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Show HN: Z, minimal agentic harness for engineers that just works

A developer released Z, a minimal agentic coding harness for the terminal that supports 26 providers via LiteLLM, including Z.AI, DeepSeek, Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, Bedrock, Copilot OAuth, and OpenRouter, with features like live token streaming, Telegram remote control, context compaction strategies, and 19 built-in tools. The tool is MIT-licensed, requires no subscription, and allows hot-swapping models mid-session with commands like `/providers use`.

read1 min views1 publishedAug 27, 2026
Show HN: Z, minimal agentic harness for engineers that just works
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)

An agentic coding harness for the terminal. Bring your own API keys — hot-swap models mid-session with /providers use

. No subscriptions.

pip install -e .
z --install   # one-time setup wizard
z

Config lives in ~/.z.json

:

{ "api_url": "https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4/", "api_key": "sk-...", "model": "glm-4.7" }

26 providers, one client— Z.AI, DeepSeek, Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, Bedrock, Copilot OAuth, OpenRouter, all via LiteLLM.** Constant streaming**— every token, including reasoning, streams live. No spinners.** Telegram remote**—z --telegram <token>

and drive the agent from your phone.Context that survives compaction— half/quarter/lastTwo strategies, todo persistence, tool-result caching.** Claude Code semantics**— CLAUDE.md, hooks, persistent memory, cron tasks, sub-agents, MCP.** 19 built-in tools**— file ops, shell, search, web search, image analysis, background processes.

Command What
/providers use <name>
Switch models mid-session
/compact
Force context compaction
/cost
Token usage and spend
/todo
Todo panel
!cmd
Run shell command
Ctrl+T
Toggle reasoning effort

Plugins: drop a .py

in ~/.z/plugins/

.

MIT

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