Use Factory with SaladCloud

Connect the Factory Droid coding agent to Salad AI Gateway using your own API key.

Last Updated: September 21, 2026

Connect Factory’s Droid CLI to Salad AI Gateway using BYOK (Bring Your Own Key). This guide uses qwen3.6-35b-a3b through the OpenAI-compatible endpoint, without deploying a container group or installing the SaladCloud AI SDK provider. Requests use pay-per-token billing.

This is a custom-model configuration, not a native SaladCloud entry in Factory’s model catalog. Factory supports custom models in the CLI and desktop app, but not its hosted web or mobile platforms. This walkthrough covers the CLI and was tested with Droid 0.223.0.

Prerequisites

• A macOS or Linux terminal running Bash for the commands below
• A SaladCloud account, credits, and an organization-specific AI Gateway API key from Pay-Per-Token Onboarding

Step 1: Install Droid

Use Factory’s installer, then check the installed version:

curl -fsSL https://app.factory.ai/cli | sh
droid --version

If droid is not found, follow the installer’s instructions to add its directory to your PATH. For other operating systems and installation methods, see the Factory quickstart.

Step 2: Set Your AI Gateway Key

Enter your key at the hidden prompt so it is not included in your shell history:

read -r -s -p 'Salad AI Gateway API key: ' SALAD_CLOUD_API_KEY
printf '\n'
export SALAD_CLOUD_API_KEY

Use your organization’s AI Gateway key, not a regular SaladCloud API key or a Factory API key. Keep this terminal open for the following steps. The export applies to this shell and programs launched from it; in a new terminal, repeat this step or load the variable through your secret manager. Do not commit the key to your project.

Step 3: Add the Custom Model

Create the configuration directory if necessary:

mkdir -p ~/.factory

Open ~/.factory/settings.json in your editor and add the following configuration. If the file already exists, preserve your settings and append the model object to its customModels array instead of replacing the file. To disable cloud session syncing in an existing configuration too, set its top-level cloudSessionSync to false.

{
  "cloudSessionSync": false,
  "customModels": [
    {
      "model": "qwen3.6-35b-a3b",
      "displayName": "SaladCloud-Qwen3.6-35B",
      "baseUrl": "https://ai.salad.cloud/v1",
      "apiKey": "${SALAD_CLOUD_API_KEY}",
      "provider": "generic-chat-completion-api",
      "maxOutputTokens": 8192
    }
  ]
}

Keep ${SALAD_CLOUD_API_KEY} as written: Droid reads the exported variable when it starts. The example disables cloud session syncing and uses an 8,192-token output budget; this budget is a client setting, not the model’s maximum output limit.

Use generic-chat-completion-api, not openai: Factory’s openai provider uses the Responses API. The configuration above uses Chat Completions and sends your key as Bearer authentication automatically. Do not add a Salad-Api-Key header or append /chat/completions to the base URL.

See Factory’s BYOK reference for the supported configuration fields.

Step 4: Test the Connection

Run a small request from the same terminal:

droid exec --model 'custom:SaladCloud-Qwen3.6-35B-0' \
  'Reply with exactly: FACTORY_SALAD_OK. Do not use tools.'

The response should contain:

FACTORY_SALAD_OK

Factory’s CLI model ID combines custom:, the display name with spaces replaced by dashes, and the model’s zero-based index in customModels. The -0 suffix assumes this is your first custom model. Adjust it if you appended the entry after other models; the API model name remains qwen3.6-35b-a3b.

For machine-readable streamed output:

droid exec --model 'custom:SaladCloud-Qwen3.6-35B-0' --output-format stream-json \
  'Explain in three short sentences how an AI coding assistant can help review code. Do not use tools.'

These commands send real requests billed to your SaladCloud organization. A zero Factory-credit count does not mean the Salad request is free. The headless BYOK smoke test on Droid 0.223.0 worked with the Salad key alone, without a Factory login or FACTORY_API_KEY.

Step 5: Use Droid in Your Project

From your project directory, run:

droid

Complete Factory’s sign-in flow if prompted. Run /model, select SaladCloud-Qwen3.6-35B under Custom models, and start with a read-only task such as:

Read the README and summarize how to run this project. Do not change any files.

Review requested permissions before allowing file edits or command execution. See the Droid CLI reference for autonomy controls.

Troubleshooting

• Model not found: check the display name and zero-based index in the custom: ID. Use settings.json with customModels, not the legacy config.json format.
• Missing key or HTTP 401: repeat Step 2 in the terminal where you launch Droid and verify that the key belongs to AI Gateway. The environment-variable reference does not save the key itself.
• HTTP 404 or Responses API errors: use generic-chat-completion-api and exactly https://ai.salad.cloud/v1.
• Custom models blocked: your Factory organization may restrict custom models or permitted endpoint URLs. Ask your administrator to allow Salad’s endpoint.