E2E Testing Guide

How to run the Qwen Code CLI end-to-end — from building the bundle to inspecting raw API traffic. Use when unit tests aren't enough and you need to verify behavior through the full pipeline (model API → tool validation → tool execution).

Setup

Which binary to use

• Reproducing bugs: use the globally installed qwen command — this matches what the user ran when they filed the issue.
• Verifying fixes: build first (npm run build && npm run bundle), then run node dist/cli.js — this tests your local changes.
• Runtime-only checks (fastest): npm run dev -- "<prompt>" <flags> — runs TS source via tsx, no build. Use build && bundle + node dist/cli.js only when the shipped artifact itself matters. (<qwen> below can be npm run dev --.)

Running against a real model