ZAI

A fast, feature-rich CLI for Z.AI GLM models.

Features

• Chat - Interactive REPL with conversation context
• Account quota - Read Coding Plan usage windows without model generation
• Web Search - Search the web and get AI-summarized results
• Web Reader - Fetch and analyze web content
• Image Generation - AI-enhanced prompts with auto-download
• Vision - Analyze images and extract text
• Audio - Transcribe audio files and YouTube videos
• TTS - Text-to-speech synthesis with multiple voices
• Embeddings - Generate text embedding vectors
• Video - Generate videos from text or images
• Pipes - Full stdin/stdout support for scripting

Installation

go install github.com/dotcommander/zai@latest

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/dotcommander/zai.git
cd zai
go build -o bin/zai .

Configuration

Set your API key:

export ZAI_API_KEY="your_api_key"

Or create ~/.config/zai/config.yaml:

api:
  key: "your-api-key"
  model: "glm-4.7"        # default model
  coding_plan: true       # use Coding API endpoint

Usage

Account quota

zai usage
zai usage --json

Uses the configured API key and approved HTTPS provider origin only. Quota availability depends on account entitlement and the provider monitoring endpoint; it does not generate a chat response.

Chat

# One-shot
zai "What is the meaning of life?"

# With file context
zai -f main.go "Review this code"

# Interactive REPL
zai chat

# With reasoning mode
zai --think "Solve this step by step"

# Web search augmented
zai --search "Latest news on AI"

In zai chat -f path, local file contents are reused within the session until the file identity, size, modification time, or mode changes. Edits that preserve all of those metadata values may remain unseen; restart the session to reload. URL context is not cached by this mechanism.

Pipes

cat error.log | zai "What's wrong?"
git diff | zai "Write a commit message"
pbpaste | zai "Summarize this"

Web

# Search
zai search "golang best practices"
zai search "AI news" -c 5 -r oneWeek

# Read web pages
zai reader https://example.com
zai "Summarize https://example.com/article"  # auto-detected

Image Generation

zai image "a wizard in a library"
zai image "sunset" --size 1024x1024
zai image "logo" -o logo.png --no-enhance

Images are automatically enhanced with professional photography prompts and saved locally.

Vision

zai vision -f photo.jpg
zai vision -f screenshot.png "What text is here?"
zai vision -f chart.png "Explain the trends"

Audio

zai audio -f recording.wav
zai audio -f podcast.mp3 --vad              # Remove silence
zai audio --video https://youtu.be/xxx      # YouTube
zai audio -f lecture.wav --hotwords "k8s,docker"

Supports: .wav, .mp3, .mp4, .m4a, .flac, .aac, .ogg

Optional dependencies: ffmpeg, yt-dlp (for YouTube)

Text to Speech

zai tts "Hello, world!"
zai tts "Welcome" --voice xiaochen
echo "text" | zai tts --output out.wav

Voices: tongtong (default), xiaochen, chuichui, jam, kazi, douji, luodo

Embeddings

zai embed "Hello, world!"
zai embed "sentence one" "sentence two"
echo "text" | zai embed

Always outputs JSON embedding vectors.

Video

zai video "A cat playing"
zai video -f https://example.com/image.jpg "Animate this"
zai video -f https://example.com/first.jpg -f https://example.com/last.jpg "transition"

Image inputs must be absolute HTTP(S) URLs; local image files are unsupported.

Videos are saved as zai-video-{timestamp}.mp4. Generation takes 1-3 minutes.

JSON Output

zai "What is 2+2?" --json
zai search "query" --json
zai history --json

Full API requests

Use --request-json FILE (or - for stdin) on chat, vision, image, video, audio, search, and reader to preserve all request fields and receive complete JSON responses with --json. Ordinary output extracts text, URLs, or task identifiers. Explicitly supplied supported flags override matching JSON fields; ordinary flag defaults do not. Positional prompts also override matching JSON prompt/message fields.

zai chat --request-json chat.json --json
cat chat.json | zai chat --request-json - --events
zai image --async --request-json image.json --wait --wait-timeout 3m --poll-interval 2s
zai task get TASK_ID
zai tokenize --request-json tokenizer.json
zai files upload document.pdf --purpose user_data

--events emits SSE events as NDJSON with event, data, and an optional id. See Global API coverage for all routes, multipart requests, async workflows, protocol compatibility limits, and the checked-in operation/field inventory. TTS, embeddings, and model convenience commands remain available; omission from the current global OpenAPI does not establish that their endpoints are unavailable.

Discover available MCP tools with zai mcp search tools, then invoke one with zai mcp search call TOOL --request-json arguments.json. See MCP commands for all four products and local Vision runtime requirements. Chat tool streaming is available through --tool-stream.

Commands

Command	Description
chat	Interactive chat session
search	Web search
reader	Fetch web content
image	Generate images
video	Generate videos
vision	Analyze images
audio	Transcribe audio
tts	Text-to-speech synthesis
embed	Generate text embeddings
history	View chat history
model	Model management
task get	Retrieve an asynchronous image/video task
tokenize	Token counting
layout	Document layout parsing
files upload	Upload a file
agent run/result/conversation	Agent requests and results
responses / messages	Protocol compatibility JSON requests
api	Execute a registered operation
mcp vision/search/reader/zread tools/call	Discover and invoke Coding Plan MCP tools

Flags

Flag	Description
-f, --file	Include file or URL in prompt
--search	Augment with web search
--think	Enable reasoning mode
-C, --coding	Use Coding API endpoint
--json	Output as JSON
--system	Custom system prompt
-v, --verbose	Show debug info

Shell Completion

# Bash
zai completion bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/zai

# Zsh
zai completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_zai"

# Fish
zai completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/zai.fish

Documentation

See docs/documentation.md for the full documentation index.

Requirements

• Go 1.25.4+ (the version declared in go.mod)
• Z.AI API key

License

MIT