diff --git a/app/cloud_session.py b/app/cloud_session.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..871c36d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/cloud_session.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+"""
+Avocet cloud session — thin wrapper around cf_core.cloud_session.
+
+Usage in FastAPI routes:
+
+    from app.cloud_session import get_session, require_tier, CloudUser
+    from fastapi import Depends
+
+    @router.get("/api/imitate")
+    def imitate(session: CloudUser = Depends(get_session)):
+        # session.user_id  — Directus UUID (cloud) or "local" (self-hosted)
+        # session.tier     — free | paid | premium | ultra | local
+        # session.has_byok — True if user has a configured LLM backend
+        ...
+
+    @router.post("/api/custom-models")
+    def list_custom_models(session: CloudUser = Depends(require_tier("premium"))):
+        ...
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from circuitforge_core.cloud_session import CloudSessionFactory, CloudUser
+
+__all__ = ["CloudUser", "get_session", "require_tier"]
+
+_BYOK_CONFIG = Path.home() / ".config" / "circuitforge" / "llm.yaml"
+
+
+def _detect_byok() -> bool:
+    try:
+        import yaml
+        with open(_BYOK_CONFIG) as f:
+            cfg = yaml.safe_load(f) or {}
+        return any(
+            b.get("enabled", True) and b.get("type") != "vision_service"
+            for b in cfg.get("backends", {}).values()
+        )
+    except Exception:
+        return False
+
+
+_factory = CloudSessionFactory(
+    product="avocet",
+    byok_detector=_detect_byok,
+)
+
+get_session = _factory.dependency()
+require_tier = _factory.require_tier
diff --git a/app/imitate.py b/app/imitate.py
index 58777f8..cec5685 100644
--- a/app/imitate.py
+++ b/app/imitate.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ from urllib.request import Request, urlopen
 
 import httpx
 import yaml
-from fastapi import APIRouter, HTTPException
+from fastapi import APIRouter, Depends, HTTPException
 from fastapi.responses import StreamingResponse
 from pydantic import BaseModel
 
@@ -256,6 +256,7 @@ def _run_cftext(
     system: str,
     temperature: float,
     startup_timeout_s: float = 180.0,
+    user_id: str | None = None,
 ) -> tuple[str, int, bool]:
     """Allocate cf-text via cf-orch, generate, release. Returns (response, elapsed_ms, cold_started).
 
@@ -273,6 +274,7 @@ def _run_cftext(
             "model_candidates": [model_id],
             "caller": "avocet",
             "pipeline": "imitate",
+            **({"user_id": user_id} if user_id else {}),
         },
         timeout=30.0,
     )
@@ -460,6 +462,15 @@ def get_catalog() -> dict:
 
 # ── GET /run (SSE) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
+def _get_imitate_session(request: Any, response: Any) -> "CloudUser | None":
+    """Optional session dependency — returns None when cloud_session is unavailable."""
+    try:
+        from app.cloud_session import get_session
+        return get_session(request, response)
+    except Exception:
+        return None
+
+
 @router.get("/run")
 def run_imitate(
     prompt: str = "",
@@ -469,6 +480,7 @@ def run_imitate(
     product_id: str = "",
     system: str = "",             # optional system prompt
     image_url: str = "",          # optional image URL for vision models
+    session: "Any" = Depends(_get_imitate_session),
 ) -> StreamingResponse:
     """Run a prompt through selected ollama models and stream results as SSE.
 
@@ -534,9 +546,17 @@ def run_imitate(
             for model_id in cftext_ids:
                 yield _sse({"type": "model_start", "model": model_id, "service": "cf-text"})
 
+            _user_id: str | None = getattr(session, "user_id", None)
+            # Only forward real cloud user IDs — skip local/anon sessions
+            if _user_id in (None, "local", "local-dev") or (_user_id or "").startswith("anon-"):
+                _user_id = None
+
             with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=len(cftext_ids)) as pool:
                 future_to_model = {
-                    pool.submit(_run_cftext, cforch_base, mid, prompt, system_ctx, temperature): mid
+                    pool.submit(
+                        _run_cftext, cforch_base, mid, prompt, system_ctx, temperature,
+                        180.0, _user_id,
+                    ): mid
                     for mid in cftext_ids
                 }
                 for future in as_completed(future_to_model):