ZCode: Z.ai's coding agent harness, explained Z.ai's ZCode, an Apache-2.0 coding agent workspace with desktop, browser and terminal interfaces, had 7,541 GitHub stars as of 8 Oct 2026 and one release, v3.14.3, published 24 Sep 2026, according to the zai-org/ZCode repository. The repo's built-in provider file, zcode-builtin.json, listed 20 provider templates including Z.ai Coding Plan, BigModel, Kimi, MiniMax, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI and OpenRouter, with the Z.ai Coding Plan template naming GLM-5.3 and GLM-5.3-Flash. The software itself is free under Apache-2.0, while model use is billed by whichever provider a user connects. ZCode: Z.ai's coding agent harness, explained ZCode is Z.ai's Apache-2.0 coding workspace: desktop app, browser view and terminal agent. How to install it, which models it lists, and what it costs. ZCode is Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s open source coding workspace: a desktop app, a browser interface and a terminal agent in one Apache-2.0 repo, tuned for Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s GLM models but shipped with templates for other providers. We have not tested it. This page reports what its own pages say. Checked 8 Oct 2026. Other products are also called zcode. This page is about Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s ZCode only. It is one vendor’s workspace. If you want several agent CLIs working side by side, that is the layer Munder Difflin https://harnessmd.com/download works at: free and open source: a desktop app that runs a team of coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI on your own computer. The install guide https://munderdiffl.in/blog/how-to-install-and-use-munder-difflin/ covers setup, and more explainers sit in the concepts hub https://munderdiffl.in/blog/topics/concepts/ . What is ZCode and who makes it? what-is-zcode-and-who-makes-it ZCode is a coding agent workspace made by Z.ai http://Z.ai . The README https://github.com/zai-org/ZCode/blob/main/README.en.md calls it “an AI coding workspace with desktop, browser, and terminal interfaces”, and says the repo holds the clients, backend services, shared UI, and the Agent CLI and runtime source. The GitHub API for zai-org/ZCode https://github.com/zai-org/ZCode showed this on 8 Oct 2026: created 20 Sep 2026, last push 29 Sep 2026, Apache-2.0, 7,541 stars. The description reads “ Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s coding agent harness. Powerful, intelligent, extensible.” The releases page https://github.com/zai-org/ZCode/releases had one release, v3.14.3, published 24 Sep 2026. Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s product page https://zcode.z.ai/en calls it the “Official Harness for GLM-5.3”. New to the word? Read what is a multi-agent harness https://munderdiffl.in/blog/what-is-a-multi-agent-harness/ . How do I install ZCode? how-do-i-install-zcode Download the desktop installer from zcode.z.ai http://zcode.z.ai , or build from source. The install docs https://zcode.z.ai/en/docs/install list macOS Apple Silicon and Intel , Windows x64 and ARM64 and Linux x64 and ARM64, as AppImage, DEB or RPM . The download page marks Linux as Beta. To build from source, the README asks for Git, Node 24.14.0 and pnpm 10.33.2, then: pnpm bootstrap install dependencies, prepare desktop assets pnpm dev:desktop run the desktop app pnpm build:zcode build the command line distribution The command line build gives one zcode command. With no arguments it starts the terminal UI. zcode --web starts the browser interface. The README says both modes run locally without Electron, and that the distribution still requires Node. The README gives no hosted one line installer. pnpm build:zcode needs a download base URL, and the one in the README is a placeholder. Which models and providers does ZCode support? which-models-and-providers-does-zcode-support The README does not list models. The list is in the repo’s built-in provider file, zcode-builtin.json https://github.com/zai-org/ZCode/blob/main/config/provider/zcode-builtin.json . On 8 Oct 2026 it held 20 provider templates: Z.ai http://Z.ai Coding Plan, Z.ai http://Z.ai API, BigModel, Kimi, MiniMax, DeepSeek, Alibaba Cloud, Xiaomi MiMo, OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, OpenRouter, and OpenCode Go and Zen. The Z.ai http://Z.ai Coding Plan template names two models, GLM-5.3 and GLM-5.3-Flash. We found no Ollama entry in that file. The model docs https://zcode.z.ai/en/docs/configuration say you can connect compatible services “through the Anthropic / OpenAI protocols” or with an API key. What does ZCode cost? what-does-zcode-cost The code costs nothing: the repo is Apache-2.0. Model use is billed by the provider you connect. For Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s own plan, the ZCode product page listed these GLM Coding Plan prices on 8 Oct 2026, and added: “Prices and plan benefits may change.” | Plan | Price shown | Figure shown beside it | Usage as listed | |---|---|---|---| | Lite | $12.6 / month | $18 | 10,000 credits / week | | Pro | $56 / month | $80 | 6× Lite usage | | Max | $117.6 / month | $168 | 14× Lite usage | The page shows the second figure struck through and does not explain it. On 8 Oct 2026 Z.ai http://Z.ai ’s Coding Plan overview https://docs.z.ai/devpack/overview said “Starting at just 18 USD per month” and that each plan has both a 5-hour and a weekly limit. The ZCode docs https://zcode.z.ai/en/docs/welcome describe 5 days of free benefits for first-time users, with daily quotas “granted only during these 5 days”. What features does ZCode list? what-features-does-zcode-list MCP, skills, subagents, hooks, plugins and workflows, per its docs and its NOTICE.md https://github.com/zai-org/ZCode/blob/main/NOTICE.md file, which is written in Chinese our translation . - MCP. The MCP page https://zcode.z.ai/en/docs/mcp-services covers stdio servers and says SSE and HTTP remote servers are also supported. - Skills. A skill https://zcode.z.ai/en/docs/skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file, at ~/.zcode/skills/