean	Speculatively execute accepted suggestions before submission. Results appear instantly when you accept (experimental).	false

ide

Setting	Type	Description	Default
ide.enabled	boolean	Enable IDE integration mode.	false
ide.hasSeenNudge	boolean	Whether the user has seen the IDE integration nudge.	false

privacy

Setting	Type	Description	Default
privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled	boolean	Enable collection of usage statistics.	true

model

Setting	Type	Description	Default
model.name	string	The Qwen model to use for conversations.	undefined
model.maxSessionTurns	number	Maximum number of user/model/tool turns to keep in a session. -1 means unlimited.	-1
model.generationConfig	object	Advanced overrides passed to the underlying content generator. Supports request controls such as timeout, maxRetries, enableCacheControl, contextWindowSize (override model's context window size), modalities (override auto-detected input modalities), customHeaders (custom HTTP headers for API requests), and extra_body (additional body parameters for OpenAI-compatible API requests only), along with fine-tuning knobs under samplingParams (for example temperature, top_p, max_tokens). Leave unset to rely on provider defaults.	undefined
model.chatCompression.contextPercentageThreshold	number	Sets the threshold for chat history compression as a percentage of the model's total token limit. This is a value between 0 and 1 that applies to both automatic compression and the manual /compress command. For example, a value of 0.6 will trigger compression when the chat history exceeds 60% of the token limit. Use 0 to disable compression entirely.	0.7
model.skipNextSpeakerCheck	boolean	Skip the next speaker check.	false
model.skipLoopDetection	boolean	Disables loop detection checks. Loop detection prevents infinite loops in AI responses but can generate false positives that interrupt legitimate workflows. Enable this option if you experience frequent false positive loop detection interruptions.	false
model.skipStartupContext	boolean	Skips sending the startup workspace context (environment summary and acknowledgement) at the beginning of each session. Enable this if you prefer to provide context manually or want to save tokens on startup.	false
model.enableOpenAILogging	boolean	Enables logging of OpenAI API calls for debugging and analysis. When enabled, API requests and responses are logged to JSON files.	false
model.openAILoggingDir	string	Custom directory path for OpenAI API logs. If not specified, defaults to logs/openai in the current working directory. Supports absolute paths, relative paths (resolved from current working directory), and ~ expansion (home directory).	undefined

Example model.generationConfig:

{
  "model": {
    "generationConfig": {
      "timeout": 60000,
      "contextWindowSize": 128000,
      "modalities": {
        "image": true
      },
      "enableCacheControl": true,
      "customHeaders": {
        "X-Client-Request-ID": "req-123"
      },
      "extra_body": {
        "enable_thinking": true
      },
      "samplingParams": {
        "temperature": 0.2,
        "top_p": 0.8,
        "max_tokens": 1024
      }
    }
  }
}

max_tokens (adaptive output tokens):

When samplingParams.max_tokens is not set, Qwen Code uses an adaptive output token strategy to optimize GPU resource usage:

1. Requests start with a default limit of 8K output tokens
2. If the response is truncated (the model hits the limit), Qwen Code automatically retries with 64K tokens
3. The partial output is discarded and replaced with the full response from the retry

This is transparent to users — you may briefly see a retry indicator if escalation occurs. Since 99% of responses are under 5K tokens, the retry happens rarely (<1% of requests).

To override this behavior, either set samplingParams.max_tokens in your settings or use the QWEN_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS environment variable.

contextWindowSize:

Overrides the default context window size for the selected model. Qwen Code determines the context window using built-in defaults based on model name matching, with a constant fallback value. Use this setting when a provider's effective context limit differs from Qwen Code's default. This value defines the model's assumed maximum context capacity, not a per-request token limit.

modalities:

Overrides the auto-detected input modalities for the selected model. Qwen Code automatically detects supported modalities (image, PDF, audio, video) based on model name pattern matching. Use this setting when the auto-detection is incorrect — for example, to enable pdf for a model that supports it but isn't recognized. Format: { "image": true, "pdf": true, "audio": true, "video": true }. Omit a key or set it to false for unsupported types.

customHeaders:

Allows you to add custom HTTP headers to all API requests. This is useful for request tracing, monitoring, API gateway routing, or when different models require different headers. If customHeaders is defined in modelProviders[].generationConfig.customHeaders, it will be used directly; otherwise, headers from model.generationConfig.customHeaders will be used. No merging occurs between the two levels.

The extra_body field allows you to add custom parameters to the request body sent to the API. This is useful for provider-specific options that are not covered by the standard configuration fields. Note: This field is only supported for OpenAI-compatible providers (openai, qwen-oauth). It is ignored for Anthropic and Gemini providers. If extra_body is defined in modelProviders[].generationConfig.extra_body, it will be used directly; otherwise, values from model.generationConfig.extra_body will be used.

model.openAILoggingDir examples:

• "~/qwen-logs" - Logs to ~/qwen-logs directory
• "./custom-logs" - Logs to ./custom-logs relative to current directory
• "/tmp/openai-logs" - Logs to absolute path /tmp/openai-logs

fastModel

Setting	Type	Description	Default
fastModel	string	Model used for generating prompt suggestions and speculative execution. Leave empty to use the main model. A smaller/faster model (e.g., qwen3-coder-flash) reduces latency and cost. Can also be set via /model --fast.	""

context

Setting	Type	Description	Default
context.fileName	string or array of strings	The name of the context file(s).	undefined
context.importFormat	string	The format to use when importing memory.	undefined
context.includeDirectories	array	Additional directories to include in the workspace context. Specifies an array of additional absolute or relative paths to include in the workspace context. Missing directories will be skipped with a warning by default. Paths can use ~ to refer to the user's home directory. This setting can be combined with the --include-directories command-line flag.	[]
context.loadFromIncludeDirectories	boolean	Controls the behavior of the /memory refresh command. If set to true, QWEN.md files should be loaded from all directories that are added. If set to false, QWEN.md should only be loaded from the current directory.	false
context.fileFiltering.respectGitIgnore	boolean	Respect .gitignore files when searching.	true
context.fileFiltering.respectQwenIgnore	boolean	Respect .qwenignore files when searching.	true
context.fileFiltering.enableRecursiveFileSearch	boolean	Whether to enable searching recursively for filenames under the current tree when completing @ prefixes in the prompt.	true
context.fileFiltering.enableFuzzySearch	boolean	When true, enables fuzzy search capabilities when searching for files. Set to false to improve performance on projects with a large number of files.	true
context.clearContextOnIdle.thinkingThresholdMinutes	number	Minutes of inactivity before clearing old thinking blocks to free context tokens. Aligns with typical provider prompt-cache TTL. Use -1 to disable.	5
context.clearContextOnIdle.toolResultsThresholdMinutes	number	Minutes of inactivity before clearing old tool result content. Use -1 to disable.	60
context.clearContextOnIdle.toolResultsNumToKeep	number	Number of most-recent compactable tool results to preserve when clearing. Floor at 1.	5

Troubleshooting File Search Performance

If you are experiencing performance issues with file searching (e.g., with @ completions), especially in projects with a very large number of files, here are a few things you can try in order of recommendation:

1. Use .qwenignore: Create a .qwenignore file in your project root to exclude directories that contain a large number of files that you don't need to reference (e.g., build artifacts, logs, node_modules). Reducing the total number of files crawled is the most effective way to improve performance.
2. Disable Fuzzy Search: If ignoring files is not enough, you can disable fuzzy search by setting enableFuzzySearch to false in your settings.json file. This will use a simpler, non-fuzzy matching algorithm, which can be faster.
3. Disable Recursive File Search: As a last resort, you can disable recursive file search entirely by setting enableRecursiveFileSearch to false. This will be the fastest option as it avoids a recursive crawl of your project. However, it means you will need to type the full path to files when using @ completions.

tools

Setting	Type	Description	Default	Notes
tools.sandbox	boolean or string	Sandbox execution environment (can be a boolean or a path string).	undefined
tools.sandboxImage	string	Sandbox image URI used by Docker/Podman when --sandbox-image and QWEN_SANDBOX_IMAGE are not set.	undefined
tools.shell.enableInteractiveShell	boolean	Use node-pty for an interactive shell experience. Fallback to child_process still applies.	false
tools.core	array of strings	Deprecated. Will be removed in next version. Use permissions.allow + permissions.deny instead. Restricts built-in tools to an allowlist. All tools not in the list are disabled.	undefined
tools.exclude	array of strings	Deprecated. Use permissions.deny instead. Tool names to exclude from discovery. Automatically migrated to the permissions format on first load.	undefined
tools.allowed	array of strings	Deprecated. Use permissions.allow instead. Tool names that bypass the confirmation dialog. Automatically migrated to the permissions format on first load.	undefined
tools.approvalMode	string	Sets the default approval mode for tool usage.	default	Possible values: plan (analyze only, do not modify files or execute commands), default (require approval before file edits or shell commands run), auto-edit (automatically approve file edits), yolo (automatically approve all tool calls)
tools.discoveryCommand	string	Command to run for tool discovery.	undefined
tools.callCommand	string	Defines a custom shell command for calling a specific tool that was discovered using tools.discoveryCommand. The shell command must meet the following criteria: It must take function name (exactly as in function declaration) as first command line argument. It must read function arguments as JSON on stdin, analogous to functionCall.args. It must return function output as JSON on stdout, analogous to functionResponse.response.content.	undefined
tools.useRipgrep	boolean	Use ripgrep for file content search instead of the fallback implementation. Provides faster search performance.	true
tools.useBuiltinRipgrep	boolean	Use the bundled ripgrep binary. When set to false, the system-level rg command will be used instead. This setting is only effective when tools.useRipgrep is true.	true
tools.truncateToolOutputThreshold	number	Truncate tool output if it is larger than this many characters. Applies to Shell, Grep, Glob, ReadFile and ReadManyFiles tools.	25000	Requires restart: Yes
tools.truncateToolOutputLines	number	Maximum lines or entries kept when truncating tool output. Applies to Shell, Grep, Glob, ReadFile and ReadManyFiles tools.	1000	Requires restart: Yes

Note

Migrating from tools.core / tools.exclude / tools.allowed: These legacy settings are deprecated and automatically migrated to the new permissions format on first load. Prefer configuring permissions.allow / permissions.deny directly. Use /permissions to manage rules interactively.

memory

Setting	Type	Description	Default
memory.enableManagedAutoMemory	boolean	Enable background extraction of memories from conversations.	true
memory.enableManagedAutoDream	boolean	Enable automatic consolidation (deduplication and cleanup) of collected memories.	false

See Memory for details on how auto-memory works and how to use the /memory, /remember, and /dream commands.

permissions

The permissions system provides fine-grained control over which tools can run, which require confirmation, and which are blocked.

Decision priority (highest first): deny > ask > allow > (default/interactive mode)

The first matching rule wins. Rules use the format "ToolName" or "ToolName(specifier)".

Setting	Type	Description	Default
permissions.allow	array of strings	Rules for auto-approved tool calls (no confirmation needed). Merged across all scopes (user + project + system).	undefined
permissions.ask	array of strings	Rules for tool calls that always require user confirmation. Takes priority over allow.	undefined
permissions.deny	array of strings	Rules for blocked tool calls. Highest priority — overrides both allow and ask.	undefined

Tool name aliases (any of these work in rules):

Alias	Canonical tool	Notes
Bash, Shell	run_shell_command
Read, ReadFile	read_file	Meta-category — see below
Edit, EditFile	edit	Meta-category — see below
Write, WriteFile	write_file
Grep, SearchFiles	grep_search
Glob, FindFiles	glob
ListFiles	list_directory
WebFetch	web_fetch
Agent	task
Skill	skill

Meta-categories:

Some rule names automatically cover multiple tools:

Rule name	Tools covered
Read	read_file, grep_search, glob, list_directory
Edit	edit, write_file

Important

Read(/path/**) matches all four read tools (file read, grep, glob, and directory listing). To restrict only file reading, use ReadFile(/path/**) or read_file(/path/**).

Rule syntax examples:

Rule	Meaning
"Bash"	All shell commands
"Bash(git *)"	Shell commands starting with git (word boundary: NOT gitk)
"Bash(git push *)"	Shell commands like git push origin main
"Bash(npm run *)"	Any npm run script
"Read"	All file read operations (read, grep, glob, list)
"Read(./secrets/**)"	Read any file under ./secrets/ recursively
"Edit(/src/**/*.ts)"	Edit TypeScript files under project root /src/
"WebFetch(api.example.com)"	Fetch from api.example.com and all its subdomains
"mcp__puppeteer"	All tools from the puppeteer MCP server

Path pattern prefixes:

Prefix	Meaning	Example
//	Absolute path from filesystem root	//etc/passwd
~/	Relative to home directory	~/Documents/*.pdf
/	Relative to project root	/src/**/*.ts
./	Relative to current working directory	./secrets/**
(none)	Same as ./	secrets/**

Shell command bypass prevention:

Permission rules for Read, Edit, and WebFetch are also enforced when the agent runs equivalent shell commands. For example, if Read(./.env) is in deny, the agent cannot bypass it via cat .env in a shell command. Supported shell commands include cat, grep, curl, wget, cp, mv, rm, chmod, and many more. Unknown/safe commands (e.g. git) are unaffected by file/network rules.

Migrating from legacy settings:

Legacy setting	Equivalent permissions rule	Notes
tools.allowed	permissions.allow	Auto-migrated on first load
tools.exclude	permissions.deny	Auto-migrated on first load
tools.core	permissions.allow (allowlist)	Auto-migrated; unlisted tools are disabled at registry level

Example configuration:

{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Bash(git *)", "Bash(npm run *)", "Read(//Users/alice/code/**)"],
    "ask": ["Bash(git push *)", "Edit"],
    "deny": ["Bash(rm -rf *)", "Read(.env)", "WebFetch(malicious.com)"]
  }
}

Tip

Use /permissions in the interactive CLI to view, add, and remove rules without editing settings.json directly.

mcp

Setting	Type	Description	Default
mcp.serverCommand	string	Command to start an MCP server.	undefined
mcp.allowed	array of strings	An allowlist of MCP servers to allow. Allows you to specify a list of MCP server names that should be made available to the model. This can be used to restrict the set of MCP servers to connect to. Note that this will be ignored if --allowed-mcp-server-names is set.	undefined
mcp.excluded	array of strings	A denylist of MCP servers to exclude. A server listed in both mcp.excluded and mcp.allowed is excluded. Note that this will be ignored if --allowed-mcp-server-names is set.	undefined

Note

Security Note for MCP servers: These settings use simple string matching on MCP server names, which can be modified. If you're a system administrator looking to prevent users from bypassing this, consider configuring the mcpServers at the system settings level such that the user will not be able to configure any MCP servers of their own. This should not be used as an airtight security mechanism.

lsp

Warning

Experimental Feature: LSP support is currently experimental and disabled by default. Enable it using the --experimental-lsp command line flag.

Language Server Protocol (LSP) provides code intelligence features like go-to-definition, find references, and diagnostics.

LSP server configuration is done through .lsp.json files in your project root directory, not through settings.json. See the LSP documentation for configuration details and examples.

security

Setting	Type	Description	Default
security.folderTrust.enabled	boolean	Setting to track whether Folder trust is enabled.	false
security.auth.selectedType	string	The currently selected authentication type.	undefined
security.auth.enforcedType	string	The required auth type (useful for enterprises).	undefined
security.auth.useExternal	boolean	Whether to use an external authentication flow.	undefined

advanced

Setting	Type	Description	Default
advanced.autoConfigureMemory	boolean	Automatically configure Node.js memory limits.	false
advanced.dnsResolutionOrder	string	The DNS resolution order.	undefined
advanced.excludedEnvVars	array of strings	Environment variables to exclude from project context. Specifies environment variables that should be excluded from being loaded from project .env files. This prevents project-specific environment variables (like DEBUG=true) from interfering with the CLI behavior. Variables from .qwen/.env files are never excluded.	["DEBUG","DEBUG_MODE"]
advanced.bugCommand	object	Configuration for the bug report command. Overrides the default URL for the /bug command. Properties: urlTemplate (string): A URL that can contain {title} and {info} placeholders. Example: "bugCommand": { "urlTemplate": "https://bug.example.com/new?title={title}&info={info}" }	undefined
advanced.tavilyApiKey	string	API key for Tavily web search service. Used to enable the web_search tool functionality.	undefined

Note

Note about advanced.tavilyApiKey: This is a legacy configuration format. For Qwen OAuth users, DashScope provider is automatically available without any configuration. For other authentication types, configure Tavily or Google providers using the new webSearch configuration format.

mcpServers

Configures connections to one or more Model-Context Protocol (MCP) servers for discovering and using custom tools. Qwen Code attempts to connect to each configured MCP server to discover available tools. If multiple MCP servers expose a tool with the same name, the tool names will be prefixed with the server alias you defined in the configuration (e.g., serverAlias__actualToolName) to avoid conflicts. Note that the system might strip certain schema properties from MCP tool definitions for compatibility. At least one of command, url, or httpUrl must be provided. If multiple are specified, the order of precedence is httpUrl, then url, then command.

Property	Type	Description	Optional
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.command	string	The command to execute to start the MCP server via standard I/O.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.args	array of strings	Arguments to pass to the command.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.env	object	Environment variables to set for the server process.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.cwd	string	The working directory in which to start the server.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.url	string	The URL of an MCP server that uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) for communication.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.httpUrl	string	The URL of an MCP server that uses streamable HTTP for communication.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.headers	object	A map of HTTP headers to send with requests to url or httpUrl.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.timeout	number	Timeout in milliseconds for requests to this MCP server.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.trust	boolean	Trust this server and bypass all tool call confirmations.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.description	string	A brief description of the server, which may be used for display purposes.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.includeTools	array of strings	List of tool names to include from this MCP server. When specified, only the tools listed here will be available from this server (allowlist behavior). If not specified, all tools from the server are enabled by default.	Yes
mcpServers.<SERVER_NAME>.excludeTools	array of strings	List of tool names to exclude from this MCP server. Tools listed here will not be available to the model, even if they are exposed by the server. Note: excludeTools takes precedence over includeTools - if a tool is in both lists, it will be excluded.	Yes

telemetry

Configures logging and metrics collection for Qwen Code. For more information, see telemetry.

Setting	Type	Description	Default
telemetry.enabled	boolean	Whether or not telemetry is enabled.
telemetry.target	string	The destination for collected telemetry. Supported values are local and gcp.
telemetry.otlpEndpoint	string	The endpoint for the OTLP Exporter.
telemetry.otlpProtocol	string	The protocol for the OTLP Exporter (grpc or http).
telemetry.logPrompts	boolean	Whether or not to include the content of user prompts in the logs.
telemetry.outfile	string	The file to write telemetry to when target is local.
telemetry.useCollector	boolean	Whether to use an external OTLP collector.

Example settings.json

Here is an example of a settings.json file with the nested structure, new as of v0.3.0:

{
  "general": {
    "vimMode": true,
    "preferredEditor": "code"
  },
  "ui": {
    "theme": "GitHub",
    "hideTips": false,
    "customWittyPhrases": [
      "You forget a thousand things every day. Make sure this is one of 'em",
      "Connecting to AGI"
    ]
  },
  "tools": {
    "approvalMode": "yolo",
    "sandbox": "docker",
    "sandboxImage": "ghcr.io/qwenlm/qwen-code:0.14.1",
    "discoveryCommand": "bin/get_tools",
    "callCommand": "bin/call_tool",
    "exclude": ["write_file"]
  },
  "mcpServers": {
    "mainServer": {
      "command": "bin/mcp_server.py"
    },
    "anotherServer": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["mcp_server.js", "--verbose"]
    }
  },
  "telemetry": {
    "enabled": true,
    "target": "local",
    "otlpEndpoint": "http://localhost:4317",
    "logPrompts": true
  },
  "privacy": {
    "usageStatisticsEnabled": true
  },
  "model": {
    "name": "qwen3-coder-plus",
    "maxSessionTurns": 10,
    "enableOpenAILogging": false,
    "openAILoggingDir": "~/qwen-logs",
  },
  "context": {
    "fileName": ["CONTEXT.md", "QWEN.md"],
    "includeDirectories": ["path/to/dir1", "~/path/to/dir2", "../path/to/dir3"],
    "loadFromIncludeDirectories": true,
    "fileFiltering": {
      "respectGitIgnore": false
    }
  },
  "advanced": {
    "excludedEnvVars": ["DEBUG", "DEBUG_MODE", "NODE_ENV"]
  }
}

Shell History

The CLI keeps a history of shell commands you run. To avoid conflicts between different projects, this history is stored in a project-specific directory within your user's home folder.

• Location: ~/.qwen/tmp/<project_hash>/shell_history
  • <project_hash> is a unique identifier generated from your project's root path.
  • The history is stored in a file named shell_history.

Environment Variables & .env Files

Environment variables are a common way to configure applications, especially for sensitive information (like tokens) or for settings that might change between environments.

Qwen Code can automatically load environment variables from .env files. For authentication-related variables (like OPENAI_*) and the recommended .qwen/.env approach, see Authentication.

Tip

Environment Variable Exclusion: Some environment variables (like DEBUG and DEBUG_MODE) are automatically excluded from project .env files by default to prevent interference with the CLI behavior. Variables from .qwen/.env files are never excluded. You can customize this behavior using the advanced.excludedEnvVarssetting in your settings.json file.

Environment Variables Table

Variable	Description	Notes
QWEN_TELEMETRY_ENABLED	Set to true or 1 to enable telemetry. Any other value is treated as disabling it.	Overrides the telemetry.enabled setting.
QWEN_TELEMETRY_TARGET	Sets the telemetry target (local or gcp).	Overrides the telemetry.target setting.
QWEN_TELEMETRY_OTLP_ENDPOINT	Sets the OTLP endpoint for telemetry.	Overrides the telemetry.otlpEndpoint setting.
QWEN_TELEMETRY_OTLP_PROTOCOL	Sets the OTLP protocol (grpc or http).	Overrides the telemetry.otlpProtocol setting.
QWEN_TELEMETRY_LOG_PROMPTS	Set to true or 1 to enable or disable logging of user prompts. Any other value is treated as disabling it.	Overrides the telemetry.logPrompts setting.
QWEN_TELEMETRY_OUTFILE	Sets the file path to write telemetry to when the target is local.	Overrides the telemetry.outfile setting.
QWEN_TELEMETRY_USE_COLLECTOR	Set to true or 1 to enable or disable using an external OTLP collector. Any other value is treated as disabling it.	Overrides the telemetry.useCollector setting.
QWEN_SANDBOX	Alternative to the sandbox setting in settings.json.	Accepts true, false, docker, podman, or a custom command string.
QWEN_SANDBOX_IMAGE	Overrides sandbox image selection for Docker/Podman.	Takes precedence over tools.sandboxImage.
SEATBELT_PROFILE	(macOS specific) Switches the Seatbelt (sandbox-exec) profile on macOS.	permissive-open: (Default) Restricts writes to the project folder (and a few other folders, see packages/cli/src/utils/sandbox-macos-permissive-open.sb) but allows other operations. strict: Uses a strict profile that declines operations by default. <profile_name>: Uses a custom profile. To define a custom profile, create a file named sandbox-macos-<profile_name>.sb in your project's .qwen/ directory (e.g., my-project/.qwen/sandbox-macos-custom.sb).
DEBUG or DEBUG_MODE	(often used by underlying libraries or the CLI itself) Set to true or 1 to enable verbose debug logging, which can be helpful for troubleshooting.	Note: These variables are automatically excluded from project .env files by default to prevent interference with the CLI behavior. Use .qwen/.env files if you need to set these for Qwen Code specifically.
NO_COLOR	Set to any value to disable all color output in the CLI.
CLI_TITLE	Set to a string to customize the title of the CLI.
CODE_ASSIST_ENDPOINT	Specifies the endpoint for the code assist server.	This is useful for development and testing.
QWEN_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS	Overrides the default maximum output tokens per response. When not set, Qwen Code uses an adaptive strategy: starts with 8K tokens and automatically retries with 64K if the response is truncated. Set this to a specific value (e.g., 16000) to use a fixed limit instead.	Takes precedence over the capped default (8K) but is overridden by samplingParams.max_tokens in settings. Disables automatic escalation when set. Example: export QWEN_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS=16000
TAVILY_API_KEY	Your API key for the Tavily web search service.	Used to enable the web_search tool functionality. Example: export TAVILY_API_KEY="tvly-your-api-key-here"
QWEN_CODE_PROFILE_STARTUP	Set to 1 to enable startup performance profiling. Writes a JSON timing report to ~/.qwen/startup-perf/ with per-phase durations.	Only active inside the sandbox child process. Zero overhead when not set. Example: export QWEN_CODE_PROFILE_STARTUP=1

Command-Line Arguments

Arguments passed directly when running the CLI can override other configurations for that specific session.

For sandbox image selection, precedence is: --sandbox-image > QWEN_SANDBOX_IMAGE > tools.sandboxImage > built-in default image.

Command-Line Arguments Table

Argument	Alias	Description	Possible Values	Notes
--model	-m	Specifies the Qwen model to use for this session.	Model name	Example: npm start -- --model qwen3-coder-plus
--prompt	-p	Used to pass a prompt directly to the command. This invokes Qwen Code in a non-interactive mode.	Your prompt text	For scripting examples, use the --output-format json flag to get structured output.
--prompt-interactive	-i	Starts an interactive session with the provided prompt as the initial input.	Your prompt text	The prompt is processed within the interactive session, not before it. Cannot be used when piping input from stdin. Example: qwen -i "explain this code"
--system-prompt		Overrides the built-in main session system prompt for this run.	Your prompt text	Loaded context files such as QWEN.md are still appended after this override. Can be combined with --append-system-prompt.
--append-system-prompt		Appends extra instructions to the main session system prompt for this run.	Your prompt text	Applied after the built-in prompt and loaded context files. Can be combined with --system-prompt. See Headless Mode for examples.
--output-format	-o	Specifies the format of the CLI output for non-interactive mode.	text, json, stream-json	text: (Default) The standard human-readable output. json: A machine-readable JSON output emitted at the end of execution. stream-json: Streaming JSON messages emitted as they occur during execution. For structured output and scripting, use the --output-format json or --output-format stream-json flag. See Headless Mode for detailed information.
--input-format		Specifies the format consumed from standard input.	text, stream-json	text: (Default) Standard text input from stdin or command-line arguments. stream-json: JSON message protocol via stdin for bidirectional communication. Requirement: --input-format stream-json requires --output-format stream-json to be set. When using stream-json, stdin is reserved for protocol messages. See Headless Mode for detailed information.
--include-partial-messages		Include partial assistant messages when using stream-json output format. When enabled, emits stream events (message_start, content_block_delta, etc.) as they occur during streaming.		Default: false. Requirement: Requires --output-format stream-json to be set. See Headless Mode for detailed information about stream events.
--sandbox	-s	Enables sandbox mode for this session.
--sandbox-image		Sets the sandbox image URI.
--debug	-d	Enables debug mode for this session, providing more verbose output.
--all-files	-a	If set, recursively includes all files within the current directory as context for the prompt.
--help	-h	Displays help information about command-line arguments.
--show-memory-usage		Displays the current memory usage.
--yolo		Enables YOLO mode, which automatically approves all tool calls.
--approval-mode		Sets the approval mode for tool calls.	plan, default, auto-edit, yolo	Supported modes: plan: Analyze only—do not modify files or execute commands. default: Require approval for file edits or shell commands (default behavior). auto-edit: Automatically approve edit tools (edit, write_file) while prompting for others. yolo: Automatically approve all tool calls (equivalent to --yolo). Cannot be used together with --yolo. Use --approval-mode=yolo instead of --yolo for the new unified approach. Example: qwen --approval-mode auto-edit See more about Approval Mode.
--allowed-tools		A comma-separated list of tool names that will bypass the confirmation dialog.	Tool names	Example: qwen --allowed-tools "Shell(git status)"
--telemetry		Enables telemetry.
--telemetry-target		Sets the telemetry target.		See telemetry for more information.
--telemetry-otlp-endpoint		Sets the OTLP endpoint for telemetry.		See telemetry for more information.
--telemetry-otlp-protocol		Sets the OTLP protocol for telemetry (grpc or http).		Defaults to grpc. See telemetry for more information.
--telemetry-log-prompts		Enables logging of prompts for telemetry.		See telemetry for more information.
--checkpointing		Enables checkpointing.
--acp		Enables ACP mode (Agent Client Protocol). Useful for IDE/editor integrations like Zed.		Stable. Replaces the deprecated --experimental-acp flag.
--experimental-lsp		Enables experimental LSP (Language Server Protocol) feature for code intelligence (go-to-definition, find references, diagnostics, etc.).		Experimental. Requires language servers to be installed.
--extensions	-e	Specifies a list of extensions to use for the session.	Extension names	If not provided, all available extensions are used. Use the special term qwen -e none to disable all extensions. Example: qwen -e my-extension -e my-other-extension
--list-extensions	-l	Lists all available extensions and exits.
--proxy		Sets the proxy for the CLI.	Proxy URL	Example: --proxy http://localhost:7890.
--include-directories		Includes additional directories in the workspace for multi-directory support.	Directory paths	Can be specified multiple times or as comma-separated values. 5 directories can be added at maximum. Example: --include-directories /path/to/project1,/path/to/project2 or --include-directories /path/to/project1 --include-directories /path/to/project2
--screen-reader		Enables screen reader mode, which adjusts the TUI for better compatibility with screen readers.
--version		Displays the version of the CLI.
--openai-logging		Enables logging of OpenAI API calls for debugging and analysis.		This flag overrides the enableOpenAILogging setting in settings.json.
--openai-logging-dir		Sets a custom directory path for OpenAI API logs.	Directory path	This flag overrides the openAILoggingDir setting in settings.json. Supports absolute paths, relative paths, and ~ expansion. Example: qwen --openai-logging-dir "~/qwen-logs" --openai-logging
--tavily-api-key		Sets the Tavily API key for web search functionality for this session.	API key	Example: qwen --tavily-api-key tvly-your-api-key-here

Context Files (Hierarchical Instructional Context)

While not strictly configuration for the CLI's behavior, context files (defaulting to QWEN.md but configurable via the context.fileName setting) are crucial for configuring the instructional context (also referred to as "memory"). This powerful feature allows you to give project-specific instructions, coding style guides, or any relevant background information to the AI, making its responses more tailored and accurate to your needs. The CLI includes UI elements, such as an indicator in the footer showing the number of loaded context files, to keep you informed about the active context.

• Purpose: These Markdown files contain instructions, guidelines, or context that you want the Qwen model to be aware of during your interactions. The system is designed to manage this instructional context hierarchically.

Example Context File Content (e.g. QWEN.md)

Here's a conceptual example of what a context file at the root of a TypeScript project might contain:

# Project: My Awesome TypeScript Library

## General Instructions:
- When generating new TypeScript code, please follow the existing coding style.
- Ensure all new functions and classes have JSDoc comments.
- Prefer functional programming paradigms where appropriate.
- All code should be compatible with TypeScript 5.0 and Node.js 20+.

## Coding Style:
- Use 2 spaces for indentation.
- Interface names should be prefixed with `I` (e.g., `IUserService`).
- Private class members should be prefixed with an underscore (`_`).
- Always use strict equality (`===` and `!==`).

## Specific Component: `src/api/client.ts`
- This file handles all outbound API requests.
- When adding new API call functions, ensure they include robust error handling and logging.
- Use the existing `fetchWithRetry` utility for all GET requests.

## Regarding Dependencies:
- Avoid introducing new external dependencies unless absolutely necessary.
- If a new dependency is required, please state the reason.

This example demonstrates how you can provide general project context, specific coding conventions, and even notes about particular files or components. The more relevant and precise your context files are, the better the AI can assist you. Project-specific context files are highly encouraged to establish conventions and context.

• Hierarchical Loading and Precedence: The CLI implements a hierarchical memory system by loading context files (e.g., QWEN.md) from several locations. Content from files lower in this list (more specific) typically overrides or supplements content from files higher up (more general). The exact concatenation order and final context can be inspected using the /memory show command. The typical loading order is:
  1. Global Context File:
     • Location: ~/.qwen/<configured-context-filename> (e.g., ~/.qwen/QWEN.md in your user home directory).
     • Scope: Provides default instructions for all your projects.
  2. Project Root & Ancestors Context Files:
     • Location: The CLI searches for the configured context file in the current working directory and then in each parent directory up to either the project root (identified by a .git folder) or your home directory.
     • Scope: Provides context relevant to the entire project or a significant portion of it.
• Concatenation & UI Indication: The contents of all found context files are concatenated (with separators indicating their origin and path) and provided as part of the system prompt. The CLI footer displays the count of loaded context files, giving you a quick visual cue about the active instructional context.
• Importing Content: You can modularize your context files by importing other Markdown files using the @path/to/file.md syntax. For more details, see the Memory Import Processor documentation.
• Commands for Memory Management:
  • Use /memory refresh to force a re-scan and reload of all context files from all configured locations. This updates the AI's instructional context.
  • Use /memory show to display the combined instructional context currently loaded, allowing you to verify the hierarchy and content being used by the AI.
  • See the Commands documentation for full details on the /memory command and its sub-commands (show and refresh).

By understanding and utilizing these configuration layers and the hierarchical nature of context files, you can effectively manage the AI's memory and tailor Qwen Code's responses to your specific needs and projects.

Sandbox

Qwen Code can execute potentially unsafe operations (like shell commands and file modifications) within a sandboxed environment to protect your system.

Sandbox is disabled by default, but you can enable it in a few ways:

• Using --sandbox or -s flag.
• Setting QWEN_SANDBOX environment variable.
• Sandbox is enabled when using --yolo or --approval-mode=yolo by default.

By default, it uses a pre-built qwen-code-sandbox Docker image.

For project-specific sandboxing needs, you can create a custom Dockerfile at .qwen/sandbox.Dockerfile in your project's root directory. This Dockerfile can be based on the base sandbox image:

FROM qwen-code-sandbox
# Add your custom dependencies or configurations here
# For example:
# RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y some-package
# COPY ./my-config /app/my-config

When .qwen/sandbox.Dockerfile exists, you can use BUILD_SANDBOX environment variable when running Qwen Code to automatically build the custom sandbox image:

BUILD_SANDBOX=1 qwen -s

Usage Statistics

To help us improve Qwen Code, we collect anonymized usage statistics. This data helps us understand how the CLI is used, identify common issues, and prioritize new features.

What we collect:

• Tool Calls: We log the names of the tools that are called, whether they succeed or fail, and how long they take to execute. We do not collect the arguments passed to the tools or any data returned by them.
• API Requests: We log the model used for each request, the duration of the request, and whether it was successful. We do not collect the content of the prompts or responses.
• Session Information: We collect information about the configuration of the CLI, such as the enabled tools and the approval mode.

What we DON'T collect:

• Personally Identifiable Information (PII): We do not collect any personal information, such as your name, email address, or API keys.
• Prompt and Response Content: We do not log the content of your prompts or the responses from the model.
• File Content: We do not log the content of any files that are read or written by the CLI.

How to opt out:

You can opt out of usage statistics collection at any time by setting the usageStatisticsEnabled property to false under the privacy category in your settings.json file:

{
  "privacy": {
    "usageStatisticsEnabled": false
  }
}

Note

When usage statistics are enabled, events are sent to an Alibaba Cloud RUM collection endpoint.