Z.ai disables ZCode features and open-sources the coding tool after it uploaded users' repositories to Alibaba Cloud
Around Sept 21, 2026 Z.ai (Zhipu) disabled part of its ZCode coding assistant and apologized after users found that a default-on "Codebase Indexing" feature had been uploading entire local repositories, including git history, to Alibaba Cloud storage in China without clear consent. Z.ai then released the ZCode client, backend, UI, agent CLI and runtime under Apache 2.0 and had the upload buckets audited as deleted.
Key facts
- Found by Chinese blogger 'Ferstar' through abnormal disk usage traced to ZCode background processes (InfoWorld)
- Uploaded: complete .git history, LFS asset cache, reflogs and global app configs, sent to Alibaba Cloud object storage (zcode-prod OSS bucket)
- Cause: the Codebase Indexing feature (checkpoints, rollbacks, wiki generation) was on by default with no clear off switch
- Fix: upload workflow disabled in ZCode 3.14.0; Z.ai says the data 'has never been used for model training'
- Audit by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology and NSFOCUS: all objects in the bucket deleted, no remaining path for external file transmission
- ZCode client, backend, shared UI, Agent CLI and runtime published on GitHub under Apache 2.0
What happened
ZCode is Z.ai's desktop coding assistant built around its GLM models. A user investigating unexplained disk activity found it was packaging whole repositories and sending them to cloud storage, which set off a backlash among developers, including enterprise users worried about proprietary code leaving for servers in China. Z.ai apologized, shipped a version with the workflow removed, had two Chinese security bodies confirm the stored data was deleted, and open-sourced the tool so users could check what it does.
Why it matters
Coding agents need deep access to source code, and this is a clear case of that access being misused by default, by a major lab. It also shows open-sourcing being used as a trust-repair measure.
Caveat: the Reuters article could not be fetched directly; details come from InfoWorld and other coverage. The number of affected users is not known.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created (sweep 2026-09-29)
Related events
- Z.ai says GLM-5.3 largely built the inference stack that serves GLM-5.3-Flash, calling it an early step toward recursive self-improvement ★★★
- Zhipu (Z.ai) releases GLM-5.3, top open-weights coding/agent model ★★★
Sources (3)
- pressReuters: China's Z.ai disables AI coding assistant features after security issue
- pressInfoWorld: Z.ai disables coding assistant feature after flaw exposed enterprise code upload risk
- pressTechnology.org: Z.ai disables ZCode features after its coding assistant uploaded users' repositories
id: 2026-09-21-zai-zcode-codebase-upload-open-source · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline