Busabase for ZCode

Connect ZCode to Busabase

Z.ai's open-source (Apache-2.0) agentic development environment for its GLM models: a desktop app, a local web workspace and a terminal agent on one runtime, with native MCP (stdio / HTTP / SSE, OAuth supported), native SKILL.md skills, plugins, hooks and subagents. The app itself is free; model use runs on a GLM Coding Plan, an API key, or BYOK providers.

Paste this into ZCode

Read https://busabase.com/SETUP_SKILL.md and set up Busabase for me. Follow it through to the end, then confirm the connection works.

Read the ZCode Skills documentation

Busabase

Agent Skill

Give your agent this one instruction

You end up with more than a connector: the busabase skill carries the whole change-request workflow, the CLI, and the full API — available in every future session without re-pasting anything.

Asks first

Busabase Cloud or Personal Desktop — your call, before anything happens.

Connects

Signs you in and stores the credential itself. No API key to copy by hand.

Seeds a Base

Creates and fills your first Base, so the workspace is not an empty screen.

Installs the skills

busabase and busabase-app-creator become permanent, for every session after this.

Install the Busabase skills

npx skills add busabase/skills

For this agent

ZCode natively reads SKILL.md folders: user skills at ~/.zcode/skills/<name>/SKILL.md, project skills at <workspace>/.zcode/skills/. Invoke one as $skill-name, or import existing skills from Claude Code / Codex / OpenClaw and similar tools via Settings → Skills → Import.

Prefer a connector?

If you would rather wire Busabase in as MCP tools than let the agent install a skill, use the server URL below.

ZCode MCP documentation

At a glance

Vendor: Z.ai (Zhipu AI)
How it connects: MCP + OAuth · MCP + API key · Plugin / Skill · busabase-cli
Transport: Streamable HTTP
Authentication: Unknown
Config file: ~/.zcode/cli/config.json (user, key mcp.servers) / <project>/.zcode/config.json (workspace)

ZCode has a full local terminal and native SKILL.md skills, so the Skill path applies: download the desktop app from https://zcode.z.ai (macOS dmg, Windows x64/ARM64, Linux AppImage/DEB/RPM beta), open a trusted project, and ask: Read https://busabase.com/SETUP_SKILL.md and set up Busabase for me.

Prefer a connector?

Add Busabase under mcp.servers in ~/.zcode/cli/config.json (user scope; a project can override in <project>/.zcode/config.json):

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "busabase": {
        "type": "http",
        "url": "https://busabase.com/api/mcp"
      }
    }
  }
}

ZCode's docs and NOTICE describe MCP OAuth with automatic token refresh; a static Authorization: Bearer <your Busabase API key> header in the same entry is also supported. MCP tools surface as mcp__<server>__<tool> — ask ZCode to call auth_verify to confirm the connection.

Known gotchas

The desktop app has real installers, but the standalone CLI is still build-from-source only: the README's build requires a ZCODE_DIST_BASE_URL and its example is still the placeholder https://downloads.example.com/zcode/ — there is no official npm/one-line CLI installer (the zcode-app-cli npm package is an unofficial community wrapper). The public changelog page lags the repo (it tops out at 3.17.2 while the README records v3.18.0, 2026-11-11). Per the vendor's own NOTICE.md: headless --prompt runs default to yolo permission mode; workspace-level MCP servers auto-connect when a project opens, so review a cloned repo's .zcode/config.json before opening it; credentials are stored in locally-encrypted files, not the OS keychain. The MCP server-entry key shape above follows the repo's config docs and FAQ (there is no standalone MCP docs page — /en/docs/mcp returns 404), and the OAuth registration mode (dynamic vs static) is not stated, so auth-mode is unknown.

How it compares

Connection capabilities side by side with other agents already in this directory.

Capability	ZCode	Claude Code	Cursor
Type	Desktop apps	Terminal agents	AI editors
Recommended path	Agent Skill	Agent Skill	Agent Skill
How it connects	MCP + OAuth · MCP + API key · Plugin / Skill · busabase-cli	MCP + OAuth · Plugin / Skill	MCP + OAuth · Plugin / Skill
Transport	Streamable HTTP	Streamable HTTP	Streamable HTTP
Authentication	Unknown	OAuth (dynamic registration)	OAuth (dynamic registration)

These stepsFrom official docsLast checked Nov 12, 2026Version 3.18.0

Written from this agent's own documentation. We have not re-run every step on a real machine, so check the linked docs if a command has changed.

Where these steps come from Official site

Let your agent do the setup

One instruction, one authorization, and every change it makes afterwards carries a message and a diff you can check or revert.

Browse every agent

Paste this into ZCode

Read https://busabase.com/SETUP_SKILL.md and set up Busabase for me. Follow it through to the end, then confirm the connection works.