Qwen Code E2E Testing

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

Headless auth comes from ~/.qwen. Force a known-good model with --auth-type + --model:

<qwen> "your prompt" --auth-type openai --model deepseek-v4-flash \
  --approval-mode yolo --output-format json

Gotcha: --model alone won't switch providers — --auth-type (openai/anthropic/qwen-oauth/gemini/vertex-ai) does. Omit it and the run falls back to the default provider and dies on its missing key.

Isolating runtime artifacts

QWEN_RUNTIME_DIR=<dir> redirects qwen's runtime output — tmp/, debug/, and projects/<sanitized-cwd>/... (chat recordings, auto-memory, history) — into <dir> instead of ~/.qwen. Config (settings.json, OAuth tokens, commands/) still reads from ~/.qwen, so real auth and provider config work without any setup.

Use when repeated test runs would clutter your real chat history or auto-memory. Skip when the bug you're reproducing depends on the user's actual history or runtime state — that is the repro.

QWEN_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/test-1/runtime <qwen> "prompt" ...

Run modes

Headless Mode

Run the CLI non-interactively with JSON output (<qwen> = qwen or node dist/cli.js per above):

<qwen> "your prompt here" \
  --approval-mode yolo \
  --output-format json \
  2>/dev/null

--output-format json emits one JSON array (all messages, flushed at end of turn) — filter with jq '.[] | …', never a bare jq 'select(…)'. (--output-format stream-json instead emits NDJSON, one object per line.) Element types:

• type: "system" — init: tools, mcp_servers, model, permission_mode
• type: "assistant" — model output: content[].type is text, tool_use, or thinking
• type: "user" — tool results: content[].type is tool_result with is_error
• type: "result" — final output with result text and usage stats

Filter with jq — lead with .[] to enter the array, e.g. tool-result errors: ... 2>/dev/null | jq '.[] | select(.type=="user") | .message.content[] | select(.is_error)'

Interactive Mode (tmux)

Use when you need to verify TUI rendering, test keyboard interactions, or see what the user sees. Headless mode is simpler when you only need structured output.

Launching

tmux new-session -d -s test -x 200 -y 50 \
  "cd /tmp/test-dir && <qwen> --approval-mode yolo"
sleep 3  # wait for TUI to initialize

Sending prompts

Split text and Enter with a short delay — sending them together can cause the TUI to swallow the submit:

tmux send-keys -t test "your prompt here"
sleep 0.5
tmux send-keys -t test Enter

Waiting for completion

Poll for the streaming indicator to disappear instead of blind sleeping. The footer placeholder Type your message is always rendered — don't grep for that or the loop exits on iteration 1 while the model is still working. The status line esc to cancel is present only while the model is producing output:

for i in $(seq 1 60); do
  sleep 2
  tmux capture-pane -t test -p | grep -q "esc to cancel" || break
done

Capturing output

tmux capture-pane -t test -p -S -100   # -S -100 = 100 lines of scrollback

Limitations

• Key combos: tmux send-keys cannot reliably send all key combinations. C-?, C-Shift-*, and function keys with modifiers are unsupported or unreliable. For these, use the InteractiveSession harness in integration-tests/interactive/ or test manually.
• Visual artifacts: capture-pane captures the final rendered frame, not intermediate states. Flicker, tearing, or brief blank frames cannot be detected this way.