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AGENTS.md

Guidance for human and AI contributors working in this repository.

1. Purpose

Paperclip is a control plane for AI-agent companies. The current implementation target is V1 and is defined in doc/SPEC-implementation.md.

2. Read This First

Before making changes, read in this order:

  1. doc/GOAL.md
  2. doc/PRODUCT.md
  3. doc/SPEC-implementation.md
  4. doc/DEVELOPING.md
  5. doc/DATABASE.md

doc/SPEC.md is long-horizon product context. doc/SPEC-implementation.md is the concrete V1 build contract.

3. Repo Map

  • server/: Express REST API and orchestration services
  • ui/: React + Vite board UI
  • packages/db/: Drizzle schema, migrations, DB clients
  • packages/shared/: shared types, constants, validators, API path constants
  • packages/adapters/: agent adapter implementations (Claude, Codex, Cursor, etc.)
  • packages/adapter-utils/: shared adapter utilities
  • packages/plugins/: plugin system packages
  • doc/: operational and product docs

4. Dev Setup (Auto DB)

Use embedded PGlite in dev by leaving DATABASE_URL unset.

pnpm install
pnpm dev

This starts:

  • API: http://localhost:3100
  • UI: http://localhost:3100 (served by API server in dev middleware mode)

Quick checks:

curl http://localhost:3100/api/health
curl http://localhost:3100/api/companies

Reset local dev DB:

rm -rf data/pglite
pnpm dev

5. Core Engineering Rules

  1. Keep changes company-scoped. Every domain entity should be scoped to a company and company boundaries must be enforced in routes/services.

  2. Keep contracts synchronized. If you change schema/API behavior, update all impacted layers:

  • packages/db schema and exports
  • packages/shared types/constants/validators
  • server routes/services
  • ui API clients and pages
  1. Preserve control-plane invariants.
  • Single-assignee task model
  • Atomic issue checkout semantics
  • Approval gates for governed actions
  • Budget hard-stop auto-pause behavior
  • Activity logging for mutating actions

  1. Do not replace strategic docs wholesale unless asked. Prefer additive updates. Keep doc/SPEC.md and doc/SPEC-implementation.md aligned.

  2. Keep repo plan docs dated and centralized. When you are creating a plan file in the repository itself, new plan documents belong in doc/plans/ and should use YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md filenames. This does not replace Paperclip issue planning: if a Paperclip issue asks for a plan, update the issue plan document per the paperclip skill instead of creating a repo markdown file.

  3. Attach inspectable generated artifacts. When your task produces a user-inspectable deliverable file, follow the Paperclip skill's "Generated Artifacts and Work Products" workflow before final disposition. In this repo, prefer the self-contained skill helper at skills/paperclip/scripts/paperclip-upload-artifact.sh so the file is available through the Paperclip API, create/update an artifact work product when the file is the deliverable, link the uploaded artifact in the final issue comment, and then set status. Do not rely on local filesystem paths as the only access path. If an important file intentionally remains workspace-only, create/update a work product with metadata.resourceRef.kind: "workspace_file" and a workspace-relative path, then name that work product and path in the final comment. Treat browse/search as a fallback for recovering workspace files, not the preferred deliverable path. See doc/AGENT-ARTIFACTS.md for details and .mp4/.webm examples.

6. Database Change Workflow

When changing data model:

  1. Edit packages/db/src/schema/*.ts
  2. Ensure new tables are exported from packages/db/src/schema/index.ts
  3. Generate migration:
pnpm db:generate
  1. Validate compile:
pnpm -r typecheck

Notes:

  • packages/db/drizzle.config.ts reads compiled schema from dist/schema/*.js
  • pnpm db:generate compiles packages/db first

7. Verification Before Hand-off

Default local/agent test path:

pnpm test

This is the cheap default and only runs the Vitest suite. Browser suites stay opt-in:

pnpm test:e2e
pnpm test:release-smoke

Run the browser suites only when your change touches them or when you are explicitly verifying CI/release flows.

For normal issue work, run the smallest relevant verification first. Do not default to repo-wide typecheck/build/test on every heartbeat when a narrower check is enough to prove the change.

Run this full check before claiming repo work done in a PR-ready hand-off, or when the change scope is broad enough that targeted checks are not sufficient:

pnpm -r typecheck
pnpm test:run
pnpm build

If anything cannot be run, explicitly report what was not run and why.

8. API and Auth Expectations

  • Base path: /api
  • Board access is treated as full-control operator context
  • Agent access uses bearer API keys (agent_api_keys), hashed at rest
  • Agent keys must not access other companies

When adding endpoints:

  • apply company access checks
  • enforce actor permissions (board vs agent)
  • write activity log entries for mutations
  • return consistent HTTP errors (400/401/403/404/409/422/500)

9. UI Expectations

  • Keep routes and nav aligned with available API surface
  • Use company selection context for company-scoped pages
  • Surface failures clearly; do not silently ignore API errors

10. Pull Request Requirements

When creating a pull request (via gh pr create or any other method), you must read and fill in every section of .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md. Do not craft ad-hoc PR bodies — use the template as the structure for your PR description. Required sections:

  • Thinking Path — trace reasoning from project context to this change (see CONTRIBUTING.md for examples)
  • What Changed — bullet list of concrete changes
  • Verification — how a reviewer can confirm it works
  • Risks — what could go wrong
  • Model Used — the AI model that produced or assisted with the change (provider, exact model ID, context window, capabilities). Write "None — human-authored" if no AI was used.
  • Checklist — all items checked

11. Definition of Done

A change is done when all are true:

  1. Behavior matches doc/SPEC-implementation.md
  2. Typecheck, tests, and build pass
  3. Contracts are synced across db/shared/server/ui
  4. Docs updated when behavior or commands change
  5. PR description follows the PR template with all sections filled in (including Model Used)

11. Fork-Specific: HenkDz/paperclip

This is a fork of paperclipai/paperclip with QoL patches and a built-in Hermes adapter story on branch feat/externalize-hermes-adapter (tree).

Branch Strategy

  • feat/externalize-hermes-adapter now ships hermes_local and hermes_gateway as built-in core adapters.
  • Older fork branches may still document plugin-only Hermes; treat this file as authoritative for the current branch.

Hermes (built-in)

  • hermes_local is available without Adapter manager installation and runs the local Hermes CLI.
  • hermes_gateway is available without Adapter manager installation and calls an already-running Hermes API server.
  • Operators may still install external Hermes packages through Adapter manager to override/shadow the built-ins.
  • Optional: file: entry in ~/.paperclip/adapter-plugins.json remains useful for local development of override packages.

Local Dev

  • Fork runs on port 3101+ (auto-detects if 3100 is taken by upstream instance)
  • npx vite build hangs on NTFS — use node node_modules/vite/bin/vite.js build instead
  • Server startup from NTFS takes 30-60s — don't assume failure immediately
  • Kill ALL paperclip processes before starting: pkill -f "paperclip"; pkill -f "tsx.*index.ts"
  • Vite cache survives rm -rf dist — delete both: rm -rf ui/dist ui/node_modules/.vite

Fork QoL Patches (not in upstream)

These are local modifications in the fork's UI. If re-copying source, these must be re-applied:

  1. stderr_group — amber accordion for MCP init noise in RunTranscriptView.tsx
  2. tool_group — accordion for consecutive non-terminal tools (write, read, search, browser)
  3. Dashboard excerpt — LatestRunCard strips markdown, shows first 3 lines/280 chars

Plugin System

PR #2218 (feat/external-adapter-phase1) adds external adapter support. See root AGENTS.md for full details.

  • Adapters can be loaded as external plugins via ~/.paperclip/adapter-plugins.json
  • The plugin-loader should have ZERO hardcoded adapter imports — pure dynamic loading
  • createServerAdapter() must include ALL optional fields (especially detectModel)
  • Built-in UI adapters can shadow external plugin parsers; external override pause/resume should restore the built-in parser.
  • Reference external adapters: Droid (npm); Hermes can also be tested as an override package.

Design system

DESIGN.md at the repo root is the source of truth for UI design decisions. The token-only rule applies to all ui/ changes: every color, spacing, radius, type, shadow, and motion value in ui/src/components/** and ui/src/pages/** comes from the token layer in ui/src/index.css — no hex, raw px, arbitrary Tailwind bracket values, or raw font-size/fontSize declarations in components, outside the documented allowlist in ui/src/index.css. Run pnpm check:token-gates (scripts/check-token-gates.mjs) before committing UI changes — it fails on any violation not covered by that allowlist.