Droid (Factory) in Scient

Droid is Factory’s coding agent. Scient talks to the droid CLI over the same agent protocol used for other providers, so Droid sessions stream like any other provider’s: tool calls, file edits, and nested Tasks all appear 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 advertises its model list itself; Scient does not hardcode one. You can change models within an existing thread: Scient applies the new model before the next turn and waits for Droid’s authoritative configuration update before sending your message. Selecting a reasoning effort sets Droid’s model-specific effort option the same way. Effort choices come from the selected model’s own ladder: during discovery Scient briefly selects each model to read the ladder that model actually supports, so what you see matches the CLI. If that per-model walk fails or times out, models stay listed with an unknown effort surface rather than a wrong list. Each model option’s description may also carry a factory-token cost label (for example 0.5×), which Scient shows next to the model name.

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. Scient’s runtime-mode mapping is exhaustive, so adding a new Scient mode requires an explicit Droid mapping at compile time instead of silently choosing an autonomy level.

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 works by sending your follow-up message into the running turn; the adapter counts prompts so steering never collides with turn bookkeeping.
• Structured questions from Droid appear in Scient’s normal user-input prompt and resume the turn after you answer.
• Idle watchdog: if a Droid turn produces nothing (no events at all) for 10 minutes, Scient cancels it so the thread never hangs forever. Threads using nested Tasks get a 60-minute ceiling instead. Tune the idle limit with SCIENT_DROID_TURN_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS (milliseconds).
• 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.