# Emdash vs Qwen Code (slim)

> Qwen Code scores 68.7 (B) to Emdash's 53.9 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-qwen-code.md (~5,950 tokens) · this version ~2,430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-qwen-code.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-qwen-code
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Qwen Code scores 68.7 (B) on agent readiness against Emdash's 53.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

- Emdash: D 53.9, rank #927 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/emdash.min.md
- Qwen Code: B 68.7, rank #273 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen-code.min.md
- Emdash, good for Developers who want parallel agents in worktrees, fed from their issue tracker, locally or over SSH. Also No key needed to call it; No incidents deducted, where Qwen Code loses 4 points for them.
- Qwen Code, 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 55; Schema & documentation, 91 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 85 against 55; Security & auth, 53 against 38; Maintenance & community, 88 against 70; Transparency & trust, 66 against 54. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Emdash | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 69 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 55 | 91 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 85 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 38 | 53 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 88 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 54 | 66 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Emdash | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | General Action, Inc. | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Auth | None | API key |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Qwen Code +36: Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Docs site and a workspace server package (55).); Qwen Code 91 (Framework reading. A settings.schema.json in the repository, a settings reference with the type and default of each key, and an OpenAPI file for the daemon's REST API (25). llms.txt on the docs site lists the pages with a line each, though it links to HTML and the Markdown path we tried returned 404 (8). The approval-mode page says when to use each mode and the sandbox page what each method and Seatbelt profile allows (15). Approval modes, sandbox backends, filesystem and network policies are enums (13). The headless page documents json and stream-json output, and exit codes 41, 42, 44, 52, 53, 55 and 130 are documented (15). A dated changelog generated from releases (15).)
- Agent ergonomics, Qwen Code +30: Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Issue intake from Linear, GitHub, Jira and others, diff review, pull requests and CI checks in one place, local or over SSH (55).); Qwen Code 85 (Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP servers take `includeTools`, `excludeTools` and a trust flag, with `permissions.allow`, `ask` and `deny` rules and `--exclude-tools` (20). Budgets for turns, wall time and top-level tool calls, each with its own exit code, though subagent tool calls aren't counted (18). Documented exit codes (18). `--continue` and `--resume`, `QWEN_CODE_UNATTENDED_RETRY` for 429 and 529 responses, and MCP calls replayed after a lost connection only when the tool declares itself idempotent (16). A TypeScript SDK on npm at 0.1.18 and a GitHub Action, with the Python SDK a release candidate on PyPI and the Java SDK an alpha (13).)
- Maintenance & community, Qwen Code +18: Emdash 70 (v1.2.11 on 6 November 2026 (30). v1.2.9, v1.2.10 and v1.2.11 within two weeks (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current installers and Homebrew cask (15). Release workflows, no test CI (5). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 70.); Qwen Code 88 (0.26.5 on 1 November 2026 (30). 39 stable releases from 3 August to 1 November (v0.21.4 to v0.26.5), plus previews and nightlies (20). Issues labelled and commented on within a day, largely by automation, per the 8 October check; the issue pages answered 403 on 1 November (17). The TypeScript SDK reached 0.1.26 on 29 October, while the Python SDK's newest tag is still sdk-python-v0.1.0-preview.0 (9 May 2026) and the Java SDK is an alpha (11). CI, CodeQL, a monthly scorecard and Dependabot (10). 30 + 20 + 17 + 11 + 10 = 88.)
- Security & auth, Qwen Code +15: Emdash 38 (Harness reading. Telemetry is described as optional and disabled in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false, which reads as on by default (15 of 30). Worktree per task and remote machines over SSH (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). No security policy file found (3). 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 38.); Qwen Code 53 (Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. Usage statistics are on by default (`privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled` defaults to true in the settings schema at 0.26.5), documented as tool names, model names, timings and configuration without prompts, responses or file contents, with a setting and an environment variable to turn them off. Credentials are API keys in environment variables or settings.json (15). Five approval modes with a read-only plan mode and allow, ask and deny rules, but the settings default is still Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, folder trust is still disabled by default and sandboxing is opt-in. Repeated destructive-command denials now escalate to manual approval (10 October) (10). A Linux tool sandbox with `network: closed`, `--safe-mode` and a stderr warning for yolo without a sandbox, but the default macOS Seatbelt profile allows network. The serve docs say credentials in the home directory are reachable by prompt injection and that runtime isolation isn't a sandbox, but the CLI pages give no injection guidance (7). OpenTelemetry to a file or a collector, opt-in, with logs, metrics and spans, though prompts are logged by default once it's on (13). SECURITY.md is unchanged on 1 November, an Alibaba Cloud console portal with no response time. Two security hardening fixes since 8 October went out only as changelog lines (below), no security.txt was found, and CodeQL and a monthly scorecard run in CI. The advisories page answered 403, so no published advisories stands per the 8 October check (8). 15 + 10 + 7 + 13 + 8 = 53.)
- Reliability, Qwen Code +14: Emdash 55 (Local software. Homebrew cask and installers for macOS, Windows and Linux (20). A code-consistency check and release workflows; no test workflow found (10). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Stable tags to v1.2.11, release notes on GitHub (10). Version 1.2.11 (15). 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 = 55.); Qwen Code 69 (Local-package reading. npm with engines node 22 or newer (re-read in package.json at 0.26.5), Homebrew at 0.26.4 and a standalone installer, with stable, preview and nightly channels (20). Public CI, and of the 15 most recent completed CI runs on main on 8 October, 12 passed, 3 were cancelled and none failed, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (22). 1,402 open issues and 334 open pull requests per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November; the triage and follow-up bots still run in the workflows (15). The changelog states Keep a Changelog and semver and every release has a Breaking Changes heading. Breaking changes shipped in patch releases 0.23.4 and 0.24.1, and again in 0.26.1 (24 October, QQ bot session isolation) and 0.26.2 (27 October, managed-agent working-directory submissions retired), each labelled. All are 0.x, which this run provisionally exempts from the minor-release deduction (12). 0.26.5, pre-1.0 (0). 20 + 22 + 15 + 12 + 0 = 69.)
- Transparency & trust, Qwen Code +12: Emdash 54 (Apache 2.0 (30). A telemetry page on the docs site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.); Qwen Code 66 (Apache-2.0 (30). One terms and privacy page maps each sign-in method to the model provider's terms and says the project doesn't train on prompts or code. Since 26 October it says usage statistics are on by default for every sign-in method, own API keys included, and go to an Alibaba Cloud RUM collection endpoint, where before it said API-key users sent nothing beyond what the provider collects, against the settings default. It still gives no retention period and names no legal entity (20, was 18). The end of the Qwen OAuth free tier is dated 15 April 2026 and `tools.core` is marked deprecated, with a Breaking Changes heading in every release, but no written deprecation policy was found (12). Telemetry is documented with an opt-out by setting or environment variable, though prompts are logged by default once OpenTelemetry is on (17). 30 + 20 + 12 + 17 = 79.)