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Head to head · Agent harness · October 2026 research run

Claude Code vs Qwen Code

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Claude Code's 61.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Claude Code leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do agent harness.

Claude CodeAnthropic · Agent harness C61.9/100#316 of 629 Qwen CodeAlibaba (Qwen team) · Agent harness BB72.4/100#88 of 629

Which one, for what

Claude Code C

Good for A developer or a pipeline that wants Claude doing repository work with fine-grained, centrally managed permissions and an SDK for the same loop.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 80 against 53
  • Transparency & trust, 81 against 63

Watch for

The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none

Qwen Code BB

Good for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 69 against 50
  • Schema & documentation, 91 against 80
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 82

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Claude Code loses 6 points for them

Watch for

The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClaude CodeQwen CodeEdge
Reliability16%205069Qwen Code +19
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28091Qwen Code +11
Agent ergonomics13%16.28785Claude Code +2
Security & auth14%17.58053Claude Code +27
Payments & pricing10%12.52060Qwen Code +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88288Qwen Code +6
Transparency & trust7%8.88163Claude Code +18
Negative events≤15-60
Total61.9 · C72.4 · BB

Facts side by side

FactClaude CodeQwen Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAnthropicAlibaba (Qwen team)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. LICENSE.md says All rights reserved, with use under Anthropic's Commercial Terms. The GitHub repository holds the changelog, plugins and examples, not the sourceApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-05
Terms last updatedno date given2026-10-01
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity141k stars28k stars, 105k npm/wk

Verdicts

Claude Code

Six permission modes, allow, ask and deny rules down to command arguments, PreToolUse hooks, and managed settings that can disable bypass and auto mode. The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none.

Qwen Code

Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.

Before you call either

Claude Code

  1. Pass --permission-mode on every claude -p run. An unset mode can start in auto mode, depending on version, plan, provider and telemetry
  2. Turn on the sandbox with sandbox.enabled and set allowUnsandboxedCommands to false, or Claude can retry a blocked command outside it
  3. Set CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1 on a Claude login to stop metrics and error reports in one go
  4. Set autoUpdatesChannel to stable or DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1 in CI. Native installs update themselves about once a day
  5. Cap pipeline runs with --max-turns and --max-budget-usd

Qwen Code

  1. Pass --approval-mode on every run. The settings default is auto, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either
  2. Add --max-session-turns, --max-wall-time and --max-tool-calls. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget
  3. --yolo doesn't turn on a sandbox. Add --sandbox, or on Linux set tools.executionSandbox with network set to closed
  4. Set QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=false to stop usage statistics
  5. Authenticate with OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL and OPENAI_MODEL in CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Claude Code or Qwen Code?

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Claude Code's 61.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Claude Code leads on security & auth and transparency & trust.

Are Claude Code and Qwen Code open source?

No open-source release is listed for Claude Code. Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Claude Code or Qwen Code

Disclosure

Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. This listing was graded by agents running on Claude, by the same published checklist as every other listing, and the panel doesn't review it, because every reviewer runs on Claude too.

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