Qwencloud Model Selector

> Agent setup: If your agent doesn't auto-load skills (e.g. Claude Code), > see [agent-compatibility.md](references/agent-compatibility.md) once per session.

Qwen Model Selector (Advisor)

This skill operates in two modes:

1. Interactive advisory — asks diagnostic questions to recommend the right model (see Diagnostic Flow).
2. Cross-skill resolution — provides a fast-path model lookup for execution skills that need a model

decision without user interaction (see [recommendation-matrix.md](references/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](references/cli-usage.md#authentication-3-step-login-flow)). 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 "" --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):

1. Content type? — text / image / video / audio / vision
2. Primary task? — generation / understanding / coding / reasoning / translation
3. Priority? — quality vs speed vs cost
4. Input size? — short / medium / long context
5. 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](references/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: > 1. Run the 3-step device-flow login in [cli-usage.md](references/cli-usage.md#authentication-3-step-login-flow) > (proactively open the verification URL using the OS-appropriate command, then poll immediately). > 2. Retry the original command after success. > 3. 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](#security--credential-model) above. > 4. 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 --format json | | Keyword search | qwencloud models search "" --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](references/cli-usage.md#agent-display-rules-for-cli-output) 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 "" → 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](references/error-handling.md).

Pricing & Cost Estimation

• Latest pricing: Run qwencloud models info --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](references/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](references/pricing-disclaimer.md#usage--billing-console).

Update Check

When the user asks to check for updates ("check for updates", "check version", "is there a new version", "update skills"):

1. Find qwencloud-update-check: Look for qwencloud-update-check/SKILL.md in sibling skill directories.
2. If found — run: python3 /scripts/check_update.py --print-response

and report the result. Use --force if the user asks to force-check.

1. 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](references/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/pricing-disclaimer.md)).

References

| Source | Purpose | |--------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------| | [cli-usage.md](references/cli-usage.md) | CLI-first strategy, 3-step login, display rules, model detail URL | | [error-handling.md](references/error-handling.md) | CLI error classification & recovery | | [recommendation-matrix.md](references/recommendation-matrix.md) | Full recommendation tables, Cross-Skill Resolution, Coding Plan, Thinking Mode | | [pricing-disclaimer.md](references/pricing-disclaimer.md) | Pricing guidance + mandatory disclaimer + billing console links | | [pricing.md](references/pricing.md) | Pricing structural overview (offline snapshot) | | [model-list.md](references/model-list.md) | Model catalog (offline snapshot) | | [sources.md](references/sources.md) | Official documentation URLs | | [agent-compatibility.md](references/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 --format json | Dynamic: single model details (pricing tiers, context, rate limits) | | qwencloud models search "" --format json | Dynamic: keyword-based model discovery | | qwencloud usage free-tier --format json | Dynamic: remaining free tier quota per model |

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: QwenCloud
• Source: QwenCloud/qwencloud-ai
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://www.qwencloud.com/skills

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.