PaperClipAI/doc/task-recovery.md

Automatic task recovery

Infrastructure recovery belongs to the system. A task shows one working state, one scheduled retry, or an ordinary Retry action. Approval, credentials, assignment, budget and deliberate pause remain separate user decisions.

Admission and execution

POST /api/issues/:id/retry accepts { idempotencyKey, observedRunId }. It requires authenticated board task-mutation authority. It records an agent_wakeup_requests receipt before physical work. Company/key uniqueness covers completed and failed receipts as well as pending ones. Concurrent clicks attach to accepted work. A new deliberate click after exhaustion can create a new generation; a repeated HTTP request cannot.

The existing exact-run retry endpoint retains its source-bound contract. Connected conversations use their existing inbound authorization owner. A board Retry preserves external principal, conversation access and publication checks. A GitHub Retry selects already-saved, undelivered input before replaying the failed run's older request. The selected receipts transfer to the retry owner under the dispatch transaction. They link to its one successor, including after a restart or a lost dispatch response. Rejected, unadmitted retries release the saved input for another deliberate Retry.

A deliberate GitHub Retry can admit saved input after the same App reconnects. It verifies the App binding in the accepted delivery or its historical working comment receipt, then checks current sender, repository, conversation and task access. The retry records the current runtime generation and credential-reference fingerprint. Another reconnect invalidates that admission. Historical deliveries, stale webhook callbacks and the exact-run retry contract retain their fences.

Task Retry keeps the complete saved-input batch, including batches larger than the exact-run endpoint's limit. Source rows, receipts and invalidations are read in batches. Within one transaction, messages with the same principal and automatic policy context share a current-access check; every message still proves its App, destination, comment link and immutable source. Different automatic policy contexts receive separate access checks. Input in another conversation remains queued.

A connected-conversation Retry can save its exact request while the matching system recovery generation verifies the old executor. Saving that wait grants no execution authority. The chat owner rechecks the same board intent, external principal and source batch when it resumes the deferred receipt. Containment, current access, task eligibility, pause and budget gates must still pass before one successor starts. Restarts reuse the receipt; they do not create another Retry generation or another external publication.

Several retained recovery holds can describe the same failed execution. A historical hold without a system recovery record uses the current exact Retry's workspace strategy for that run. It does not borrow another run's strategy or skip any hold's independent containment and effect checks. Attaching a Retry to active automatic recovery preserves its generation, attempt count and deadline.

Agent Chat additionally requires the current conversation owner and enabled Agent Chat. Admission and dispatch both recheck these conditions under the issue lock. An unadmitted receipt from a former owner cannot own the current owner's Retry.

The normal dispatch queue rechecks task eligibility and claims saved input. An accepted native result goes back to its existing finalizer. Recovery does not create a second agent to reproduce that result.

Files, ownership and effects

The source recovery action holds a validated systemRecovery record. Its revision and generation fence late bookkeeping writes. Physical exports still use the existing workspace ownership lock and controller stop receipts.

The export owner can reopen its exact stopped sandbox through the environment runtime's recovery path. This path checks the current source action, run, environment, allocation, stop-only intent, and physical ownership claim before calling the provider. The retained-source fence still blocks ordinary resume and destruction. Recovery does not clear it to gain access to the saved files.

Execution containment and file preservation are independent facts:

• Another agent needs authoritative containment of the old executor.
• Copyback needs a quiescent writer and a verified destination.
• A fresh attempt uses a new execution workspace and the separate isolated-workspace-attempts namespace. It does not modify the original directory or satisfy that source's preservation/cleanup obligation.

A missing managed sandbox cannot answer another stop request. Core can request a signed absence observation from Cloud under a host-bound server capability. Cloud reads the exact allocation in the historical credential's organization. Only a fresh signature for the exact stack, company, issue, run, lease, allocation and physical recovery owner can settle execution absence. Permission failures, a changed organization, unsigned answers and provider timeouts remain inconclusive. This protocol requires Cloud support before the Core consumer.

An absence receipt does not recover files or complete the task. The original run stays failed and its source remains protected. Existing authorized input may use normal fresh workspace admission only after every executor is contained. Known publications and uncertain external effects retain their normal receipt fences.

Fresh attempts currently require Core-managed storage. Plugin-owned storage does not yet support importing these preserved snapshots. Preparation stops before calling that provider or acquiring an environment. It retains the original workspace rather than reopening it as a fresh attempt.

Valid native baselines use the existing merge. A bound historical source without a merge baseline is exported to configured storage as an immutable, verified snapshot. Upload operations have stable identities and manifests. Recovered snapshots attach separately with provenance; they never become an invented baseline for overwriting newer files.

Known publication receipts and exact API mutation receipts carry forward. Uncertain API mutations and upstream tool mutations remain fenced across run replacement. Reads and independent work remain available. Generic upstream tools have no universal result-query protocol, so their unknown mutations require authoritative reconciliation rather than a new call key. Existing GitHub publication reconciliation stays with its dedicated receipt owner.

Retry policy and historical adoption

Maintenance allows an initial attempt and five retries at 30, 60, 120, 240 and 480 seconds with persisted ±20% jitter. Scheduling stops 30 minutes after the first failure. A longer provider cooldown takes precedence. Restarts, phase changes and rescans do not replenish the budget. Existing stricter execution retry limits remain separate.

The maintenance sweep classifies at most 50 historical records per tick. Indexed source queries and durable policy markers prevent repeat adoption. It includes retained leases, legacy runs without native descriptors, exhausted actions and resolved actions that still owe preservation. Historical failure evidence remains intact.

Saved authorized follow-ups may continue through normal dispatch. A task with no waiting request requires Retry before another agent turn. Completed, cancelled, deliberately paused and superseded tasks do not reopen merely because old files need maintenance.

historicalRecoveryCounts reports classification, preservation, input delivery, waiting-for-Retry and unresolved-source counts for protected diagnostics. Adoption alone is not proof that files were recovered.

Local diagnostics and presentation

Recovery and its durable failure evidence stay inside the stack. Exhausted attempts remain on the system-owned source recovery record with their failure code, evidence fingerprint and retry budget. The existing local server log records preservation failures. Recovery does not add a Cloud incident endpoint, notification worker or outbound reporting channel.

The task interruption projection drives thread, composer and list status. Thinking is optimistic presentation, not a fake run or provider-start record. Unknown admission reconciles the same request key. Backoff and real user gates replace Thinking when work is not active. Saved input is editable; Steer and Interrupt require a live target. Technical diagnostics remain inspectable.

Qualification

Run the focused PostgreSQL/filesystem suites from server/:

../node_modules/.bin/vitest run --config vitest.config.ts \
  src/services/system-recovery-state.test.ts \
  src/services/task-retry.test.ts \
  src/services/workspace-recovery.test.ts \
  src/services/explicit-native-continuation.test.ts \
  src/services/heartbeat/workspace-preparation.test.ts \
  src/services/native-runtime/native-chat-workspace.test.ts

server/scripts/workspace-recovery-provider.test.mjs is an opt-in controlled Daytona probe. It requires PAPERCLIP_RECOVERY_LIVE=1, DAYTONA_API_KEY, PAPERCLIP_DAYTONA_SDK_PATH and an immutable PAPERCLIP_RECOVERY_IMAGE. An immutable provider snapshot UUID in PAPERCLIP_RECOVERY_SNAPSHOT_ID can replace the image digest. The probe checks its ID and active state first. It interrupts export, joins the first controller, starts a second controller and verifies files, preservation receipts, agent-start count and external-operation count before cleanup. It does not claim an abrupt controller kill or a live LLM/GitHub test.

The local browser fixture uses the actual API, PostgreSQL and native runner with a deterministic model process. Verify immediate Thinking with delayed HTTP, one successor, the independent directory, unchanged source files, a useful result and stable completion after reload.

Neither this probe nor a green build proves hosted recovery. Hosted acceptance requires the actual served revision, the original saved input, readable preserved files, and confirmation that completed publications were not repeated.