Z.ai Open-Sources Coding Agent ZCode Under Apache 2.0 Following Alibaba Cloud Upload Backlash

Z.ai has open-sourced its AI coding agent, ZCode, under the Apache 2.0 license after reports revealed the tool packaged entire user workspaces—including full Git histories—into encrypted snapshots and attempted to upload them to Alibaba Cloud.
The move comes after a reverse-engineering report published by developer ferstar, which documented that turning off "Repo Snapshot Indexing" failed to halt the snapshot creation and upload pipeline. One examined snapshot held 42,411 files, with the .git directory accounting for 86.6% of the total payload.
Z.ai stated that it has resolved the underlying issues and released the codebase to allow for client-side audits. However, the open-source release does not confirm the status or handling of data uploaded prior to the patch.