Tinfoil Code: Qwen Edition

Verifiably Private AI-powered command-line coding tool

Installation • Quick Start • Features • Documentation • Contributing

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Tinfoil Code is a private alternative to the Qwen Code command-line AI coding tool.

Tinfoil Code is forked from Qwen Code, which was in turn adapted from Gemini CLI.

With Tinfoil Code, all AI inference to the Qwen3 Coder model is performed using Tinfoil's private AI infrastructure, which provides verifiably private AI inference using secure hardware enclaves.

When you use Tinfoil Code, your data remains private and inaccessible to third parties, including Tinfoil and Qwen

💡 Getting Started

Tinfoil Code requires an API key for operation. You'll be prompted to enter your API key on first run. You can get a Tinfoil API key by visiting https://tinfoil.sh.

Key Features

• Privacy - Your queries and code are never exposed to third parties and only processed within isolated secure hardware enclaves. Learn more about Tinfoil.
• Code Understanding & Editing - Query and edit large codebases beyond traditional context window limits
• Workflow Automation - Automate operational tasks like handling pull requests and complex rebases
• Enhanced Parser - Adapted parser optimized for AI models

Installation

Prerequisite: Node.js v20.0.0+

Ensure you have Node.js version 20 or higher installed.

Install from npm

npm install -g @tinfoil-code/qwen-code@latest
tinfoil-qwen --version

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/tinfoilsh/qwen-code.git
cd qwen-code
npm install
npm install -g .

Install globally with Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install qwen-code

Quick Start

# Start Tinfoil Code
tinfoil-qwen

# Example commands
> Explain this codebase structure
> Help me refactor this function
> Generate unit tests for this module

Session Management

Control your token usage with configurable session limits to optimize costs and performance.

Configure Session Token Limit

Create or edit .tinfoil/settings.json in your home directory:

{
  "sessionTokenLimit": 32000
}

Session Commands

• /compress - Compress conversation history to continue within token limits
• /clear - Clear all conversation history and start fresh
• /stats - Check current token usage and limits

📝 Note: Session token limit applies to a single conversation, not cumulative API calls.

Authorization

Tinfoil Code requires an API key to function. When you first run tinfoil-qwen, you'll be prompted to enter your API key, which will be securely stored for future use.

Configuration Methods:

1. Environment Variables

   export TINFOIL_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

2. Project .env File Create a .env file in your project root:

   TINFOIL_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Usage Examples

🔍 Explore Codebases

cd your-project/
tinfoil-qwen

# Architecture analysis
> Describe the main pieces of this system's architecture
> What are the key dependencies and how do they interact?
> Find all API endpoints and their authentication methods

💻 Code Development

# Refactoring
> Refactor this function to improve readability and performance
> Convert this class to use dependency injection
> Split this large module into smaller, focused components

# Code generation
> Create a REST API endpoint for user management
> Generate unit tests for the authentication module
> Add error handling to all database operations

🔄 Automate Workflows

# Git automation
> Analyze git commits from the last 7 days, grouped by feature
> Create a changelog from recent commits
> Find all TODO comments and create GitHub issues

# File operations
> Convert all images in this directory to PNG format
> Rename all test files to follow the *.test.ts pattern
> Find and remove all console.log statements

🐛 Debugging & Analysis

# Performance analysis
> Identify performance bottlenecks in this React component
> Find all N+1 query problems in the codebase

# Security audit
> Check for potential SQL injection vulnerabilities
> Find all hardcoded credentials or API keys

Popular Tasks

📚 Understand New Codebases

> What are the core business logic components?
> What security mechanisms are in place?
> How does the data flow through the system?
> What are the main design patterns used?
> Generate a dependency graph for this module

🔨 Code Refactoring & Optimization

> What parts of this module can be optimized?
> Help me refactor this class to follow SOLID principles
> Add proper error handling and logging
> Convert callbacks to async/await pattern
> Implement caching for expensive operations

📝 Documentation & Testing

> Generate comprehensive JSDoc comments for all public APIs
> Write unit tests with edge cases for this component
> Create API documentation in OpenAPI format
> Add inline comments explaining complex algorithms
> Generate a README for this module

🚀 Development Acceleration

> Set up a new Express server with authentication
> Create a React component with TypeScript and tests
> Implement a rate limiter middleware
> Add database migrations for new schema
> Configure CI/CD pipeline for this project

Commands & Shortcuts

Session Commands

• /help - Display available commands
• /clear - Clear conversation history
• /compress - Compress history to save tokens
• /stats - Show current session information
• /exit or /quit - Exit Tinfoil Code

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl+C - Cancel current operation
• Ctrl+D - Exit (on empty line)
• Up/Down - Navigate command history

Benchmark Results

Performance

For benchmark results and performance metrics, see the original Qwen Code repository.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues, see the original Qwen Code repository.

Acknowledgments

This project is forked from Qwen Code, which was based on Google Gemini CLI. We acknowledge and appreciate the excellent work of both teams. We tried to keep changes to a minimum with respect to the original Qwen Code repository to be able to more easily maintain this fork.