Redeem Your Qwen Code Gift Card

Your AI assistant runs on prepaid credits. With your invitation you receive:

Item	What it is
A gift card code	QC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. Adds credits to your account. In your invitation email.
A temporary password	Sent in a separate email from no-reply@verificationemail.com. Check your spam folder.

You download the qc tool in Step 1. You do not need an AWS account.

Five minutes, once

You do this setup one time. After that you only run qwen.

Step 1 — Install qc

qc is the command-line tool that signs you in, redeems cards and creates API keys. It is a single file; you do not need to install anything else.

Download it with curl (a browser download is blocked by macOS Gatekeeper because the tool is not notarized):

Apple Silicon (M1–M4)

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -fL -o ~/.local/bin/qc https://dev-clg-1.maragato.ca/downloads/qc-darwin-arm64
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/qc

Intel Mac

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
curl -fL -o ~/.local/bin/qc https://dev-clg-1.maragato.ca/downloads/qc-darwin-x64
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/qc

Not sure which Mac you have? Run uname -m: arm64 is Apple Silicon, x86_64 is Intel.

Add ~/.local/bin to your PATH and check:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc
qc --help

Optional: compare the checksum with SHA256SUMS.txt:

shasum -a 256 ~/.local/bin/qc

Step 2 — Load the service settings

curl -fL -o /tmp/qc-config.json https://dev-clg-1.maragato.ca/downloads/qc-config.json
qc configure --file /tmp/qc-config.json

Expected output: Configuration saved.

Step 3 — Sign in

qc login

• Email: the address we sent the invitation to.
• Password: the temporary password from the sign-in email.

The first time, you choose a new password: at least 12 characters, with an upper-case letter, a lower-case letter, a number and a symbol.

Step 4 — Redeem your card

qc redeem QC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
qc balance

Expected output:

Added $20.00. Balance: $20.00
you@yourmail.com: $20.00

Step 5 — Create your API key for Qwen Code

qc key create --write-settings

This command:

1. Creates a personal API key and shows it once.
2. Writes it to ~/.qwen/.env, together with the service address and the model name. Qwen Code reads this file at startup.

Continue with AI Assistant setup to finish.

Keep the key secret

• Anyone with the key can spend your credits.
• Never commit it to Git, and never put it in your iOS app.
• If it leaks, revoke it at once: qc key list, then qc key revoke <prefix>. Create a new one with qc key create --write-settings.

Everyday commands

Task	Command
Show your balance	qc balance
Show recent charges	qc usage (add --days 7 for a shorter period)
List your API keys	qc key list
Revoke a key	qc key revoke <prefix>
Forgot your password	qc reset-password
Sign out	qc logout
All commands	qc --help

Good to know

• Credits pay for Qwen3 Coder Next only: $0.50 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens. A normal challenge uses a small part of the card.
• Gift cards and credits never expire. Credits are not refundable.
• All prompts and responses are logged and kept for 30 days. Do not paste secrets or personal data into prompts.
• When your balance runs out, Qwen Code shows "Insufficient credits". Reply to your invitation email if you need more.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
qc: command not found	Open a new terminal. Check that ~/.local/bin is on your PATH.
macOS says qc "cannot be opened"	You downloaded it with a browser. Run xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/.local/bin/qc, or download it again with curl.
Bad CPU type in executable	Wrong file for your Mac. Download the other one (Step 1).
No email with the temporary password	Check spam for no-reply@verificationemail.com. Reply to your invitation email to get a new one.
Sign-in fails with the temporary password	Temporary passwords expire after 7 days. Reply to your invitation email to get a new one.
qc redeem says the code is invalid	Copy the code again, including the QC- prefix and all dashes. Each code works only once.
Qwen Code shows 401 Invalid or revoked API key	Run qc key create --write-settings again.
Qwen Code shows Insufficient credits	Run qc balance. Ask us for another card.