## Thinking Path > - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for work. > - Agents use installed skills and exact version pins during execution. > - Managed skills still depended on mutable directories on the web server. > - A replacement server could lose acknowledged edits or remove an unassigned skill whose directory was absent. > - This pull request makes immutable versions the authority for managed content and installed repository reads. > - The server can rebuild delivery files from durable content after replacement. > - This establishes skills readiness for ephemeral web servers. General server draining and workspace recovery remain separate work. ## Linked Issues or Issue Description **Subsystem affected** Skills services, shared contracts, database receipts, Skill Studio, and runtime delivery. **Problem or motivation** A fresh web server must discover, read, edit, and deliver protected installed skills using the same database, object storage, secrets, and supported application artifacts. It must not need its predecessor's files or process memory. **Proposed solution** Use `managed` ownership with a null source locator. Read installed content by immutable version. Prepare packages before a short publication transaction. Persist execution selections before materialization. Recover exact pinned runtime assets and reject deletion while active or recovering pins exist. **Alternatives considered** Reconstructing a mutable installed directory preserves the old source-of-truth ambiguity. Permanent dual writes create two competing authorities. This change uses one managed model after a bounded legacy conversion. **Roadmap alignment** This improves the existing Skills Manager, Studio, version history, and Cloud execution capabilities. The maintainer supplied the implementation contract. This does not add a separate skills product or deploy fleet changes. Related work: #18082 supplies immutable package storage. #17273 addresses edits outside the API for linked local skills; this PR keeps that source category separate. #2648 is a closed earlier ephemeral-filesystem proposal. ## What Changed - Add managed ownership and focused content publication and execution materialization modules. Keep the archive format and package storage tables. - Publish managed create, save, delete, fork, rename, restore, and catalog content with version checks. Add durable create receipts. Preserve file-save receipt responses. - Return file version identities. Keep Studio drafts after a conflict and provide an explicit reload action. A delayed reload cannot overwrite newer typing or navigation. - Persist exact runtime selections, including empty selections. Rebuild pinned assets and verify their admitted digests on a replacement server. - Preserve source access on forks and disconnected copies. Keep the existing workspace policy category for managed skills. - Add bounded conversion, eligibility, and independent verification phases. Load persisted Cloud configuration in the standalone CLI without seeding or changing it. Reject partial current versions against installed inventories; recover only complete saved content or the exact source. Document storage migration blockers and the compatible rollback floor. - Add separate-process PostgreSQL/S3 qualification and update domain, retention, policy, and UI regressions. - Pass the plugin worker manager into Studio execution, admit restricted `skill_test` mode through native Runner contracts, and preserve admitted scope across native and REST tools. Native tests cannot create ordinary tasks, browse company data, or use external tools. - Select the exact durable Studio revision even when unassigned or Beta skills is off. Persist Studio output and audit atomically with native task completion, preserving the result on replay. ## Verification - Final revision `13e8af480b88ba6fea5737bac4bd81104d604792` passed full CI: all 49 workflow jobs completed successfully ([run 41127396098](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/41127396098)). This includes typecheck, test suites, Runner checks, browser checks and build. Greptile review 15 is 5/5 on that same revision, with zero unresolved threads. The PR is ready for review. - Local workspace typecheck and build passed after integrating master. Focused checks passed: 33 execution/completion cases, 52 Runner HTTP cases, 16 managed-content cases, 17 Studio cases, the new real-process CLI regression, map checks and UI token gates. The CLI regression proves inspection does not seed missing Cloud configuration. Server typecheck passed after that fix. - The independent-process PostgreSQL/S3 matrix passed through normal HTTP skill routes. It covers A → B → C replacement, lost commit responses, upload crashes, concurrent saves, binary contents and executable delivery. Metadata listing and warm selected delivery retain zero object downloads. Local timing measurements are recorded; they do not establish hosted latency. - Hosted A → B → C passed on the owned disposable test tenant with external Postgres, S3 and a real remote Paperclip Computer. Predecessor temporary homes were absent. C read and executed B's acknowledged managed save. New runs used repository v1 while v2 was installed. Hashes matched an independently checked exact upstream commit. - Compatible image rollback to `6518b323` passed. Studio retained the unassigned fork's C save. A fresh remote run executed the newer managed content and historical repository pin. The actual shell event confirmed expected hashes, stdout, exit 0 and mode 0555. - Runtime candidate `9200e3fcb4` deployed successfully ([Cloud run 41124147876](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip-cloud/actions/runs/41124147876)). The final Studio test delivered only the unassigned fork's exact v3, executed its script and persisted a successful output snapshot. Independent command-event inspection confirmed all three hashes, stdout, exit 0 and mode 0555. All 14 installations were version-backed. Independent verification checked all 25 versions: 23 remote objects, two bundled database snapshots, zero blockers. - The deployed image is `9200e3fcb4`. Later master integration, the client-only delayed-reload draft guard and the CLI bootstrap have separate automated proof. The CLI bootstrap was also exercised against the tenant's stored configuration and storage through the same read-only services. This PR does not claim that the deployed image is the final PR revision. - Live Studio checks exposed worker wiring, admission, access scope, exact selection and completion-publication gaps. They are fixed. Failed attempts remain in the evidence. The full local suite exceeded 80 minutes under host contention and was stopped. Later combined/isolated local attempts also timed out; they are not counted as passes. Full CI covers the integrated suites. Earlier CI found an obsolete restart-scope fixture, which was corrected and passed all 52 HTTP cases. - Reproduction and migration: [`doc/skill-ephemeral-web-servers.md`](doc/skill-ephemeral-web-servers.md). Source revisions, deployments, versions, run IDs, hashes and failure history: [`doc/plans/2026-10-30-ephemeral-web-skills.md`](doc/plans/2026-10-30-ephemeral-web-skills.md). ## Risks - Legacy conversion requires stopped admission and retired filesystem-authoritative writers. Pre-conversion binaries are not supported rollback targets afterward. - Cloud readiness requires remote object storage. Local provider receipts and provider mismatches remain blockers until objects are copied and verified. - Linked local sources retain filesystem semantics and are outside the cloud guarantee. - Cold reads still fetch the existing archive format. Warm runtime preparation retains the verified-cache path. - Bundled reconciliation preserves an installed head. Existing release snapshots remain selectable. An older server must not replace a newer head with its shipped files. - No production volumes, fleet defaults, or general deployment coordination change in this PR. ## Model Used OpenAI Codex, GPT-6 family, with reasoning, repository tools, code execution, and browser use. The exact backend model ID and context-window size are not exposed in this session. No subagents were used. ## Checklist - [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context to this change - [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability details) - [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate planned core work - [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked them above - [x] I have either (a) linked existing issues with `Fixes: #` / `Closes #` / `Refs #` OR (b) described the issue in-PR following the relevant issue template - [x] I have not referenced internal/instance-local Paperclip issues or links (only public GitHub `#NNN` / `github.com/paperclipai/paperclip` URLs) - [x] My branch name describes the change (e.g. `docs/...`, `fix/...`) and contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details - [x] I have run tests locally and they pass - [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable - [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes - [x] I have considered and documented any risks above - [x] All Paperclip CI gates are green - [x] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups - [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before requesting merge --------- Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
Paperclip maps
The maps describe the same capabilities from two perspectives:
- Feature map: what a person can do, where to reach it, and how to verify the user journey. Preserve its Poteto format.
- Agent access map: the APIs and agent entry points for those capabilities, their permission boundaries, and access verification.
The chat scenario catalog adds natural-language requests, starting context and expected conversational outcomes for the same capability IDs. It lives with Product E2E as planning data; a scenario reference is neither a registered execution nor evidence that a journey passed.
These are sibling directories under maps/. Each feature file has a same-named
agent access companion. Reuse the product map's sub-feature IDs, so tasks/create
identifies the same capability in both maps. Product behavior remains governed by
the implementation spec; a map cannot grant
authority or redefine a permission denial as success.
Capability identifiers
The feature ID is the recipe filename without .md, such as onboarding.
The full capability ID joins that feature ID and a Sub-features key with /:
the company key in feature-map/onboarding.md is onboarding/company.
Its agent-access-map/onboarding.md companion uses the same local company key.
The feature-map index lists the existing
feature and full capability IDs.
Each child page states Feature ID: `onboarding`. after its introduction or
product-map link. In feature recipes, show the full ID beside the parsed local
key: - `company`: `onboarding/company` — create a company. In access
companions and Storybook verification guidance, keep the existing local heading
and put Capability ID: `onboarding/company`. beneath it. These labels make
the existing identifiers visible without changing keys, anchors, or ID generation.
Use full capability IDs in cross-feature references, Storybook annotations, tests, issues, PRs, and verification evidence. Both segments use lowercase letters, digits, and hyphens. Keep filenames and keys stable when display titles or navigation labels change; renaming either changes the capability ID.
Entry-point IDs describe a surface, such as web-wizard, and are scoped to their
recipe. Reference them with a recipe link, such as
onboarding.md#web-wizard, and record the
capability exercised separately. Navigation section labels are not capability IDs.
See IDs and references for examples.
Access contract
Every business operation needs both an API and a usable agent entry point for an
actor authorized to perform it. A dedicated tool is optional when REST, the CLI,
an assigned MCP client, or native search_api / call_api already provides the
operation. Record which agent surfaces actually have that path; an installed CLI
or optional MCP package cannot be assumed available to every native/remote run.
Track these independently:
| Dimension | Values and meaning |
|---|---|
| API | present, missing, not-applicable, or unreviewed. Use exact methods/paths; distinguish protocols from REST. |
| Agent access | available, partial, missing, restricted, operator-only, not-applicable, or unreviewed. Name the supported surface and actual entry point. |
| Policy | Actor, action/grant, company/resource/ownership scope, responsible-user intersection, run requirements, work modes, and gates relevant to the operation. |
| Evidence | source-only, verified, failed, blocked, or not-run. Source presence and successful board calls are not agent verification. |
| Review depth | baseline records representative operations and known gaps; operation-reviewed enumerates the capability's meaningful operations and their individual access contracts. |
Broad capabilities such as task properties must be split into operations before they count as operation-reviewed: renaming, metadata edits, assignment, dependencies, and lifecycle changes can use different tools and permission rules. An available read path cannot certify a write path. List/get/create/update/delete, execution/control, credential handling, and resolution are separate where their authority or transport differs. Do not duplicate request schemas from OpenAPI.
Exceptions and restrictions
Presentation-only state, static developer fixtures, and pre-start/local operator
work may use not-applicable for a domain API, with a concrete reason and the
existing local path. When a capability combines shared data with presentation,
split the operations: browser recents do not exempt resource lookup from API
coverage. Promoting local state to a shared feature requires revisiting the entry.
A board-only endpoint is restricted for agent identity, not an automatic
exception or a missing API. Cite the enforced policy and record whether the
agent can request the authorized human's action and observe its result. An
unresolved delegation question remains in Gaps. Company access, a job title,
a personal assistant's OAuth grant, or an accepted interaction does not grant
board identity. Keep budget, approval, secret and execution authority intact.
Check actual route/service authorization and production tool admission. OpenAPI actor labels and scenario/evaluation tool declarations are supporting metadata; record disagreements rather than using them as proof of access. Native API fallback restrictions, tool field/scope limits, and rollout settings are part of the agent path, even when a legacy agent can call the REST endpoint directly.
Companion file format
Each agent-access-map/<area>.md has an H1, a relative link to its product file,
and its feature ID, followed by one H2 backticked local key per product
sub-feature. Each capability starts with its full capability ID and contains
these fields:
- Review:
baselineoroperation-reviewed. - API: presence state and exact operation IDs, or a reasoned exception.
- Agent access: availability state and concrete entry points by surface.
- Policy: relevant permission and runtime boundaries, with source references.
- Evidence: evidence state, reviewed commit and sources or executed proof.
- Verification: allowed/denied assertions and observable result; record what has actually run separately from the proposed recipe.
- Gaps: missing APIs/paths, discovery drift, unreviewed operations or policy
decisions; use
noneonly for the enumerated scope that was reviewed.
For an operation-reviewed capability, use H3 backticked operation IDs and repeat
API, Agent access, Policy, Evidence, Verification and Gaps for each operation.
Use small operation names such as create, update, read, or run-now.
The enclosing capability has Review: operation-reviewed only after its
meaningful operations have been enumerated. The following excerpt shows one
operation; include the others before using that review label:
## `definition`
Review: `operation-reviewed`.
### `create`
API: `present` — POST /api/companies/{companyId}/routines.
Agent access: `available` — agent REST, CLI routine create and native call_api
under the enabled rollout and active-run/mode gates.
Policy: same company; assigneeAgentId must be the calling agent; cite the
routine authorization and native API policy sources.
Evidence: `source-only` — reviewed commit and source links; no live proof.
Verification: `not-run` — create an owned routine; reject assignment to another
agent; inspect saved configuration, attribution and retry behavior.
Gaps: verify ownership and responsible-user resolution with a permitted agent
context; source presence alone does not qualify this operation.
Keeping the maps synchronized
When a change adds/removes a capability or changes its behavior, API, permission, tool binding, CLI support, or work mode, update the affected companion and product recipe as appropriate in the same change. Preserve IDs across renames where the capability is unchanged; update the affected cross-links together. Indexes discover recipes automatically. An API-only change may update the companion without rewriting unchanged user instructions. Update the corresponding chat scenarios when their request, assumptions or expected outcome changes; use multiple cases for meaningfully different starting conditions rather than treating an API path as conversational coverage.
maintain-verification-skill owns reconciliation of both maps. It follows changed source and authorization, checks real agent reachability, and records product gaps without implementing them during a maintenance pass. The creation skill uses this structure. verify-paperclip consumes the relevant recipes and reports evidence/drift; map editing belongs to maintenance.
Run the structural check after map changes:
node scripts/check-maps.mjs
It checks paired areas/IDs, navigation metadata, required fields, and local references. It does not certify endpoint authorization, production bindings, operation completeness, or live behavior. Source audits must check those against the existing API and tool contracts; avoid a second schema catalog or runtime.
For live access proof, use Paperclip's existing API/runner/MCP fixtures or an owned
isolated instance. Use the actual agent identity, target and work mode. Assert the
allowed result and relevant denial (another company/private resource, wrong
owner, missing grant, invalid run, restricted mode or resolver). Mutations also
need persisted state/attribution and retry behavior. Capture evidence using the
existing artifact workflow; keep executed run results
separate from generated maps/generated/coverage.json, which lists page references.
Local authorship and generated indexes
Change only the recipes, access contracts and stories whose behavior or intent
changed. Feature recipes own navigation metadata; stories own small
parameters.paperclip annotations. Keep the feature-map README's readable ID
index aligned with those sources; it does not register entries for generation.
Do not refresh counts in shared READMEs, inventories, fingerprints or review
journals.
node scripts/storybook-catalog.mjs validates and generates aggregate navigation,
Storybook data, verification routes and the page inventory. All outputs live in
ignored maps/generated/, ui/storybook/generated/, and the ignored Storybook
preview.tsx wrapper. Start/build and UI typechecking generate their own inputs.
A clean merged checkout therefore assembles both branches' changes automatically.
Git provides history and diffs. PRs, issues and CI artifacts retain review/run evidence for the named revision. Capability associations do not create whole-file review dependencies. Keep durable scenario limits in the affected recipe or story.