Z Code: Making AI Programming Tools Simple Again — A Complete Guide to This Visual AI Code Editor
Why Z Code Matters: The Problem It Solves
If you’ve ever tried using AI programming tools like Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini, you might have encountered a familiar frustration: these tools are incredibly powerful, but their command-line interfaces create a steep learning curve. Every session requires memorizing numerous commands, typing them into a black terminal window, and dealing with errors when things don’t go exactly right. For developers accustomed to graphical interfaces, this experience feels unnecessarily complicated.
Z Code was built specifically to solve this problem. It’s a lightweight AI code editor, but calling it just an “editor” doesn’t capture what it really does—it packages multiple powerful command-line AI programming tools into a unified, user-friendly visual interface.
What Exactly Is Z Code? The Plain English Version
The most direct answer: Z Code puts a visual “wrapper” around AI programming tools.
Imagine you previously needed to operate Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini in three separate command-line windows. Now you just open one application, click a few buttons, and seamlessly switch between these three tools. More importantly, you only need to configure your API key once to access all these Agent programming tools.
In more technical terms: Z Code integrates three mainstream CLI tools currently on the market (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini) and provides them with a unified graphical user interface. Looking ahead, it will evolve into a multi-agent collaborative vibe coding product, with upper-level agents orchestrating while other CLI tools serve as workers, each handling tasks they excel at.
What Can Z Code Do for You? Complete Feature Breakdown
1. CLI Support: Three-in-One Agent Toolbox
Z Code currently supports three mainstream AI programming agent tools:
- 🍂
Claude Code: Developed by Anthropic, excels at understanding complex programming requirements - 🍂
Codex: OpenAI’s code generation tool with comprehensive programming capabilities - 🍂
Gemini: Google’s multimodal AI, performing excellently in code understanding and generation
Why does this matter? Different AI tools have different strengths. Claude Code might excel at handling certain types of code problems, while Gemini might perform better in other scenarios. With Z Code, you can choose the most suitable tool for specific tasks without switching between different command-line interfaces.
2. Agent Q&A Interaction: Writing Code with Natural Language
This is one of Z Code’s core features. You don’t need to remember complex commands or syntax—just describe what you want in natural language:
For example:
- 🍂
“Help me create a React component to display a user list” - 🍂
“This code has performance issues, please optimize it” - 🍂
“Convert this function to TypeScript”
The Agent will understand your intent and automatically complete coding, analysis, and other programming tasks. It’s like having a 24/7 programming assistant ready to answer your questions.
3. Permission Modes: Keeping AI Under Your Control
AI is powerful, but allowing it to freely modify your code and execute commands can introduce risks. Z Code offers four permission modes, giving you precise control over what the Agent can do:
| Permission Mode | Description | Best Use Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Always Ask | Requires your confirmation for every operation | Critical projects requiring strict control of each step |
| Accept Edits | Auto-accepts file edits, other operations need confirmation | Trust AI’s editing ability but control command execution |
| Plan Mode | AI creates a plan first, you review before execution | Complex tasks where you want to understand AI’s approach |
| Bypass Permissions | Fully automated execution | Simple tasks or well-tested scenarios |
The Agent’s key operations primarily include:
- 🍂
File editing - 🍂
Command-line execution - 🍂
Network access - 🍂
Search permissions
You can flexibly choose the appropriate permission mode based on task sensitivity and complexity.
4. File Inclusion: Helping AI Locate Problems More Precisely
When you need AI to handle specific files, directly including these files in your requirements greatly improves the Agent’s efficiency in locating and processing them.
Practical application:
Suppose your project has 100 files, and you want AI to modify a specific component. Without including the file, AI might need to search the entire project to find the target. By directly including the file, AI can start working immediately, saving considerable time.
5. Thinking Mode: Making AI Work Smarter
Thinking mode determines whether the Agent performs additional analysis and self-correction before responding to your requests.
Why is this feature necessary?
- 🍂
Simple tasks (like “add a comment”) don’t require much thinking—quick execution is fine - 🍂
Complex tasks (like “refactor this module’s architecture”) need AI to carefully analyze and develop a thorough plan
You can dynamically adjust the Agent’s working method based on task complexity. It’s like telling AI: “This task is important, please think carefully” or “This is simple, just do it.”
6. Edit Conversation History: Time Machine Feature
This is an extremely practical but often overlooked feature. Z Code allows you to modify and re-execute any message in conversation history.
Real-world scenario:
Suppose you made a request in the 5th round of conversation, and AI’s implementation wasn’t quite right. The traditional approach is to continue the conversation, telling AI what’s wrong. But in Z Code, you can go directly back to round 5, modify your requirement description, and restart from there—like turning back time.
This goes beyond simply modifying prompts—it’s a comprehensive reconstruction of the entire interaction node. You can:
- 🍂
Change how you describe the problem - 🍂
Adjust the context information given to AI - 🍂
Try different questioning strategies
7. Version Management: Safeguarding Your Code
Z Code automatically tracks all file modifications performed by the Agent, using your conversation history as a version control timeline.
What does this mean?
- 🍂
Each conversation serves as a version checkpoint - 🍂
You can view the code state before any conversation at any time - 🍂
If AI’s modifications are unsatisfactory, you can roll back to any previous conversation version with one click
Compared to traditional Git:
Traditional Git requires manual commits, writing commit messages, and managing branches. Z Code’s version management is automatic, conversation-based, more intuitive, and easier to understand.
Of course, Z Code also supports traditional Git operations, and both can work together.
8. Command-Line Panel: Perfect Combination of GUI and Command Line
While Z Code provides a visual interface, sometimes you still need to execute commands directly. The command-line panel lets you:
- 🍂
Quickly execute compilation, debugging, deployment, and other commands - 🍂
View command execution results - 🍂
Maintain command history
It’s as convenient as opening a terminal in VSCode, but with tighter integration with AI interactions.
9. File Manager: Project Structure at a Glance
Z Code provides complete visual management of files and directory structures within your project. You can:
- 🍂
Browse the project’s file tree - 🍂
Quickly open files - 🍂
Create, delete, and rename files and folders - 🍂
View file modification status
This is a standard but essential feature that prevents you from getting lost in project structure while collaborating with AI.
10. Git Integration: Simplified Version Control Workflow
Z Code provides a clean graphical user interface for handling common Git version control operations:
- 🍂
Stage changes - 🍂
Commit - 🍂
Push/Pull - 🍂
View commit history - 🍂
Manage branches
You don’t need to remember complex Git commands—just click to complete daily version control tasks.
11. Web Browser: Frontend Developer’s Best Friend
Z Code includes a built-in web browser, particularly suitable for frontend development:
Main uses:
- 🍂
Real-time preview of frontend projects - 🍂
Interactive element selection (click elements on the page to directly locate corresponding code) - 🍂
Debug webpage effects
Why is this important?
Frontend development often requires the “modify code-refresh-check effect” cycle. The built-in browser makes this workflow smoother—you don’t need to switch back and forth between editor and browser.
12. Safe Operation Confirmation: Preventing Mistakes
When the Agent attempts to execute any potentially risky action, Z Code requires your manual confirmation.
What constitutes a “potentially risky action”?
- 🍂
Deleting files - 🍂
Executing system commands - 🍂
Modifying configuration files - 🍂
Network requests
This feature acts like a safety valve, ensuring AI doesn’t perform dangerous operations without your knowledge.
13. MCP Service: The Future of Agent Collaboration
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a framework for Agent collaboration and management protocols. Z Code’s integration of MCP services means:
Current functionality:
- 🍂
Use built-in MCP configurations - 🍂
Customize MCP configurations - 🍂
Manage multiple MCP services
Future outlook:
As the MCP protocol develops, Z Code will support more complex multi-Agent collaboration scenarios. For example, one Agent understands requirements, another writes code, and a third tests—they communicate and coordinate through the MCP protocol.
Z Code’s Interface Layout: A Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Z Code’s interface is divided into four main sections:
Top Navigation Bar
Contains the following management functions:
- 🍂
Window management - 🍂
Folder management - 🍂
Command-line panel management - 🍂
Session panel management - 🍂
Preview panel management
Tool Selection Bar
Here you can switch between CLI tools (Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini). One-click switching with no reconfiguration needed.
Session Panel
This is your main area for conversing with AI, displaying complete conversation history and supporting editing and re-execution of historical messages.
Preview Panel
Displays code execution results, webpage previews, file manager, and other content. Can be resized or hidden as needed.
How to Get Started with Z Code? Configuration Guide
Step One: Install Z Code
(According to the documentation, there should be an installation process link here, but specific steps aren’t provided in the documents)
Step Two: Configure API Key
This is a crucial step for using Z Code. You have two options:
Method One: Login via Account (Recommended)
-
Click “connect” or your profile avatar -
Log in to your bigmodel or z.ai account -
If your account has a subscription, it will connect automatically
Advantages: Simple and fast, automatic synchronization
Method Two: Manual Addition
-
Use the “manager model” function -
Manually add URL and API key
Advantages: More flexible, can use any API provider
Important notes:
- 🍂
Z Code’s API configuration is an independent system; even if you’ve configured GLM API in your terminal, you need to reconfigure in Z Code - 🍂
API configurations for Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini won’t sync automatically
Step Three: Choose the Right CLI Tool
Based on your task requirements, select the appropriate Agent from the tool selection bar:
- 🍂
Need to handle complex logic: Choose Claude Code - 🍂
General programming tasks: Codex is sufficient - 🍂
Need multimodal understanding: Try Gemini
Step Four: Start Conversing
Enter your requirements in the session panel, and the Agent will begin working. Remember to choose appropriate permission modes and thinking modes based on task complexity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What’s the difference between Z Code and Claude Code?
Simple answer: Claude Code is a command-line tool; Z Code adds a visual interface to it.
Detailed explanation: Claude Code is an AI programming assistant developed by Anthropic, usable only through command line. Z Code packages Claude Code’s capabilities into a graphical interface while also integrating Codex and Gemini, allowing you to use multiple AI tools in one application.
Q2: I’ve already configured the API in my terminal. Do I need to configure it again in Z Code?
Yes, you do. Z Code and command-line tools are two independent systems. The API you configured in your terminal won’t automatically sync to Z Code.
The good news is that Z Code’s configuration is simpler—if you have a bigmodel or z.ai account, you can just log in for automatic connection without manually copying and pasting API keys.
Q3: What if Codex and Gemini keep loading after clicking connect?
This usually happens for two reasons:
-
Need VPN access: Codex and Gemini servers are overseas and require proxy access -
Lack proper permissions: Ensure you have Codex or Gemini account permissions (can use normally in local command line)
Solution steps:
- 🍂
First ensure local command line can normally use Codex/Gemini - 🍂
Enable stable VPN tools - 🍂
Retry connection
Q4: What programming languages does Z Code support?
Z Code itself doesn’t limit programming languages—the languages it supports depend on the CLI tool you choose:
- 🍂
Claude Code: Supports mainstream programming languages (Python, JavaScript, Java, C++, etc.) - 🍂
Codex: Supports almost all programming languages - 🍂
Gemini: Supports multiple programming and markup languages
Q5: Is Z Code free?
The documentation doesn’t explicitly mention pricing information. However, based on the description of “subscription in account,” Z Code likely uses a subscription or package-based model. For specific pricing, we recommend visiting the official website or contacting the development team.
Q6: Will Z Code’s version management conflict with Git?
No. Z Code’s version management and Git are complementary:
- 🍂
Z Code’s version management: Conversation-based, automatically tracks AI’s modifications - 🍂
Git version management: Traditional commit mechanism, better suited for team collaboration
You can use both simultaneously. Recommended workflow:
-
Use Z Code’s version management to quickly try and roll back AI’s modifications -
Once satisfied, commit to the repository using Git
Q7: Can multiple Agents work simultaneously?
The current version doesn’t support parallel work by multiple Agents. You need to manually switch between different Agents.
However, according to the documentation, Z Code will evolve into a multi-Agent collaborative product in the future, with upper-level Agents orchestrating while other CLI tools work as parallel workers handling tasks.
Who Should Use Z Code?
Suitable users:
1. Command-Line Phobics
If you find black terminal windows intimidating, Z Code is designed for you.
2. “Polygamous” Users of AI Programming Tools
If you want to try multiple AI tools but don’t want to frequently switch configurations, Z Code lets you access everything with one API key.
3. Security-Conscious Developers
Z Code’s version management and safety confirmation mechanisms let you confidently allow AI to modify your code.
4. Frontend Developers
The built-in browser and real-time preview features are particularly suitable for frontend development scenarios.
5. Team Collaboration Needs
While primarily a personal tool, Z Code’s version management and Git integration also suit small teams.
Potentially unsuitable scenarios:
1. Complete Command-Line Enthusiasts
If you love command lines and consider GUIs superfluous, using native Claude Code directly might suit you better.
2. Large-Scale Enterprise Projects
Currently, Z Code is better suited for individuals and small teams. Large projects may require more robust enterprise-grade tools.
3. Users Without API Quotas
Z Code requires AI service API keys; if you don’t have corresponding API quotas, you can’t use it.
Practical Tips: Maximizing Z Code’s Value
Tip 1: Use Permission Modes Wisely
Choose appropriate permission modes based on task type:
- 🍂
Learning new projects: Use Always Ask mode to understand AI’s every operation - 🍂
Daily development: Use Accept Edits mode to balance efficiency and control - 🍂
Experimental tasks: First use Plan Mode to see AI’s plan, then decide whether to execute
Tip 2: Allocate Tasks Rationally to Different Agents
Each AI tool has its strengths:
- 🍂
Complex business logic: Prioritize Claude Code - 🍂
Standard CRUD operations: Codex is sufficient - 🍂
Need context understanding: Try Gemini
Don’t stick to one tool out of habit—flexible switching maximizes Z Code’s advantages.
Tip 3: Fully Utilize Conversation History Editing
When AI’s response is unsatisfactory, don’t rush to follow up with more questions. Go back to previous conversation nodes and modify your question description—often this yields better results.
This is like “refactoring” when writing code—rather than going further in the wrong direction, return to the fork and choose a new path.
Tip 4: Experiment Boldly with Version Management
Because of version management and conversation rollback features, you can experiment more boldly:
- 🍂
Let AI refactor a large chunk of code? Try it; if it doesn’t work, just roll back - 🍂
Want to change project architecture? Let AI do an experiment first - 🍂
Unsure if a solution is feasible? Let AI implement it and see
The worst-case scenario is just clicking the “rollback” button—no loss whatsoever.
Tip 5: Commit to Git Regularly
While Z Code has its own version management, don’t forget to regularly commit satisfactory modifications to Git. Z Code’s version management is temporary; Git is permanent.
Recommended rhythm:
- 🍂
Git commit once after completing each functional module - 🍂
Git commit once before ending each workday - 🍂
Git commit once before major modifications
Final Thoughts: The Significance of Z Code
AI programming tools are changing how software is developed, but the high threshold of command-line interfaces has deterred many developers. Z Code’s emergence is like giving these powerful AI tools a “user-friendly” shell.
It’s not meant to replace command-line tools but to make these tools accessible to more people. For developers accustomed to graphical interfaces, Z Code lowers the barrier to AI-assisted programming; for command-line proficient users, Z Code provides a more efficient multi-tool switching solution.
More importantly, Z Code’s distinctive features like version management and conversation history editing don’t simply transplant command line to GUI—they genuinely consider “what AI-assisted programming should look like in a visual environment.”
As future multi-Agent collaboration features mature, Z Code may become a new paradigm for AI-assisted development—not one Agent working alone, but multiple AIs collaborating, each with their own responsibilities, collectively completing complex development tasks.
One final reminder: Tools are just tools; what truly matters is your understanding of programming and creativity. Z Code can improve your efficiency, but it won’t replace your thinking. Use it well, but don’t become dependent on it.
Related Resources:
- 🍂
Z Code Official Documentation: https://zhipu-ai.feishu.cn/wiki/JmxfwOH58i1VJtkomDCcRqkinNe - 🍂
For more feature introductions, please refer to the official knowledge base
