Factory hands over the keys to the infrastructure to its clients

Factory launches OpenCompute, a system allowing AI agents to run on one's own servers, featuring automated management of work environments.

Entrusting source code to an AI agent should not force a company to transfer its development environment to a vendor's cloud. This is the problem that Factory is tackling with OpenCompute, an orchestration system designed to run coding agents on customer-controlled infrastructure. Teams keep their repositories, internal services, and workspaces within their own network, while benefiting from automated management of the machines used by the agents. Autonomous Agents That Need Their Own Computers

With software development agents, computing needs are no longer limited to sessions opened by developers. An incident can trigger an investigation, a scheduled task can launch a code modification, and multiple agents can work simultaneously on different projects.

Factory previously offered Droid Computers, persistent machines that could be used remotely via Remote Control. This solution notably allowed a workstation or private server to be connected to its Droid agents without publicly exposing internal resources.

However, this operation required companies to manage the provisioned machines themselves. OpenCompute adds the ability to automatically create isolated environments when agents need them, then suspend or shut them down once their work is completed, depending on the capabilities of the underlying infrastructure. Infrastructure Chosen by the Company

OpenCompute operates as a management layer independent of the underlying hardware. It can integrate with Kubernetes infrastructures, Amazon EC2 virtual machines, microVMs, or internal environments built specifically by an organization.

Each infrastructure provider has its own integration module, while OpenCompute handles common operations: machine creation, status monitoring, error recovery, and lifecycle management.

This architecture enables companies to use their existing resources rather than being forced to adopt Factory's.

An agent can thus work on a private code repository, access internal software registries, or consult services restricted to the corporate network, without having to make these resources accessible over the Internet. A Secure Connection, but Data Is Not Necessarily Entirely On-Premises

Operation relies on an OpenCompute service installed in the customer's infrastructure. This service establishes a secure outbound connection to Factory, without requiring an inbound port to be opened in the firewall.

Exchanges use a TLS-protected WebSocket connection and an authentication mechanism based on cryptographic keys. The created machines then have their own connection to Factory.

However, running agents locally does not mean that all data automatically remains on-site. Factory specifies that the location of session data and the services used to run the models depend on the selected configurations. Companies must therefore separately review machine hosting, the models queried, and data synchronization.

This distinction is particularly important for organizations subject to confidentiality or data residency requirements. Six Weeks of Development with Droid Agents

OpenCompute also served as a demonstration of Factory's development methods.

The company states that it designed a first usable version in six weeks, delegating a significant portion of the implementation to its Droid agents under the supervision of its engineers.

During an initial customer deployment, Factory needed to adapt OpenCompute to an on-premises infrastructure with its own technical interface. An agent developed the initial connection module, enabling the team to finalize the integration on-site within two days.

Factory notes that additional work was subsequently required to strengthen persistence, disaster recovery, and deployment tools. This experience thus illustrates an initial rollout rather than a general benchmark of the time required for every installation. A Private Preview Before an Open-Source Release

OpenCompute is available in private preview, with access restricted to selected organizations. Factory plans to open-source its code, but has not yet announced a specific timeline.

The system is intended to progressively serve as a common foundation for interactive sessions, scheduled automations, and tasks assigned to the company's agents.

OpenCompute does not eliminate IT administration constraints. Customers must still manage their servers, security, updates, and available capacity. On the other hand, it avoids the need to build a different infrastructure for each agent use case.

This shift accompanies the transition from individual coding assistants to teams of agents capable of operating continuously. For enterprises, the issue becomes as much about controlling execution environments as it is about the performance of the models being used.