QianWen Usage

Query QianWen usage, free tier quota, Token Plan status, and pay-as-you-go billing.

Prerequisites

QianWen CLI must be installed. Verify with:

bash

qianwen version

If not installed, run:

bash

npm install -g @qianwenai/qianwen-cli

Node.js >= 18 required.

Authentication: No configuration needed on first use. The CLI handles non-TTY detection and safe login automatically (see Authentication Flow below).

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
`QIANWEN_KEYRING`	Set to `plaintext` , `no` , `0` , `false` , or `off` to opt out of OS keychain credential storage.
`QIANWEN_CREDENTIALS_DIR`	Override file-based credential directory (default: `~/.qianwen/credentials` ).

Authentication Flow (for Agents)

The CLI auto-detects non-TTY environments and degrades safely — no wrapper script needed.

TL;DR — 3-step auth path

qianwen auth status --format json

→

authenticated: true

→ skip to commands

qianwen auth login --init-only --format json

→ extract

verification_url

→ open in browser

qianwen auth login --complete --format json

→ poll until

success

event

Quick check: already logged in?

bash

qianwen auth status --format json

authenticated: true

and token is not expired, skip login entirely.

Recommended: Two-phase login

Works in all environments (desktop, headless, remote container).

Step 1 — Initialize login (non-blocking):

bash

qianwen auth login --init-only --format json

Exits immediately. Parse the stdout JSON

events

array:

```
already_authenticated
```
→ user is logged in, skip to commands
```
device_code
```
→ extract
```
verification_url
```
and present it to the user

On desktop environments with a browser, open the URL for the user:

bash

open "$VERIFICATION_URL"          # macOS
xdg-open "$VERIFICATION_URL"      # Linux
start "" "$VERIFICATION_URL"      # Windows

Step 2 — IMMEDIATELY start polling (do NOT wait for user confirmation):

bash

qianwen auth login --complete --format json

Parse the stdout JSON

events

array:

```
success
```
→ login complete, proceed to commands
```
expired
```
→ device code expired, go back to Step 1
```
error
```
→ report failure

TTY environments (interactive terminal)

If the agent is running in a TTY (e.g., user's terminal), simply run:

bash

qianwen auth login

The CLI will automatically open the browser and poll until authorization completes.

JSON event structure

Both

--init-only

and

--complete

output a single JSON document:

json

{
  "events": [
    {"event": "device_code", "verification_url": "...", "expires_in": 300},
    {"event": "success", "authenticated": true, "user": {"aliyunId": "..."}}
  ]
}

Event types:

already_authenticated

device_code

success

expired

error

pending

NEVER:

❌ Ask the user "Have you completed authorization?" before running
```
--complete
```
❌ Wait for user confirmation before polling — run
```
--complete
```
immediately after presenting the URL
❌ Re-run
```
--init-only
```
without completing (this creates a new device code and invalidates the previous one)

Usage

All commands support

--format json

for structured, machine-parseable output (recommended default), and

--format text

for clean plaintext output.

For agent use, always prefer
--format json
and parse the JSON response. Only fall back to

--format text

when the user explicitly requests human-readable plaintext.

Never parse

table

format programmatically — it contains ANSI codes and Unicode borders.

Auth Commands

qianwen auth status
— Check current authentication state

bash

qianwen auth status --format json

qianwen auth logout
— Revoke session server-side and clear local credentials

bash

qianwen auth logout

Usage Commands

qianwen usage summary
— View usage summary (free tier, Token Plan, pay-as-you-go)

bash

qianwen usage summary                      # Current month
qianwen usage summary --period last-month  # Last month
qianwen usage summary --from 2026-03-01 --to 2026-03-31
qianwen usage summary --format json        # JSON output

Period presets:

today

yesterday

week

month

(default),

last-month

quarter

year

YYYY-MM

qianwen usage breakdown
— View model usage breakdown

bash

qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.6-plus --days 7
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.5-plus --period 2026-03
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen-plus --period 2026-03 --granularity month
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.6-plus --format json

qianwen usage free-tier
— View free tier quota details

bash

qianwen usage free-tier
qianwen usage free-tier --format json

qianwen usage payg
— View pay-as-you-go billing details

bash

qianwen usage payg
qianwen usage payg --format json

Breakdown Parameters: How to Think About Them

Three independent dimensions — combine them freely:

--model

(required) + date range + granularity

Model scope:

```
--model <id>
```
— single model (e.g.
```
qwen3.5-plus
```
); required for breakdown

Date range — three patterns, pick by how the user described the period:

Pattern	When to use	How it works
`--period YYYY-MM`	User names a specific month ("March", "last April")	Exact calendar month, start to end
`--period <preset>`	User describes a relative period	`last-month` = previous full month; `month` = this month so far; `quarter` = this calendar quarter so far
`--days N`	User says "last N days"	Rolling window backwards from today, crosses month boundaries naturally
`--from YYYY-MM-DD --to YYYY-MM-DD`	User gives explicit dates or a named quarter/range	Full control, use when other patterns don't fit

Granularity — determines the grouping of results, not the range:

```
day
```
(default) — one row per day; good for spotting usage spikes
```
month
```
— one row per calendar month; good for multi-month trends
```
quarter
```
— one row per quarter; good for Q-over-Q comparison

Classic examples:

bash

# Single model, single month, daily detail
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.5-plus --period 2026-03

# Single model, last 3 months, monthly summary
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.5-plus --days 90 --granularity month

# Single model, specific quarter, quarterly rollup
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.5-plus --from 2026-01-01 --to 2026-03-31 --granularity quarter

# Single model, this month, daily breakdown
qianwen usage breakdown --model qwen3.6-plus --period month

Output and Agent Display Rules

CLI commands return JSON by default in agent/pipe environments (

auto

format: TTY → table, pipe → json). JSON is the primary output mode for agents — always pass

--format json

explicitly, parse the structured response, then present a human-readable summary to the user.

JSON output example (

--format json

)

bash

qianwen usage summary --period month --format json

Returns structured JSON with three sections:

json

{
  "period": { "from": "2026-04-01", "to": "2026-04-24" },
  "free_tier": [
    { "model_id": "qwen3.6-plus", "quota": { "remaining": 850000, "total": 1000000, "unit": "tokens", "used_pct": 15 } }
  ],
  "coding_plan": {
    "subscribed": true,
    "plan": "PRO",
    "windows": {
      "per_5h": { "remaining": 4800, "total": 6000, "used_pct": 20 },
      "weekly": { "remaining": 38200, "total": 45000, "used_pct": 15 },
      "monthly": { "remaining": 82500, "total": 90000, "used_pct": 8 }
    }
  },
  "pay_as_you_go": {
    "models": [
      { "model_id": "qwen3.6-plus", "usage": { "tokens_total": 480000 }, "cost": 0.38, "currency": "USD" },
      { "model_id": "qwen-plus", "usage": { "tokens_total": 460000 }, "cost": 0.13, "currency": "USD" }
    ],
    "total": { "cost": 0.51, "currency": "USD" }
  }
}

Text output example (

--format text

)

bash

qianwen usage summary --period month --format text

plaintext

Usage Summary  ·  2026-04-10

-- Free Tier Quota -------------------------------------------------------
Model                Remaining      Total          Progress
qwen3.6-plus         850K tokens    1M tokens      85% left
wan2.6-t2i           38 images      50 images      76% left
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Token Plan  ·  Token Plan Team Edition - Standard Seat  ·  生效中-------
Usage:      25K / 25K Credits
Quota Left: 100%
Status:     生效中
Resets:     2026-06-01
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Pay-as-you-go · 2026-04-01 → 2026-04-10 -------------------------------
Model                Usage              Cost
qwen3.6-plus         480K tok           $0.38
qwen-plus            460K tok           $0.13
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                —                  $0.51

⚠️ CRITICAL: How to present output to the user

When using
--format json
(recommended for agents):

Parse the JSON and extract the relevant data for the user's question
Present a human-readable summary — do not dump raw JSON to the user
Add analysis AFTER the summary — clearly separated with
```
---
```

When using
--format text
:

Display CLI output EXACTLY AS-IS — no modification, no reformatting
Preserve all formatting — alignment, spacing, progress bars, separators
Add analysis AFTER output only — clearly separated with
```
---
```

NEVER:

❌ Dump raw JSON to the user without interpretation
❌ Reformat or summarize text/table output
❌ Add prefixes like "Here's your usage:"
❌ Convert text/table output to bullet points

✅ CORRECT (JSON mode):

Your QianWen usage for April:

**Free Tier**: qwen3.6-plus has 85% remaining (850K / 1M tokens), wan2.6-t2i has 76% remaining (38 / 50 images).
**Token Plan (PRO)**: 8% used this month (82.5K / 90K requests).
**Pay-as-you-go**: $0.51 total — qwen3.6-plus $0.38, qwen-plus $0.13.

---

**💡 Analysis**: Your qwen3.6-plus free tier is 85% remaining...

✅ CORRECT (Text mode):

[CLI text output - exactly as-is]

---

**💡 Analysis**: Your qwen3.6-plus free tier is 85% remaining...

❌ WRONG:

Here's your usage:
- qwen3.6-plus: 850K tokens remaining (85% left)

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	General/usage error
2	Authentication error
3	Network error
4	Configuration error
130	Interrupted

CLI Update Check

When the user explicitly asks to check for cli updates (e.g. "check for cli updates", "check cli version", "is there a new version cli"):

Run:
```
qianwen version --check
```
Report the result.

The QianWen CLI handles update notifications natively; no additional stderr signal handling is required in this skill.

Implementation Notes

Pay-as-you-go: API returns total usage only (no input/output split)
Token Plan: Aggregate request counts at plan level (no per-model breakdown)
logout: Revokes server-side session and clears local credentials (keychain + file). Server-side call is best-effort — local logout always succeeds.
Authentication: Uses OAuth 2.0 Device Authorization Grant with PKCE. Credentials stored in OS keychain when available, with encrypted file fallback.
breakdown --model is required: Unlike the previous Python implementation, the CLI requires
```
--model
```
for breakdown. To query all models' usage, use
```
qianwen usage summary
```
instead.

qianwen-usage

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

QianWen Usage

Prerequisites

Environment Variables

Authentication Flow (for Agents)

TL;DR — 3-step auth path

Quick check: already logged in?

Recommended: Two-phase login

TTY environments (interactive terminal)

JSON event structure

NEVER:

Usage

Auth Commands

Usage Commands

Breakdown Parameters: How to Think About Them

Output and Agent Display Rules

JSON output example (
`--format json`
)

Text output example (
`--format text`
)

⚠️ CRITICAL: How to present output to the user

Exit Codes

CLI Update Check

Implementation Notes

qianwen-usage

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

QianWen Usage

Prerequisites

Environment Variables

Authentication Flow (for Agents)

TL;DR — 3-step auth path

Quick check: already logged in?

Recommended: Two-phase login

TTY environments (interactive terminal)

JSON event structure

NEVER:

Usage

Auth Commands

Usage Commands

Breakdown Parameters: How to Think About Them

Output and Agent Display Rules

JSON output example (--format json)

Text output example (--format text)

⚠️ CRITICAL: How to present output to the user

Exit Codes

CLI Update Check

Implementation Notes

JSON output example (
`--format json`
)

Text output example (
`--format text`
)