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In this video, I'll be sharing my first impressions of Pony Alpha 2, a new model from Z AI that appears to be fine-tuned for OpenClaw. I compare it with GLM 5 in coding and agentic workflows, talk about its speed, long-context retention, and writing quality, and explain why it feels like a better fit for day-to-day OpenClaw usage.

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Resources:

GLM-5 Coding Plan (affiliate link - not sponsored): https://z.ai/subscribe?ic=NWKPDIY9WD

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Key Takeaways:

🚀 Pony Alpha 2 feels extremely fast compared to GLM 5 and responds almost instantly in many workflows.  
🧠 The model seems better optimized for agentic tasks, tool calling, and instruction following inside OpenClaw.  
💻 While it is decent at coding, it does not seem to outperform GLM 5 on coding-heavy prompts.  
🛠️ Pony Alpha 2 works especially well with Skills, such as presentation workflows and web crawling tasks.  
📚 Long-context retention appears stronger, with better history handling and smarter tool reuse when needed.  
✍️ Writing quality also seems slightly improved, especially for research-oriented workflows.  
🌍 If it launches with open weights and good pricing, it could become a very interesting model for everyday AI agents.

AICodeKing

GLM5 is now available on ZAI's light coding plan for as low as $10/month or $84/year, positioning it as a budget-friendly alternative to Claude Code and Codex. The post covers how to set up GLM5 with tools like Kilo CLI, Pi coding agent, VS Code with Kilo Code extension, and Claude Code. Tips include installing Anthropic's front-end design skill for better results, managing context length by starting new threads past 200k tokens, and prompting the model to think less to avoid overthinking. The pro plan adds web search and a vision MCP tool. Overall framed as strong price-to-performance value for students and budget-conscious developers.

GLM 5 (Lite Coding Plan) + Skills + Pi : This $3 Setup BEATS Claude Code & Codex!!!