
ZCode
Z.ai's coding agent harness. Powerful, intelligent, extensible.
The Lens
By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.
Updated Sep 2026
ZCode is Z.ai's own AI coding workspace, open sourced on September 20, 2026. Describe a task and an agent plans, writes, runs, and reviews the code, from a desktop app, a browser tab, or the terminal. It is built around Z.ai's GLM models but takes OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Kimi, MiniMax, Qwen, xAI, and OpenRouter keys too. Apache 2.0, and Z.ai says the app itself is completely free.
Official installers cover macOS, Windows, and Linux. Building from source needs pinned versions of Node and pnpm. You sign in with Z.ai or paste an API key, so there is nothing to host. This is a vendor source drop, not a community project yet: two commits, no tagged releases, and a Chinese-first README.
Solo and small teams: free, and the cheap way in is the GLM Coding Plan, which starts at $18/mo. Medium and large teams: read the NOTICE file before rolling it out. For a more mature open agent, anomalyco/opencode is further along, and codewhale-hq/Codewhale is the terminal-only option.
The catch is in that NOTICE file. There is no operating system sandbox. Headless runs with --prompt default to yolo mode, which waves ordinary tool calls through without asking. The Computer Use package is a placeholder that returns an error. And Z.ai does not promise the source matches the product it ships.
Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid
fully freeFree: The whole app under Apache 2.0: desktop, web, and terminal interfaces. Z.ai's FAQ says the application is completely free and that you bring your own API key or model plan. Third-party providers connect over the Anthropic and OpenAI protocols.
Self-hosted: Runs locally. Official installers for macOS, Windows, and Linux, or build from source with pinned Node and pnpm versions.
Paid: Nothing for ZCode itself. The model bill is separate. Z.ai's GLM Coding Plan starts at $18/mo (Lite), with Pro and Max tiers above it whose dollar prices we could not confirm from a primary source. Z.ai restricts that plan to officially supported tools.
The app is free under Apache 2.0. You pay for models, and Z.ai's GLM Coding Plan starts at $18/mo.
What to do by team size
- Solo
- free; add a GLM Coding Plan from $18/mo or your own API key
- Small team
- free; bring your own model keys
- Medium team
- free, but there is no sandbox, so set approval modes deliberately
- Large team
- free; wait for tagged releases and a security story before standardizing on it
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License: Apache License 2.0
Use freely. Patent grant included.
Commercial use: ✓ Yes
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