zcode.md

ZCode (Z.ai) — Setup Guide (coding-kit)

How to wire coding-kit into ZCode (Z.ai Agentic Development Environment & CLI).

1. What ZCode reads

• Global instructions: ~/.zcode/AGENTS.md (and ~/.zcode/CLAUDE.md for compatibility).
• Global skills: ~/.zcode/skills/ — directories with Hermes-compatible SKILL.md.
• Workspace instructions: <project-root>/AGENTS.md.
• Workspace skills: <project-root>/.zcode/skills/.

2. Install

Step 1: Rules

Copy the kit router to ~/.zcode/AGENTS.md:

cp <kit>/AGENTS.md ~/.zcode/AGENTS.md

Or on Windows PowerShell:

Copy-Item "<kit>\AGENTS.md" "$env:USERPROFILE\.zcode\AGENTS.md"

Step 2: Skills — junction (single source)

New-Item -ItemType Junction -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\.zcode\skills" -Target "<kit>\skills"

On Linux/macOS:

ln -s <kit>/skills ~/.zcode/skills

Step 3: Memory

Memory lives outside the kit: ~/.memory/ (Wiki + db-tools + research.db). Rebuild indexes:

python ~/.memory/db-tools/build.py

Step 4: Verify

In ZCode chat or CLI:

• Ask the agent to show its method (plan → TDD → implement → verify → report): superpowers, YAGNI, cross-chat memory via database.
• Ask it to search memory for X — must route through a database search (search_all.py), not answer from conversation.