My new ZCode Alternative to Claude Code & Codex (Factory Missions Infrastructure)

4d • Wins

I have been disappointed with the relaunch of Fable 5 due to the default switching to Opus 4.8. Over the past year I have been using sporadically initially the GLM models from Z.AI within Factory. When Factory added Missions, it was a game changer for me and my process.

I am currently testing an alternative that, so far, is working well for me. Here is the stack:

1. Using ZCode as the harness. Z.ai confirmed that this is the best harness for GLM-5.2.
2. I recreated Factory's Mission Skill. I have been super impressed with their Missions workflow.
3. I have a Abacus.AI account that allows me to use their api for different models. This could be replaced with Openrouter.

Here is the sauce: In ZCode I added additional custom models (opus-4-8 and gpt-5.5). In the Mission Skill I have three agents: orchestrator (opus-4-8), worker (glm-5.2) and validator (gpt-5.5). The mission skill builds the detailed long running plans in phases and standsup a Mission Control page to track progress.

This has been working well for me and giving me great results. The reason why I am all in on ZCode is that I bought a yearly plan last fall and have a ton compute to use monthly. And since the model is now so much better and closer to the frontier models, I finally think it's time for me to fully test it and give it the best harness and structure to be successful.

I added a few screenshots. Thanks to

@Ray Fernando

for the early Factory Droid and GLM exposure last year.

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My new ZCode Alternative to Claude Code & Codex (Factory Missions Infrastructure)