## Thinking Path > - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for work. > - Native agents keep remote processes and conversation history across warm turns. > - A completed turn can leave handoff authority only in controller memory. > - Losing that controller can block a follow-up even while its sandbox survives. > - This pull request verifies durable ownership and reconnects the exact prior process before handing it to the next run. > - Healthy follow-ups stay warm. Recovery preserves saved work without replaying a completed turn. ## Linked Issues or Issue Description **What happened?** A remote warm turn can finish without suspended backup authority. A replacement controller rejects that prior owner even when its exact process and completed checkpoint remain. A single unavailable identity probe can also stop an otherwise valid reattachment. **Expected behavior** Keep healthy follow-ups warm. Recover a completed session after proving that its controller stopped and that the successor holds current authority. Reuse compatible processes; otherwise save and resume the conversation. Retry unavailable identity reads within one shared deadline. **Steps to reproduce** Use `doc/testing-native-remote-continuity.md`. Its Linux cases execute real turns through PostgreSQL, TLS ingress, and the Rust runner. They kill a separate controller process, recover old checkpoint metadata, and change process configuration. The provider is deterministic. Related: #16432 and #16441 fix live warm-owner handoffs. #16341 adds recovery diagnostics. #14695 covers provider process retention. ## What Changed - Preserve warm process reuse between healthy remote turns. - Verify a committed prior result, stopped controller, matching checkpoint and sandbox, and current task/coordinator ownership before recovering an orphaned warm session. - Reconnect through the prior run route, then use the existing authenticated run attachment to change authority. - Persist a process-configuration digest. Close and save recovered sessions when old or changed configuration cannot support reuse. - Retry unavailable state, marker, and process reads within one 30-second deadline. Keep signals and definitive identity failures single-attempt. - Record closed recovery diagnostics, including unreadable or malformed saved state. - Retire the recovery-only ownership check after verified attachment, so later warm turns use their current authority. - Add real-process Linux regressions and refusal controls. - Expose the existing source-only file-recovery form for retained native holds, with the same board authority, evidence, and exact stop-receipt requirements as legacy holds. Recording recovered files does not change task status or replay a run. ## Verification - `pnpm -r typecheck` passed; the server check was repeated for the third-turn fix. - `pnpm build` passed after the final UI change. The UI typecheck, token gates, and map checks also pass. - Four Linux continuity cases passed: warm reuse, controller loss, legacy checkpoint metadata, and changed configuration. Each creates one conversation and starts exactly three turns, including a healthy follow-up after recovery. The fixture uses expired prior leases; the third turn keeps the runner and provider processes. - Greptile caught the retained recovery gate; the third-turn regression now covers it. An initial test omitted the heartbeat’s saved input and left a test process after failure; the fixture was corrected and its disposable container reset before the passing run. - The current focused executor/restart group passes all 749 tests, including the original failure classifications. - Native file-recovery and UI tests pass (52 tests), including blocked tasks and both native and legacy holds. - After merging current master and retaining its equivalent CI expression check, the CI policy tests pass (15 tests) and all four three-turn Linux continuity cases pass again on `dec418ae55ff21b4fb067132613658cce445f181`. - `pnpm test:run` completed its general server group with 20,572 passes, 103 skips, and three failures: the skill-audit child process and two HTTP test timeouts. The same three suites then passed in isolation (89 tests) without code changes. That local command stopped before later groups; the complete final-head CI, including general, serialized, Runner, build, and browser gates, is green. - Greptile reviewed the combined head `dec418ae55ff21b4fb067132613658cce445f181` at 5/5 with no actionable findings; both earlier findings are resolved. All final-head CI gates and the security scan passed. Staging deployment and retained-incident disposition remain deployment acceptance work. ## Risks - Recovery requires exact durable evidence. Live conflicting controllers, replacement sandboxes, Stop/pause, and uncertain effects must remain blocked. - After controller loss, tool-contract or process-configuration changes can restart the provider. Normal healthy follow-ups retain their processes. - The new idle-recovery path has Linux fake-provider evidence. Live Codex/OpenCode and retained quarantined-state recovery still need staging qualification. - No database schema, telemetry, or runner protocol changes. ## Model Used OpenAI GPT-6 through Codex, with reasoning, repository inspection, code execution, and browser tools. The session does not expose a more specific model version or context-window size. ## 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 (targeted checks and isolated reruns; full-run limitation recorded above) - [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 on `dec418ae55ff21b4fb067132613658cce445f181` - [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.
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.
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,
followed by one H2 backticked ID per product
sub-feature. Each capability 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.
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. Do not register entries or 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.