[Feature Request] Allow BYOK usage without Factory AI login or cloud sync

[ShubDVS]

Currently, the CLI forces a login with a Factory AI account even if the user intends to use their own API keys (BYOK) exclusively. Additionally, local settings are automatically synced to the cloud.

I would like a "Local Mode" or "Offline Mode" that allows the CLI to function using only a local configuration file and local environment variables for API keys, without requiring an authentication handshake with Factory AI servers.

Benefits:

• Better support for air-gapped or high-security environments.
• Faster startup time.
• True ownership of configuration for BYOK users.

[iota9star]

This is very useful when applying droid to GitHub Actions, rather than setting up an API key, I just want to let my custom AI model do some things for me.

[Shabinder]

+1

[qiviut]

The latest info I got from Factory was that only the enterprise version allows you to disable the otherwise mandatory login with a factory account.

With byok, the tokens still seem to reach my custom provider rather than Factory, so I think its purpose is telemetry.

The cloud sync seems to be possible to disable without the enterprise account.

[stepan-factory]

I'm sorry for the late reply.

As someone else already mentioned, it's already doable:

1. Turning cloud sync off can be done via ~/.factory/settings.json
   {
   // ...
   "cloudSessionSync": false // Add this line
   }

2. If you set FACTORY_API_KEY env variable with non-empty value, it would by-pass the login view.

3. The only caveat is that WebSearch and WebFetch functionality depends on Factory endpoints, so you need to bring own MCPs for that and update AGENTS.md to instruct agent to use them.

4. This will not stop the telemetry/error reporting. Telemetry and error reporting doesn't log session info. (but you can add firewall rules to have full air-gap).

We will be working on improving this experience to have it out of the box.