About This Page

Paperclip is an open-source, self-hosted platform that lets you run AI agents like employees inside a structured company — with org charts, goals, budgets, governance, and full auditability. GitHub: paperclipai/paperclip · Website: paperclip.ing · Docs: docs.paperclip.ing

What Is Paperclip?

• Paperclip is a human control plane — an operating system for running a company staffed entirely by AI agents.
• It is NOT a chatbot, NOT an agent framework, and NOT a workflow builder.

The Core Mental Model

You (Board of Directors)
  └── CEO Agent (strategy, hiring)
        ├── CTO Agent (technical oversight)
        │     ├── Engineer Agent (coding)
        │     └── QA Agent (testing)
        ├── Marketing Agent (content, social)
        └── Finance Agent (reporting, budgets)

What Paperclip Is NOT

Five Pillars of Paperclip

Core Architecture

System Architecture

graph TD
    Board["👤 Board of Directors (You)"]
    Gov["🏛️ Governance Layer\nApprove hires · Review strategy · Override any decision"]
    CEO["🤖 CEO Agent\nStrategy · Delegation · Oversight"]
    CTO["🤖 CTO Agent"]
    Mkt["🤖 Marketing Agent"]
    Eng["🤖 Engineer Agent"]
    QA["🤖 QA Agent"]
    Tickets["🎫 Ticket System\nEvery task, every trace, every log"]
    Budget["💰 Budget Enforcement\nPer-agent monthly limits"]
    Board --> Gov --> CEO
    CEO --> CTO --> Eng
    CTO --> QA
    CEO --> Mkt
    CEO --> Tickets
    CEO --> Budget

Execution Flow

sequenceDiagram
    participant B as 👤 Board (You)
    participant CEO as 🤖 CEO Agent
    participant Eng as 🤖 Engineer Agent
    participant T as 🎫 Ticket System
    B->>CEO: Define goal + mission
    CEO->>B: Propose strategy + team hires
    B->>CEO: Approve strategy
    CEO->>T: Create tasks from strategy
    T->>Eng: Assign ticket
    Note over Eng: Heartbeat fires → Eng wakes
    Eng->>T: Work on ticket (tool calls logged)
    Eng->>CEO: Report completion / escalate
    CEO->>B: Summary report
    B->>CEO: Adjust, override, or approve next phase

Key Features Deep Dive

Heartbeat System

Heartbeat triggers:
  • Scheduled interval  (e.g., every hour)
  • Ticket assignment   (someone assigns you a task)
  • @-mention           (another agent or human mentions you)
  • Cross-team request  (best-agent routing)

Goal Ancestry (Context Chain)

graph LR
    Mission["🎯 Company Mission\n'Build #1 AI note app to $1M MRR'"]
    Goal["📌 Goal\n'Launch v1 in 3 months'"]
    Project["📁 Project\n'Build auth system'"]
    Task["🎫 Ticket\n'Implement OAuth login'"]
    Mission --> Goal --> Project --> Task

Budget & Cost Control

Cost tracking granularity:
  • Per agent       → which agent is expensive
  • Per task        → which tasks burn tokens
  • Per project     → which projects over budget
  • Per goal        → strategic cost vs value

Enforcement is ATOMIC:
  → Task checkout + budget check = single atomic operation
  → No double-work, no race conditions, no runaway spend

Governance Model

graph TD
    You["👤 You — The Board"]
    G1["Approve Hires\nAgents can't hire without your OK"]
    G2["Review Strategy\nCEO can't execute without your review"]
    G3["Override Anything\nPause · Reassign · Terminate · Adjust budget"]
    G4["Config Revisioning\nBad changes can be rolled back"]
    You --> G1
    You --> G2
    You --> G3
    You --> G4

Ticket & Audit System

Bring Your Own Agent (BYOA)

Supported Agent Types

SKILLS.md — Runtime Context Injection

Agents use SKILLS.md to:
  1. Understand what Paperclip tools are available
  2. Learn project-specific conventions
  3. Find where relevant context lives (codebase, docs, APIs)
  4. Know how to delegate and escalate

Agent Adapter Pattern

graph LR
    Paperclip["🖇️ Paperclip Core\nOrg chart · Budget · Governance"]
    Adapter["🔌 Adapter Layer\nTranslates heartbeat to agent-native format"]
    Agent["🤖 Your Agent\nClaude · GPT · Gemini · Script · Webhook"]
    Paperclip -->|"Heartbeat signal"| Adapter
    Adapter -->|"Agent-native call"| Agent
    Agent -->|"Results + logs"| Adapter
    Adapter -->|"Structured response"| Paperclip

Setup & Deployment

Quick Start — One Command

# From zero to autonomous company in one command
npx paperclip
 
# Interactive setup guides you through:
#  1. Database configuration (embedded Postgres or external)
#  2. Auth setup
#  3. Creating your first company
#  4. Hiring your first agent
 
# No Paperclip account required — fully self-hosted
# MIT licensed — own every line of code

Deployment Options

First Company Setup Flow

graph TD
    Start["npx paperclip"]
    DB["Configure Database"]
    Auth["Setup Auth"]
    Company["Create Company — Name + Mission"]
    CEO["Hire CEO Agent — Choose LLM provider"]
    Strategy["CEO proposes strategy → You review + approve"]
    Team["CEO hires team → You approve each hire"]
    Budget["Set budgets per agent"]
    Go["Hit Go → Monitor dashboard"]
    Start --> DB --> Auth --> Company --> CEO --> Strategy --> Team --> Budget --> Go

Pre-Built Company Templates

Problem → Solution

Technical Internals — Why It’s Special

More Learn

Links & Resources

• Paperclip Official Site
• GitHub — paperclipai/paperclip
• Paperclip Documentation
• Paperclip Blog
• Discord Community
• llms.txt — Paperclip AI context file