I found the new best coding agent.

Droid, created by Factory.ai, is presented as a superior and more affordable AI coding agent compared to competitors like Claude Code and Codex, offering extensive model support, flexible execution modes, and advanced features for deep research.

• Droid offers superior UI, multi-model support (including cost-effective GLM 4.6), and flexible execution modes for AI coding.

• It implements an 'ultra deep research' architecture, pre-searching documentation and generating multiple queries for comprehensive reports.

• Droid excels at debugging, optimizing, and maintaining code by updating documentation and managing Git commits.

Droid, a new AI coding agent from Factory.ai, surpasses existing tools like Claude Code and Codex by offering better UI, access to a wider range of cutting-edge models (including GLM 4.6), and significantly lower costs, including 20 million free tokens. Its key features include granular control over execution modes, intelligent context management to save tokens, and an advanced deep research agent architecture that performs preliminary web searches, generates multiple queries, and aggregates results into concise reports.

Introducing Droid

• 00:00:08 Droid, developed by Factory.ai, is highlighted as a highly underrated and potentially the best AI coding agent available, offering a superior user interface, access to a wide array of advanced AI models, and a significantly more cost-effective pricing structure, including 20 million free tokens upon sign-up. The installation process is straightforward, involving a single command to install it globally and then launching it within a preferred IDE like VS Code.

Droid's Advanced Features

• 00:01:38 Droid distinguishes itself by supporting numerous AI models, including OpenAI's Codex, Anthropic's Sonnet and Opus, and the open-source GLM 4.6, which outperforms Sonnet 4.5 on several benchmarks and is highly affordable. A crucial feature is its customizable execution modes, accessed via Shift+Tab, ranging from 'Auto Off' requiring full approval to 'Auto High' (YOLO mode) for maximum automation, providing users with fine-grained control over AI actions unlike other agents.

Building a Deep Research Agent

• 00:03:17 A demonstration of Droid's capabilities involves building an 'ultra deep research' agent designed to perform comprehensive research based on a user-provided topic. This agent leverages a reasoning model to generate 100 search queries, dispatches web search agents asynchronously, aggregates results, and synthesizes them into a high-signal report. Droid significantly enhances this process by performing preliminary web searches to understand the latest documentation before suggesting architecture, saving considerable development time.

Optimizing and Troubleshooting with Droid

• 00:15:23 The demonstration shows Droid's ability to iteratively refine and troubleshoot code, including fixing parsing errors, updating logging for better progress visibility, and adjusting prompt parameters like context window size and temperature for summarization tasks. The agent also automatically updates documentation and manages Git commits, reflecting a well-architected design that supports continuous development and ensures project maintainability, highlighting the importance of version control when working with AI coding tools.