GLM for Copilot Chat

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Pick GLM from the Copilot Chat model picker — and keep everything else Copilot already gives you.

Love GLM's price-performance but don't want to give up GitHub Copilot's agent mode, tool calling, and polished UI? This extension drops GLM-5.2, GLM-4.6V-Flash, and GLM-5-Turbo straight into the Copilot Chat model selector — with vision, thinking mode, and your own API key.

Why this extension?

• Don't replace Copilot — power it up. No new sidebar, no new chat UI to learn. Just a new model in the picker you already use.
• Agent mode, tool calling, instructions, MCP, skills — all of it still works. Copilot's entire stack, now running on GLM.
• Vision where each model needs it. For GLM-5.2 and GLM-5-Turbo, images are transparently described by GLM-4.6V-Flash first, then passed along as text. If GLM-4.6V-Flash is unavailable, the extension falls back to another Copilot/VS Code vision model.
• Estimated per-turn cost. When the GLM API returns usage, the extension estimates the official list-price cost, reports it to Copilot usage metadata, writes it to logs, and shows the latest turn in the status bar.
• BYOK, pay GLM directly. Your API key, your bill, your rate limits. Stored in the OS keychain, never on disk.

Features

GLM-5.2, GLM-4.6V-Flash, and GLM-5-Turbo in the model picker

All three models show up alongside GPT-4o, Claude, and friends in Copilot Chat's model selector. Switch models mid-chat without losing history.

Transparent Vision Proxy

Drop a screenshot into chat and the automatic proxy asks GLM-4.6V-Flash to describe it before the selected GLM model receives the prompt. If GLM-4.6V-Flash is unavailable on the current endpoint or plan, the extension falls back to another installed Copilot/VS Code vision model. You can also force a VS Code model or a custom API endpoint from GLM: Configure Vision Proxy.

This keeps GLM-5.2 focused on coding/reasoning while GLM-4.6V-Flash handles multimodal extraction.

Thinking Mode with Reasoning Effort Control

Full support for GLM's reasoning_content. Use Copilot Chat's native model picker menu to choose none (off), high (balanced), or max (default deep reasoning for hard agent tasks).

Inherits Every Copilot Capability

Because this plugs into Copilot's native provider API, you get the full stack for free:

• Agent mode — autonomous multi-step tasks
• Tool calling — file edits, terminal, workspace search, Git, tests
• Instructions & skills — all your .instructions.md, AGENTS.md, and skills just work
• Prompt caching stats — GLM's cache hit rate logged in the output channel so you can see the savings

Secure by Default

API key lives in VS Code's SecretStorage (OS keychain on macOS / Windows / Linux). Never in settings.json, never in your Git history.

Cost Visibility

After each completed GLM response, the extension reports usage to Copilot metadata and writes it to logs. The status bar shows the latest turn and session total. Estimates use the official GLM list prices for the current endpoint currency: CNY for domestic BigModel endpoints and USD for Z.ai endpoints. Coding Plan requests also show an approximate list-price equivalent when token usage is returned.

Zero Runtime Dependencies

Pure VS Code API + Node.js built-ins. No Python, no Docker, no local proxy server to babysit.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• VS Code 1.116 or later. This extension relies on non-public Copilot Chat APIs that may break on newer VS Code versions — report an issue if you hit one.
• GitHub Copilot subscription (Free / Pro / Enterprise — the free tier works)
• GLM API key or Coding Plan token. Run GLM: Get API Key to open the page matching your glm-copilot.apiMode and glm-copilot.region, or use a compatible provider token when using a custom glm-copilot.baseUrl

Installation

Install from the registry used by your editor:

1. Microsoft VS Code — install from VS Code Marketplace.
2. Editors that use Open VSX — install from Open VSX.

Usage

1. Run GLM: Set API Key from the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P)
2. Paste your GLM API key, Coding Plan token, or compatible provider token
3. Open Copilot Chat, click the model picker, pick GLM-5.2, GLM-4.6V-Flash, or GLM-5-Turbo
4. That's it — chat away

Models

All three support optional thinking mode and tool calling. GLM-5.2 is the best fit for long-context or high-reasoning tasks; GLM-4.6V-Flash is used automatically as the first vision proxy for image attachments.

Settings

Thinking Effort is configured from Copilot Chat's model picker for each GLM model.

Example settings.json override for compatible API proxies:

{
  "glm-copilot.baseUrl": "https://proxy.example.com/v1",
  "glm-copilot.customModels": [
    "my-glm-model",
    {
      "id": "team-coder",
      "name": "Team Coder",
      "maxInputTokens": 200000,
      "maxOutputTokens": 131072,
      "toolCalling": true,
      "thinking": true
    }
  ],
  "glm-copilot.modelIdOverrides": {
    "glm-5.2": "your-glm-5.2-model-id",
    "glm-4.6v-flash": "your-glm-4.6v-flash-model-id",
    "glm-5-turbo": "your-glm-5-turbo-model-id",
    "team-coder": "provider-team-coder-id"
  }
}

Compared to alternatives

Acknowledgements

This project references ideas and implementation patterns from Vizards/deepseek-v4-for-copilot, KiwiGaze/glm-for-copilot, and selfagency/z-models-vscode. Thanks to the original authors. Where applicable, redistribution and derivative work should preserve the original MIT License notices.

License

MIT