| name | qwencloud-model-selector |
| description | [QwenCloud] Recommend the best Qwen model and parameters. TRIGGER when: choosing between Qwen models, comparing Qwen model pricing, understanding Qwen model capabilities, checking usage or billing, viewing cost history, when an execution skill needs model selection advice, or user explicitly invokes this skill by name (e.g. use qwencloud-model-selector). DO NOT TRIGGER when: non-Qwen model discussions (OpenAI, Gemini, etc.), general AI questions unrelated to Qwen. |
| compatibility | Advisory skill, no execution dependencies. Cursor: auto-loaded. Claude Code: read this skill's SKILL.md before first use. |
Agent setup: If your agent doesn't auto-load skills (e.g. Claude Code),
see agent-compatibility.md once per session.
Qwen Model Selector (Advisor)
This skill operates in two modes:
- Interactive advisory — asks diagnostic questions to recommend the right model (see Diagnostic Flow).
- Cross-skill resolution — provides a fast-path model lookup for execution skills that need a model
decision without user interaction (see recommendation-matrix.md).
Do not fabricate model names — only recommend models listed in this skill or returned by CLI.
This skill is part of qwencloud/qwencloud-ai.
Skill directory
Load on demand. Do not fetch external URLs unless the user explicitly asks for the latest data.
| Location | Purpose |
|---|
references/cli-usage.md | CLI-first data strategy: when to use CLI, 3-step login flow, display rules |
references/error-handling.md | CLI error classification & recovery actions (auth, not-found, network, ...) |
references/recommendation-matrix.md | Full model recommendation tables, Cross-Skill Resolution, Coding Plan, Thinking |
references/pricing-disclaimer.md | Pricing guidance + mandatory cost-estimation disclaimer (CN/EN) + console links |
references/pricing.md | Pricing structural overview (offline snapshot) |
references/model-list.md | Model catalog (offline snapshot) |
references/sources.md | Official documentation URLs (manual lookup only) |
references/agent-compatibility.md | Agent self-check for skill registration |
Prerequisites
QwenCloud CLI is strongly recommended — it is the authoritative real-time data source for model
availability, pricing, and quotas. Verify with:
qwencloud version
If not installed:
npm install -g @qwencloud/qwencloud-cli
Node.js >= 18 required. Without CLI you can still answer general navigation questions from offline
snapshots, but you cannot answer "latest", "exact price", or "specific model details" questions.
Security & Credential Model
QwenCloud has two independent credential systems — never confuse them:
| Credential | Purpose | How to provide |
|---|
API Key (sk-... / sk-sp-...) | Call model APIs in your code | $DASHSCOPE_API_KEY / $QWEN_API_KEY env var |
| CLI session | Authorize qwencloud CLI subcommands | qwencloud auth login (browser device flow) |
Red lines (apply to both):
- NEVER output any credential value in plaintext. Use variable references; report only status
("set" / "not set", "valid" / "invalid"). Never display
.env or config file contents.
- NEVER conflate the two systems. When CLI returns
Not authenticated / AUTH_REQUIRED, run the
3-step device-flow login (see cli-usage.md).
DO NOT ask the user for an API key, and DO NOT try to set $DASHSCOPE_API_KEY to fix CLI auth.
Data Resolution Order
Match the user's question to the right data source. Do not fall back to a lower tier without trying
the recovery actions in the higher tier first.
| Question type | Primary source | Notes |
|---|
| General navigation ("which family for text chat?") | SKILL.md Default table + recommendation-matrix.md | Offline-answerable |
| Latest / exact / specific (price, model details, quota) | CLI MUST be used — see cli-usage.md | Snapshots are stale; never invent numbers |
| Search by capability ("model that does X") | qwencloud models search "<X>" --format json | Snapshot keyword coverage is incomplete |
| CLI returned an error | error-handling.md recovery actions, then retry | Auth failure → run 3-step login, do not skip to snapshot |
| CLI completely unavailable AND user declines install/login | model-list.md, pricing.md (with stale-data caveat) | Only after CLI recovery genuinely failed |
| All of the above cannot answer AND user confirms online lookup | URLs in sources.md | Never proactively fetch |
Diagnostic Flow (Interactive Advisory)
Ask the user (in order):
- Content type? — text / image / video / audio / vision
- Primary task? — generation / understanding / coding / reasoning / translation
- Priority? — quality vs speed vs cost
- Input size? — short / medium / long context
- Structured output? — JSON / function calling needed?
Default Recommendations
No clear signals → use the canonical default for the domain. For specialized cases (reasoning, coding,
OCR, role-play, image editing, etc.) and per-domain comparison, see
recommendation-matrix.md.
| Domain | Default | Quality | Speed | Cost |
|---|
| text.chat | qwen3.6-plus | qwen3-max | qwen3.5-flash | qwen-turbo |
| vision.analyze | qwen3.6-plus | qwen3-vl-plus | qwen3-vl-flash | qwen3-vl-flash |
| omni (voice+vision) | qwen3-omni-flash | qwen3-omni-flash | qwen3-omni-flash | — |
| image.generate | wan2.6-t2i | wan2.6-t2i | wan2.2-t2i-flash | wan2.2-t2i-flash |
| image.edit | wan2.6-image | wan2.6-image | wan2.5-i2i-preview | wan2.5-i2i-preview |
| video.t2v | wan2.6-t2v | wan2.6-t2v | — | — |
| video.i2v | wan2.6-i2v-flash | wan2.6-i2v | wan2.6-i2v-flash | — |
| audio.tts | qwen3-tts-flash | cosyvoice-v3-plus | qwen3-tts-flash | qwen3-tts-flash |
Degradation: If this skill is not loaded, each execution skill falls back to its own built-in
default. This protocol is purely additive — it enhances model selection but never blocks execution.
CLI Quick Reference
Auth required. All models and usage commands need an active CLI session (browser
device-flow login — NOT the API key). If the command returns Not authenticated / AUTH_REQUIRED:
- Run the 3-step device-flow login in cli-usage.md
(proactively open the verification URL using the OS-appropriate command, then poll immediately).
- Retry the original command after
success.
- DO NOT ask the user for
$DASHSCOPE_API_KEY / $QWEN_API_KEY — those are for model API
calls, not CLI session. See Security & Credential Model above.
- DO NOT silently fall back to snapshots.
| Need | Command |
|---|
| Full model catalog | qwencloud models list --all --format json |
| Filter by modality | qwencloud models list --input image --output text --format json |
| Single model details | qwencloud models info <model-id> --format json |
| Keyword search | qwencloud models search "<query>" --format json |
| Free tier remaining | qwencloud usage free-tier --format json |
| Auth status | qwencloud auth status --format json |
Display rules: Parse --format json output and present a human-readable summary; never dump raw
JSON. Display --format text output as-is, then add analysis after ---. See
cli-usage.md for details.
CLI Error Handling — Quick Guide
When CLI fails, classify first, recover, then retry. Never silently fall back to snapshots.
| Category | Recovery (summary) |
|---|
auth-failure | Run 3-step login → retry the original command. Fall back only if user declines. |
not-installed | Show install command → ask user to install → retry. Do NOT silently use snapshot. |
model-not-found | Run qwencloud models search "<keyword>" → propose top 3 → retry with correct ID. |
network-timeout | Retry once after 2s; only after second failure ask whether to fall back. |
rate-limit | Show Rate Limit Console; user decides. |
quota-exhausted | Show Billing Console; do NOT use snapshot. |
version-mismatch | Suggest qwencloud version --check or update-check skill → upgrade → retry. |
other | Show raw stderr; link to docs; only after user opt-out, fall back. |
Full classification, signals, and example flows: error-handling.md.
Pricing & Cost Estimation
- Latest pricing: Run
qwencloud models info <model> --format json first; use pricing.md only as
offline fallback. Never invent a price.
- Mandatory disclaimer: Every cost-related answer must end with the disclaimer in
pricing-disclaimer.md (Chinese or English version, matching the
user's response language). Omitting the disclaimer is a critical failure.
- Free quota: Never assume free quota is available — use
qwencloud usage free-tier to verify or
direct the user to the console.
- Usage / billing queries: Direct the user to the appropriate console page — see the table in
pricing-disclaimer.md.
Update Check
When the user asks to check for updates ("check for updates", "check version", "is there a new version",
"update skills"):
- Find qwencloud-update-check: Look for
qwencloud-update-check/SKILL.md in sibling skill directories.
- If found — run:
python3 <qwencloud-update-check-dir>/scripts/check_update.py --print-response
and report the result. Use --force if the user asks to force-check.
- If not found — run
qwencloud version --check and report the result.
Anti-Patterns
- Never fabricate model names — only recommend models listed in this skill or returned by CLI.
- Never invent or guess any price figure — use CLI /
pricing.md / official pricing page only.
Fabricating a price is a critical failure.
- Never silently fall back to snapshots when CLI errors out — apply
error-handling.md recovery actions first.
- Never assume free quota is available — quotas may have been consumed, expired, or removed. Always
present the paid unit price first.
- Never output API keys in plaintext — see Security section.
- Never confuse CLI session with API key — CLI auth uses browser device-flow login; never offer
$DASHSCOPE_API_KEY or $QWEN_API_KEY as a fix for CLI Not authenticated / AUTH_REQUIRED errors.
- Never proactively fetch URLs or trigger web searches — only access online sources when CLI +
snapshots cannot answer AND the user confirms.
- Never construct usage/billing/console URLs — only use the exact links listed in this skill or its
references. If a URL is not listed, do not invent one.
- Always include the cost disclaimer for any cost-related answer (see
pricing-disclaimer.md).
References
| Source | Purpose |
|---|
| cli-usage.md | CLI-first strategy, 3-step login, display rules, model detail URL |
| error-handling.md | CLI error classification & recovery |
| recommendation-matrix.md | Full recommendation tables, Cross-Skill Resolution, Coding Plan, Thinking Mode |
| pricing-disclaimer.md | Pricing guidance + mandatory disclaimer + billing console links |
| pricing.md | Pricing structural overview (offline snapshot) |
| model-list.md | Model catalog (offline snapshot) |
| sources.md | Official documentation URLs |
| agent-compatibility.md | Agent self-check for skill registration |
qwencloud models list --format json | Dynamic: full model catalog with pricing, features, quotas |
qwencloud models info <id> --format json | Dynamic: single model details (pricing tiers, context, rate limits) |
qwencloud models search "<q>" --format json | Dynamic: keyword-based model discovery |
qwencloud usage free-tier --format json | Dynamic: remaining free tier quota per model |
