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Bring Your Own Machine (BYOM) lets you register your own Linux, macOS, or Windows machine as a Droid Computer. This is useful when you want Droid to work inside an environment you already manage, such as a VPS, cloud VM, workstation, or on-prem server.

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Before you start

Make sure you have:
  • A machine running Linux, macOS, or Windows
  • Droid CLI installed on that machine
  • Authenticated with Factory (/login in an interactive session)
  • Network access to Factory APIs, specifically relay.factory.ai
No inbound ports need to be opened. BYOM machines connect through Factory’s relay service when you start the daemon with --remote-access.

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Register with the desktop app

If you’re using the desktop app, your machine will be registered automatically using your system’s hostname. To enable it as a remote computer, Settings → Droid Computers and switch on the Remote Access toggle. This will automatically connect your local machine to our relay service to be reachable from other devices, and the connection will remain active for as long as the desktop app is running.

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Register with the CLI

droid daemon --remote-access
If not registered, this will prompt you for a computer name and register the machine automatically. If you want to register the machine manually first, you can still run droid computer register [name], then start droid daemon --remote-access to connect through Factory’s relay service.
Only one computer registration is allowed per machine at a time. Run droid computer remove first, or delete the machine through the settings page, if you need to re-register.

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Troubleshooting availability

If the machine does not appear as available for remote use:
  • Check Settings → Droid Computers to confirm the machine is listed
  • In Settings → Droid Computers, verify Remote Access is enabled for that machine
  • Make sure the daemon is running with droid daemon --remote-access
If you do not see the Droid Computers page at all, contact your organization admin or Factory support.

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Managing and updating a BYOM machine

  • Use droid computer list to see registered computers
  • Use droid computer ssh <name> to open an SSH session to a computer
  • Use droid computer remove to unregister the current machine and clean up local config
  • Update the Droid CLI manually on the machine, then restart the daemon process
BYOM computers use whatever git credentials are already configured on the machine.

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Security and networking notes

  • Relay mode — BYOM machines route traffic through Factory’s relay service, so no public ports are exposed
  • Credentials — Git credentials are not managed by Factory on BYOM machines; the machine’s existing git configuration is used
  • Ownership — You are responsible for hardening and maintaining the underlying machine

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See also

  • Droid Computers — Overview of platform-managed computers and shared concepts