ZCode

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 Hmbown/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.