Droid (Factory) in Scient

Droid is Factory’s agent for working with project files, code, and commands. Scient connects to the official droid tool and shows its responses, tool calls, file edits, and nested Tasks in the thread.

Droid is marked Early Access in Scient because its integration is newer than the other providers. Its provider-specific behaviors and current limitations are documented below.

For the behavior shared by all assisted providers, see Providers in Scient.

Setup and account connection

The local desktop app can install a reviewed Droid runtime privately for Scient. A custom binary path or a healthy system installation is preserved and used as-is; Scient never replaces or removes it. Managed install, repair, and removal appear only when the runtime is Scient-owned.

Droid supports two existing-account modes:

• Factory account pairing (default): choose Sign in with Factory. Droid opens its secure browser flow itself. Factory owns the browser, callback, and credential store; Scient receives no password or token and does not invent or parse a sign-in URL.
• FACTORY_API_KEY (advanced): when this environment variable is configured before Scient starts, Droid uses it directly. The key is passed to the CLI only and is never displayed by Scient. Interactive account actions are hidden because they cannot manage an environment-owned key.

You can still point Scient at an existing binary under Settings > Providers > Droid > Binary path. With no custom path, Scient preserves a healthy droid found on the app’s PATH; otherwise it can offer the reviewed app-private runtime.

Enabling Droid

1. Open Settings > Providers and enable Droid, or pick Droid from the composer’s provider rail.
2. If Droid is missing, choose Install and review the official artifact before continuing.
3. Choose Sign in with Factory, finish the provider-opened browser flow, and wait for Scient to verify the connected account.
4. When Droid reports Ready, pick a model and start a thread.

Repair downloads and verifies a fresh reviewed copy before atomically replacing Scient’s managed runtime. Remove deletes only that app-private copy; neither action changes Factory credentials, custom paths, or system installations. Sign out appears only if the exact running Droid version advertises ACP logout. When it does not, Scient hides the action instead of offering an unreliable terminal-automation fallback.

Models and reasoning effort

Droid reports its available models and reasoning-effort choices to Scient. You can change either within an existing thread; the change applies before the next message. A model may also show the Factory token-cost label reported by Droid, such as 0.5×.

Factory custom (custom:) models follow the same live-capability rule: when Droid advertises a reasoning-effort ladder for the selected custom model, Scient shows it and applies the selected value before the turn. Scient does not guess a ladder for custom models that expose none.

Autonomy modes

Scient’s permission modes map onto Droid’s graduated autonomy ladder:

The mode is applied per turn; changing it mid-thread takes effect on the next message.

Behavior notes and limitations

• Checkpoints / rollback is not supported. Droid’s ACP surface does not expose a revert operation, so the rollback action is unavailable in Droid threads.
• Steering sends your follow-up message into the running turn.
• Structured questions from Droid appear in Scient’s normal user-input prompt and resume the turn after you answer.
• Idle runs: if Droid produces no activity for an extended period, Scient cancels the turn instead of leaving the thread running forever. Nested Tasks are allowed substantially longer.
• Quota: Droid usage draws on your Factory plan. If the CLI reports an out-of-quota or payment-required error, the turn fails with that message and you can retry after topping up or waiting for the quota window.
• External runtime maintenance stays external. Scient can repair or remove only its own app-private runtime. Update a custom or system Droid installation with the tool that installed it.