The client is now inspectable
Z.ai published the ZCode source tree on 20 September under Apache-2.0. The repository includes the Electron desktop application, browser interface, backend service, shared UI, provider layers and the Agent CLI/runtime used by the desktop and web products. Its README documents local development and packaging paths for all three surfaces rather than publishing only a thin SDK or plugin layer.
The open-source commit landed at 21:14 UTC on 20 September, less than three days after a reverse-engineering report raised questions about ZCode's repository snapshot and upload behaviour. The public repository has only two commits so far, so it should be treated as a fresh source snapshot rather than a mature public release history.
The release follows a repository-upload controversy
On 18 September, a developer writing as Ferstar reported that ZCode 3.12.3 could package an entire workspace into an encrypted archive, including the .git directory, Git LFS data and repository history, and had a path for uploading the archive to Alibaba Cloud OSS. The documented 313 MB commercial-project archive repeatedly failed to upload because of its size, while the researcher reported that a smaller test repository did reach the service.
Z.ai said the behaviour was connected to codebase indexing and Repo Wiki, that the feature had been enabled by default for some users, and that uploaded data was deleted after wiki generation. ZCode's own 3.14.0 changelog now lists a fix for abnormal Repo Wiki uploads. Those statements narrow the company's explanation, but the deletion claim and the exact historical server-side handling cannot be established from the client source alone.
Version 3.14.0 is public while 3.14.1 is current
The checked-in root package identifies the public source as ZCode 3.14.0. ZCode's product changelog lists 3.14.0 as released on 19 September with the repository-upload fix, then lists 3.14.1 on 21 September with another set of application fixes. No GitHub Release object currently ties the public source commit to either signed desktop binary.
That version gap matters for reproducibility. The repository gives outside reviewers concrete code to inspect and documented commands to build the desktop, web and CLI surfaces, but it does not yet demonstrate that the current 3.14.1 binary is built byte-for-byte or behaviour-for-behaviour from the public tree. Platform signing, hosted account services and other external dependencies also remain outside a simple source checkout.
What remains to verify
The most useful next step is an independent retest of the current signed client in an instrumented environment, checking whether any repository snapshot or Repo Wiki upload path can still be triggered and comparing that network behaviour with a build from the published source. A source-to-binary provenance trail would make the result stronger than inspecting the repository in isolation.
Z.ai has also said it would invite third-party security reviewers. Until audit artefacts or independent retests are public, those reviews and the company's statements about deletion remain claims rather than externally verified remediation. The story is therefore Corroborated: the source release, licence, version mismatch and changelog fix are directly verifiable, while the full historical data path and current binary behaviour still have evidence gaps.