Qwen Audio Agent

中文 | English | User Guide | Quickstart

Agent Presence

Real conversation should not leave you waiting after a single sentence, nor should it grind to a halt just because the Agent is looking something up, calling a tool, or working on a task.

Conversation should keep flowing, and the Agent should always be present.

That is why we built qwen-audio-agent—a realtime voice runtime that keeps Agents talking, working, and present. Whether chatting with you, thinking through a problem, or working on a task, your Agent remains in the conversation. It listens, responds, and when the task is complete, naturally tells you:

"It's ready."

News

• 2026-08-27 · v2.0.0 (In development) 🚧 The next major version is under active development, with ongoing work on the Agent architecture, task lifecycle, multimodal input, memory, and extensibility.
• 2026-08-20 · v1.11.0 🧩 Adds embeddable Gateway and Realtime Provider extensions; 🛠️ supports installing and managing Agent Skills; 📎 adds multimodal input to the TUI; 🎨 links pet animations to runtime states.
• 2026-08-13 · v1.9.0 🧩 Desktop task cards show live Agent progress; 🔎 backend Agent selection is clearer and searchable; 🎙️ supports Qwen3.5-Omni Realtime frontend integration.
• 2026-08-07 · v1.7.0 🎨 The orb opens up custom skins — import your own look, compatible with pet packs from the Awesome Codex Pet community gallery; 🪟 improved Windows backend Agent startup.
• 2026-08-05 · v1.5.0 ⏰ Adds scheduled reminders and progress reporting; 🗣️ adds the voice wake word ("你好千问"); 🐧 desktop build support for Linux; the desktop app now uses a data directory isolated from the CLI.
• 2026-08-03 · v1.3.0 🎙️ Adds 🤗 speech-to-speech frontend integration, supporting fully local VAD, STT, LLM, and TTS.
• 2026-07-30 · v1.0.0 🚀 First stable release, introducing a macOS desktop app with a built-in Gateway.
• 2026-07-28 · v0.9.0 🌍 Project officially open-sourced; backend Agents unified under the ACP architecture.

Conversation Continues, Tasks Too

Conversation doesn't stop for background tasks; when a task completes, the result naturally returns to the current conversation:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ab570531-8da9-4af4-93fa-244bb6614c05

Core Features

• Full-duplex realtime voice interaction, natural interruption, and sustained multi-turn conversation
• One-click integration with your preferred Agent, reusing its model configuration, tools, MCP, Skills, and authentication
• Frontend conversation and background tasks run in parallel; ask about progress or cancel at any time
• Create multiple independent tasks executed asynchronously by the backend Agent, with continuous status tracking
• Task results automatically return to the current conversation, supporting follow-up questions and modifications
• WebUI, terminal TUI, and desktop floating orb (macOS / Windows / Linux)
• Long-term per-user personalization and memory, with an optional VoiceMem connector

Architecture

Questions that can be answered directly are answered immediately; when tools or sustained processing are needed, the task is delegated to the backend Agent. Throughout, the user always faces the same assistant.

For the full design and module breakdown, see the architecture document.

Agent Support

Ratings reflect current integration completeness, compatibility, and verification level: five stars indicate a thoroughly tested recommended integration; four stars indicate active development or not yet fully verified. For detailed configuration and capability boundaries, see the backend Agent documentation and configuration guide.

Installation

Requires Node.js 22.22.2+ or 24.15.0+, npm 10+. One-click install (recommended):

npm install -g qwen-audio-agent

For building from source, installing from GitHub, and obtaining a DashScope API Key, see the installation guide.

Quick Start

1. Create your config and fill in the API Key:

qwenaudio config

DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=your-key
# Voice frontend model: Audio Flash/Plus or Omni Flash/Plus (Audio Plus is default)
QWEN_AUDIO_REALTIME_MODEL=qwen-audio-3.0-realtime-plus
# Backend Agent: optional, leave empty or set to none for frontend-only mode
AGENT_PROTOCOL=openclaw
# Backend model: optional; explicit values use standard ACP, empty reuses Agent config
QWEN_AUDIO_AGENT_BACKEND_MODEL=qwen3.7-max

Before starting, create a key from the Bailian API Key page. Eligible new users can review the new-user free quota and check remaining usage on the model usage page. Quota and billing rules are subject to the current official Bailian documentation.

Uses DashScope realtime voice by default. Alternatives include Speech-to-Speech and ModelBest MiniCPM-o 4.5, with local or hosted endpoints selected through their service URL.

With a visual-capable Realtime frontend, WebUI can explicitly stream bounded camera frames alongside live audio. See Realtime frontend configuration.

2. Start the Gateway, then open another terminal to start the TUI (or use qwenaudio webui for the browser UI):

qwenaudio        # Terminal 1: Gateway
qwenaudio tui    # Terminal 2: TUI

For full configuration options, local voice frontend setup, and TUI platform notes, see quick start, voice frontends, and TUI notes.

Desktop App

The desktop app provides a persistent floating voice orb with a built-in Gateway, automatic idle sleep, local voice wake, and customizable appearance. Download the installer for your platform from the releases page, or build from source:

npm run desktop:build:local      # macOS
npm run desktop:build:win        # Windows
npm run desktop:build:linux      # Linux (AppImage + deb, no signing)

For visuals, orb behavior, and build instructions, see the desktop documentation.

Examples and Scenario Expansion

The current qwen-audio-agent framework focuses on desktop productivity: users can keep talking with the Agent in realtime while delegating tool use, file work, code changes, and long-running tasks to the backend Agent.

This "foreground conversation + background task" design is not limited to desktop use. It can also expand to more scenarios where the Agent can both chat naturally and get real work done.