Claude Style

Make Qwen Code behave more like Claude Code. Not a clone — a style pack that gives Qwen Claude's communication patterns, task rules, and workflow conventions.

[!NOTE] This project replicates ~60% of Claude Code's observable behavior (formatting, style, task rules). Deep behavioral traits (tool-calling mechanics, risk assessment, meta-cognition) depend on model training and cannot be replicated via prompts alone. See What This Does for details.

Quick Start

One-line install

npx claude-style

Or from GitHub

qwen extensions install https://github.com/cativo23/claude-style

Verify

Inside Qwen Code:

> /load-core-prompts
> /memory show

You should see Claude-style rules loaded.

What This Does (and Does Not)

What it DOES

| Feature | Effectiveness | |---------|--------------| | Communication style — concise, no fluff, no comments in code | ~80% | | Task rules — read before modify, no unnecessary additions, no premature abstractions | ~70% | | Reasoning patterns — systematic approach, show your work | ~65% | | Tool constraints — proper tool usage patterns | ~45% | | Git safety — no destructive operations, no hook skipping | ~70% |

What it does NOT

• Not a Claude clone — Qwen remains Qwen with its own model characteristics
• Not identical tool-calling — Qwen's tools differ from Claude's architecture
• Not deep behavioral replication — RLHF-dependent traits (risk assessment, refusal patterns) remain Qwen's own
• Not security-equivalent — Qwen has its own safety guardrails, not Claude's

Verified Results

Tested with 3-run A/B/C comparison (full results).

Code Conciseness (lines, lower is better)

| Tool | Avg Lines | vs Vanilla | |------|----------:|-----------:| | Qwen Vanilla | 80 | — | | Qwen + Claude Style | 33 | −58% | | Claude Code Native | 28 | −65% |

Explanation Brevity (words, lower is better)

| Tool | Avg Words | vs Vanilla | |------|----------:|-----------:| | Qwen Vanilla | 75 | — | | Qwen + Claude Style | 35 | −53% | | Claude Code Native | 68 | −9% |

Claude Style achieves 58% code reduction and 53% text reduction vs vanilla Qwen, getting within 17% of Claude Code Native in code conciseness while being even more concise in explanations than Claude itself.

[!IMPORTANT] Less code ≠ worse code. The generated code is equally functional and correct — just more concise. Claude Style removes docstrings, type hints, and unnecessary features that weren't asked for. A 33-line class that works is better than a 80-line class that does the same thing with extra documentation.

The honest number

~60% behavioral similarity to Claude Code. You'll notice:

• More concise responses
• No unnecessary code comments
• Reading files before editing
• No feature creep beyond what's asked

You won't notice:

• Identical error handling patterns
• Same tool invocation order
• Claude's exact reasoning texture

Slash Commands

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | /load-core-prompts | Load essential Claude behavioral rules | | /claude-review | Review code with Claude-style guidelines | | /claude-refactor | Refactor without premature abstractions | | /claude-debug | Debug with systematic Claude methodology | | /claude-plan | Plan features in 5-phase Claude style | | /claude-explore | Explore codebase with Claude patterns | | /claude-security | Security review with Claude guidelines | | /claude-commit | Create commits + PRs Claude-style |

How It Works

Claude Code System Prompts (MIT, Piebald-AI)
         ↓
   Extracted & Adapted
         ↓
   Qwen Extension + Hooks
         ↓
   Behavioral Rules in Qwen

Architecture

1. Context Files — QWEN.md loaded automatically with core rules
2. Hooks — Inject constraints at SessionStart, PreToolUse, SubagentStart
3. Skills — Auto-activated by context (review, debug, plan)
4. Commands — Manual activation via slash commands

Why hooks + context files?

Qwen Code doesn't expose a true system prompt API. We use additionalContext injection via hooks, which is the closest mechanism available. It's not a perfect replacement for Claude's system prompt slot, but it's effective for behavioral rules.

See docs/architecture.md for details.

Prompts Included

Extracted from Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts (MIT License) and adapted for Qwen.

Core Rules (~10 files)

• Communication style
• Read before modify
• No unnecessary additions
• No premature abstractions
• No unnecessary error handling
• Security guidelines
• Software engineering focus
• Minimize file creation
• No compatibility hacks
• No time estimates

Tool Constraints (~3 files)

• Edit tool best practices
• Search tool patterns
• Bash tool constraints

See prompts/ for the full list.

Installation Options

Option 1: npm (recommended)

npx claude-style

Option 2: Qwen extension

qwen extensions install https://github.com/cativo23/claude-style

Option 3: Manual

git clone https://github.com/cativo23/claude-style
cd claude-style
./scripts/setup.sh

Verified Results

Benchmarked with 3-run A/B/C comparison:

| Metric | Qwen Vanilla | Qwen + Claude Style | Improvement | |--------|-------------|-------------------|------------| | Code lines | 80 avg | 33 avg | −58% | | Explanation words | 75 avg | 35 avg | −53% | | Docstrings | 14 | 0 | Cleaner code |

Full benchmark results →

Updating

# If installed via npx
npx claude-style@latest

# If installed as extension
cd ~/.qwen/extensions/claude-style
git pull

Or use the built-in sync script:

./scripts/sync-prompts.sh

Testing

npm test
# or
./scripts/test.sh

This runs behavioral checks comparing vanilla Qwen vs Qwen with Claude Style loaded.

Security

This package:

• Has zero runtime dependencies
• Runs with user-level privileges only
• Creates a backup of your settings before any modification
• Makes no network calls during installation or runtime

See SECURITY.md for our full security policy and vulnerability reporting process.

What's the Catch?

No catch. This is:

• Open source (MIT)
• Free to use
• Based on publicly available Claude prompts
• Honest about limitations

What we don't promise:

• Perfect Claude clone
• Model-level behavior replication
• Security equivalence

What we do promise:

• Qwen will be more concise, direct, and structured
• You'll notice the style difference from day one
• Updates track Claude Code prompt changes

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Quick version:

1. Fork the repo
2. Add/modify prompts or skills
3. Run ./scripts/test.sh
4. Open a PR

We especially welcome:

• Better prompt translations
• New skills
• Bug fixes
• Documentation improvements

Acknowledgments

• Piebald-AI — for extracting Claude Code system prompts (MIT License)
• Qwen Code — for the extension system and hooks

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Claude Code system prompts are from Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts, also MIT.