I didn't start with a drone when starting a new game. Optional to add a support for it ofc, some may find it fun:
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/companion-drones-mjlfix

To actually manually craft a first tier robot requires a spidertron and blue circuits, so it's not helpful in early game this way. I checked you do start with one without Hextorio; it's not in inventory but placed in the world like a spider-vehicle (already placed for you).

This is caused by Hextorio's initialization. Nauvis gets deleted and recreated, which means the free companion is destroyed. But I can add a compatibility, thanks!