qwencloud-model-selector

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. Fetch the CDN recommendations first; if CDN access fails, use the local fallback.

Do not fabricate model names — only recommend models listed in the CDN catalogs or returned by CLI. This skill is part of qwencloud/qwencloud-ai.

🚫 CRITICAL — Never override a user-specified model. If the user (or the requesting execution skill) has already explicitly specified a model, this skill's job is done for that request: use the model as given. Do NOT recommend a "better suited" or newer model in its place, and do NOT add parameters (thinking mode, style hints) the user did not ask for. Recommendations and diagnostic flows below apply only when no model has been specified. You may verify availability and, if the model is unavailable/restricted, inform the user and suggest alternatives — but the user makes the final call.

Skill directory

Load on demand. Fetch the documented CDN model catalogs when model lists, defaults, or recommendations are needed. Do not fetch other external URLs unless the user explicitly asks for the latest data.

Every path under cdn/ is a local fallback, not the primary source. For cdn/<path>, first fetch https://alioth-intl.alicdn.com/skills-info/models/<path> and use the local file only if that request fails.

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, ...)
CDN model recommendations	Cross-skill recommendations, Token Plan constraints, and thinking defaults; if unavailable, use the local fallback
references/pricing-disclaimer.md	Pricing guidance + mandatory cost-estimation disclaimer (CN/EN) + console links
references/pricing.md	Stable billing guidance and CDN pricing fallback
CDN model catalog	Cross-domain model catalog snapshot; if unavailable, use the local fallback
references/sources.md	Official documentation URLs (manual lookup only)

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 point-in-time navigation and model questions from the CDN catalogs, but you cannot verify current availability, exact current prices, or account quotas.

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.

Detecting Key Type

Before recommending models, detect the billing mode from the configured API key (outputs token-plan, payg, or not-set — never the key value itself):

python3 -c "
import os
from pathlib import Path
env_file = Path('.env')
if not env_file.exists():
    for parent in [Path.cwd()] + list(Path.cwd().parents):
        if (parent / '.git').exists() or (parent / 'skills').is_dir():
            env_file = parent / '.env'
            break
if env_file.exists():
    for line in env_file.read_text().splitlines():
        line = line.strip()
        if not line or line.startswith('#') or '=' not in line:
            continue
        k, v = line.split('=', 1)
        k, v = k.strip(), v.strip().strip('\"').strip(\"'\")
        if k in ('QWEN_API_KEY', 'DASHSCOPE_API_KEY') and k not in os.environ:
            os.environ[k] = v
key = os.environ.get('QWEN_API_KEY') or os.environ.get('DASHSCOPE_API_KEY') or ''
print('token-plan' if key.startswith('sk-sp-') else 'payg' if key else 'not-set')
"

Key type	Recommendation scope
token-plan	Fetch the Token Plan model catalog and select only from it; default to the Team superset when the edition is unknown. If CDN access fails, use the local fallback.
payg	Full model catalog
not-set	Do not block — ask the user: "Which approach do you plan to use? (1) Standard PAYG key (2) Token Plan key (3) Skip for now — just browse recommendations." and proceed based on their choice

Windows: If python3 is not available, use python. Alternatively, save the snippet to a temporary .py file and run it.

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 or point-in-time model details	CDN recommendations and domain catalogs	Fetch first; if unavailable, use the matching local fallback and identify it as a snapshot
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	CDN catalogs + pricing.md	Answer only snapshot-supported facts with a stale-data caveat
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

Before choosing a default or recommending a model, fetch and read the current CDN recommendations. For a Token Plan key, also read the Token Plan catalog linked above and restrict candidates to it.

• If the user explicitly specifies a model, preserve it and only report genuine availability conflicts.
• Otherwise, match the strongest task signal first, then choose the appropriate quality, speed, or cost tier.
• Preserve the selected model's documented thinking default unless the user explicitly requests an override.
• If CDN access fails, use the local recommendations.

Degradation: If this skill is not loaded, each execution skill loads its default from CDN and falls back to its bundled configuration. This protocol is purely additive and 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 (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 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 <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 the CDN pricing reference linked by pricing.md only as 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"):

1. Find qwencloud-update-check: Look for qwencloud-update-check/SKILL.md in sibling skill directories.
2. 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.
3. If not found — run qwencloud version --check and report the result.

Anti-Patterns

• Never override a user-specified model — if the user explicitly chose a model, recommend nothing else for that request; only verify availability. Suggestions are allowed only when the user asks for them or their choice is genuinely unavailable (and the user still decides).
• Never fabricate model names — only recommend models listed in the CDN catalogs or returned by CLI.
• Never recommend a model outside the user's billing scope — Token Plan keys must only receive models from the Token Plan catalog linked above; PAYG keys may use the full catalog. Violating this causes hard failures for the user.
• 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 arbitrary URLs or trigger web searches. Fetch the documented CDN model catalogs when model data is needed; access other online sources only when CLI + CDN catalogs 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
qwencloud-model-recommendations.md (CDN) (local fallback)	Cross-skill recommendations, Token Plan, and thinking mode
pricing-disclaimer.md	Pricing guidance + mandatory disclaimer + billing console links
pricing.md	Stable billing guidance and CDN pricing fallback
qwencloud-model-list.md (CDN) (local fallback)	Cross-domain model catalog snapshot
sources.md	Official documentation URLs
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