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PaperClipAI/tests/runner-e2e/SECURITY.md
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DottaandPaperclip 992f720262 fix: make runner task context ownership explicit (#13753)
<!-- Write all pull request text in Simplified Technical English
(ASD-STE100). -->

## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - Task descriptions, comments, continuation data, skills, and
execution rules enter several agent adapters.
> - The same source can be rendered by more than one automatic input
carrier.
> - Failed resumes can also rebuild input from stale or compact context.
> - This pull request gives each Paperclip-owned source one delivery
owner and preserves the required transport boundaries.
> - It adds deterministic adapter, interaction, runner, and browser
tests for these boundaries.
> - The benefit is more predictable context delivery with explicit
evidence for later live qualification.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

Related: #13144 removes a duplicate environment payload and bounds wake
lists. Related: #11360 addresses Hermes resume behavior. This pull
request preserves compatible active-session formats while repairing
context ownership and stale question creation.

**What happened?**

Task descriptions and comments could enter more than one automatic
context block. Native transports could wrap a complete model input in a
second task envelope. Some legacy and gateway adapters could omit the
owned assignment on ordinary tasks or rebuild a failed resume with stale
compact context. A continuation could also request a question after
newer human comments had arrived.

**Expected behavior**

Each task or comment source has one automatic model-facing owner.
Distinct comment IDs and repeated wording remain distinct. Fresh
fallback attempts rebuild the required full context. A question request
is rejected when newer queued human direction makes it stale. Harness
access policy remains owned by execution configuration.

**Steps to reproduce**

1. Build a task with a description and current comments.
2. Capture the actual adapter or runner input.
3. Compare source ownership and task-envelope nesting.
4. Queue a human comment before a continuation requests a question.
5. Trigger a failed resume and inspect the fresh retry input.
6. Run the focused adapter, interaction, runner, and browser checks.

## What Changed

- Add shared prompt-section selection at the provider-attempt boundary.
- Deliver owned assignment context through native, legacy CLI, ACP,
gateway, cloud, Pi, Kimi, Grok, Gemini, OpenCode, Cursor, OpenClaw, and
Hermes paths.
- Rebuild full or compact context after resume recovery changes the
attempt. Add native and Claude ACP tests of actual recovery requests.
- Preserve custom templates, loaded instruction files, execution
policies, and older active-session formats.
- Record continuation source metadata and reject stale question creation
under the issue-row lock.
- Add explicit Product E2E context-integrity profiles, prerequisite
gates, credential-isolation checks, and report fixtures.
- Bypass service-worker forwarding for same-origin Vite development
modules. A real Chromium test fails with resource exhaustion before the
repair and passes after it. Production asset caching keeps its existing
policy.
- Add browser diagnostics and service-worker module-loading regressions.
- Add an explicit zero-retry eval option. The default retry behavior
remains unchanged. Each campaign records its effective policy.
- Remove the model-facing working-directory sentence from four prompt
builders. Existing workspace, sandbox, permission, and custom-template
configuration remains unchanged.
- Align the everyday workflow assertion with the current 47-entry
catalog.

Compared with current upstream master, the branch carries the
context-ownership implementation and its tests, the explicit
context-integrity catalog and evidence harness, and the focused browser
regression checks.

## Verification

**Merge assessment:** focused regression evidence supports merge. This
is not full completion of the original broad qualification matrix. The
maintainer has authorized merge after fresh verification of the master
integration.

- Current head: `bbd52f82114eabf09bc7b1a7e97d54a5b43bbc00`. This
integrates current master `2f585ef26a1814fa209715242d1ca791b63e4c4e`.
All 14 conflicts are resolved. Cancellation checks, workspace
finalization, native Grok support, and both sets of tests are retained.
- Current-head Greptile: **5/5**, with no blocking findings. The review
names this exact commit. All **59 reported checks are terminal: 55
successful, 4 skipped, zero pending or failing**. This includes the full
root general and serialized suites, separate runner checks, typecheck,
build, canary, browser E2E, Docker, and security checks. The successful
legacy security status is included in that total.
- After integration: workspace typecheck and full build passed. Separate
runner checks passed: **2,160 TypeScript tests (10 skipped), 582 Rust
tests, and 39 preparation checks**. Other passing checks include 621
Product E2E harness units, 376 focused shared/adapter tests, 160
real-database/API tests, 86 Hermes tests, 18 browser-support checks, and
Product E2E typechecking. The complete root suite passed in CI. The
duplicate local monolithic root run was stopped after that CI result; it
is not counted as a completed local pass.
- New native recovery coverage retains full assignment, completion
contract, and explicit skill selection after safe replacement, for old
and prepared input formats. Full native session test file: **136/136
passed**.
- New Claude ACP coverage captures actual fresh, resumed, and
missing-session fallback requests. It verifies one assignment copy,
comment order, identical text under distinct comment IDs, and full
fallback context. Full file: **33/33 passed**. Both affected TypeScript
checks passed.
- Existing deterministic tests cover source revisions, approval and
trust boundaries, completion validation, custom templates, compatible
sessions, standalone driver wrapping, and maintained adapter transport
requests.
- Provider-free browser support: **17/17 passed** after the master
merge. Service-worker unit tests: **33/33 passed**. The module-overload
regression failed before the repair and passed after it in real
Chromium.

### Fresh live comparisons

The new batch ran exactly four Product E2E attempts. **All four passed
on the first attempt; no retries.** Each has six terminal matchers plus
the existing browser lifecycle and invariant checks.

| Exact case ID | Control | Candidate |
|---|---|---|
| `core-compatibility.runner-codex.local.plan-revise-accept` | Passed |
Passed |
|
`local-session-integrity.runner-acpx-claude.local.structured-question-restart-resume`
| Passed | Passed |

The plan case checks a revised canonical plan and revision-bound
approval before completion. The question case restarts the server before
submitting the answer, then verifies the continuation completes.

Control source is `dfa4e1bda8d50a1a01746603251a9128dbe9d0d6`. Candidate
source is `79fcdb5dece501d28064ea9da306603881b46f0c`. They use identical
frozen definitions and provider versions: Codex `0.156.0` with
`gpt-5.6-sol`; ACPX `0.13.1` / Claude ACP `0.73.0` with
`claude-sonnet-5`. The September 24 head added master browser recovery
and test-only changes. The September 28 head also integrates newer
master changes, including cancellation, workspace finalization, and
native Grok. These are frozen-source live results, not exact-head live
runs.

The candidate received one description copy where the control initially
received three. The submitted initial plan envelopes were 7,969 versus
19,097 characters. Question envelopes were 7,592 versus 18,919. These
are structural measurements, not whole-provider token or dollar savings.

### Earlier evidence and failed attempts

- The preceding fresh batch has four effective passing pairs: OpenCode
comment continuation and assigned skill, native Codex comment
continuation, and native Claude comment continuation. It retains **11
attempts: eight passed and three failed**.
- Original failures remain recorded: missing local PostgreSQL library
links before task creation; host-sleep cleanup after task/page checks
passed; and a Claude **control** session-open rejection before a model
turn. Setup was repaired identically on both worktrees. The permitted
unchanged infrastructure retries passed. The underlying Claude provider
startup error was not retained and remains unknown.
- Older R2 retains **17 passes and one failure** across 18 attempts,
including eight both-pass native/legacy Codex/Claude pairs. Its OpenCode
blank-page failure led to the service-worker repair. R2 is historical
evidence: master changed the native fixed prompt and removed duplicate
wake environment data afterward.
- The September 24 CI run initially failed one unrelated preview
readiness test (`ECONNREFUSED` on its local fixture). Its test and
production code match master. Isolated local verification passed **28
tests, 3 skipped**. One unchanged CI retry passed the full shard: **831
passed, 1 skipped**, including all **31 preview-exposure tests**. The
aggregate CI gate passed afterward. The precise startup cause remains
unknown; a port race is a hypothesis, not a proved cause.

### Limits

The original wider profile/workflow matrix, repeated trials, and remote
Daytona qualification are incomplete. These results support a focused
merge recommendation, not statistical equivalence or universal harness
qualification. Some usage receipts are missing in both variants, so no
token or dollar savings are claimed. The $500 ceiling was preserved
using conservative allowances; failed attempts and unknown charges
remain in the ledger.

Reproduce the focused additions with `pnpm exec vitest run
packages/adapters/claude-local/src/server/acp.test.ts` and `pnpm
--filter @paperclipai/paperclip-runner exec vitest run
src/native-session-runtime.test.ts`. Full checks use `pnpm -r
typecheck`, `pnpm test:run`, `pnpm build`, and the separate runner
checks. Paid evals require the frozen definitions, profiles, and
credentials; do not use `--all` as a substitute for the selected cases.

## Risks

- Context placement changes can affect model behavior. Deterministic
checks cover the selected paths, but live qualification remains
incomplete.
- The stale-question guard can reject a request when queued human
comments arrived during the run. This is intended.
- New stored inputs and model envelopes retain compatibility readers for
older active sessions.
- Custom templates may intentionally repeat content.
- Removing a model-facing working-directory sentence does not change
filesystem, command, sandbox, or permission configuration.
- The worker bypass applies only to same-origin development module
paths. Cache-policy tests preserve private-response handling and
production asset caching. Mounted HTTP fixture changes remain test-only.
- This PR does not claim measured token savings or statistical
equivalence across every harness.

## Model Used

OpenAI Codex, exact model gpt-6-astra, with repository tools and code
execution. Bounded supporting work used gpt-5.6-luna and gpt-6-luna. The
serving context-window size is not exposed in this task.

## 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 described the issue in-PR using the required issue fields
- [x] I have not referenced internal/instance-local Paperclip issues or
links
- [x] My branch name describes the change and contains no internal
ticket id
- [x] I have run the focused local checks and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect these changes
- [x] I have considered and documented risks above
- [x] All current-head Paperclip CI gates are green
- [x] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups
for the current head
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge

---------

Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
2026-09-28 14:49:14 -05:00

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Markdown

# Runner E2E security for a public repository
This suite can spend provider money, expose selected local and workflow API credentials to isolated
test processes, publish a container, retain private visual evidence, and write
public structured evidence. Treat changes to the workflow, harness, fixture
prompts, evidence packager, and publisher as security-sensitive production
changes.
## GitHub authorization
Set `RUNNER_E2E_ALLOWED_ACTOR_IDS` to a non-empty JSON array of numeric GitHub
user IDs. Keep the list equal to the owners of `.github/**` in
`.github/CODEOWNERS`. For example, use `[123456,789012]`. Resolve each ID from
the authenticated CLI and verify the login before adding it:
```bash
gh api users/LOGIN --jq '{login,id}'
```
The paid workflows reject manual dispatches when the workflow definition does
not come from the default branch. A trusted dispatcher may name any branch in
`paperclipai/paperclip` as the code under test. The authorization job resolves
that branch through the GitHub API and passes only its immutable commit SHA to a
credential-free target-lock job. That job checks out the commit, regenerates
`pnpm-lock.yaml` once with lifecycle scripts disabled and lockfile-only mode,
then uploads the file under a run-attempt-scoped artifact ID. Catalog, image,
shared-build, provider-pack, and paid test jobs download that exact artifact by
ID, verify its recorded SHA-256, and restore it before setup or a frozen
dependency install. The lock resolver receives no provider credentials and
must never run repository lifecycle scripts. The shared-build and provider-pack
jobs also receive no provider credentials and disable dependency lifecycle
scripts; they package outputs with SHA-256 sidecars that consumers verify
before extraction. The paid test job installs with lifecycle scripts disabled,
and materializes the exact pinned OpenCode executable from its lockfile-verified
optional package without invoking package lifecycle code. Provider secrets are
scoped only to the final test step rather than dependency setup. Report sanitization and AWS
history publication explicitly use the trusted workflow commit and do not
consume the target lockfile. Never run the workflow definition from the target
branch.
The workflows verify both the original actor and triggering actor for every
scheduled or manual attempt, including human reruns. Every
secret-bearing job repeats this check as its first step so GitHub's partial-job
rerun feature cannot bypass a successful predecessor authorization job. The
legacy manually dispatched E2E workflow uses the same gate. Numeric IDs are
stable across username changes and prevent lookalike-name authorization.
The full-stack and live campaigns have one Sunday UTC schedule each and also
support explicit manual dispatch. Their legacy-named nightly repository
variables remain independent kill switches. Neither paid workflow accepts
pull-request, push, workflow-run, or reusable-workflow triggers.
Protect the default branch, require review for workflow/harness paths, restrict
workflow dispatch permission, and restrict repository variable/environment
administration to the same trusted maintainers. Configure the organization to
allow only approved GitHub Actions. A malicious change merged into the default
branch executes with the same authority as the suite.
Every external action in the paid workflow is pinned to a full commit SHA. Keep
the adjacent major-version comment for update tooling, and resolve and review a
new immutable SHA before upgrading an action. The credential-free security test
rejects mutable tag or branch references.
## Secrets and protected environments
Explicit Grok subscription campaigns may select `GROK_AUTH_JSON` from the same
protected paid environment. Deliver it only to that subscription profile's paid
test step. Prefer a dedicated test-account login and refresh it before a campaign.
The fixture stores only the selected login in its disposable company home, rejects
ambient/redirected homes, and removes the login during teardown. Token fragments
and account identifiers inside its JSON join the evidence redaction set. The
subscription suite remains manual-only and never falls back to `XAI_API_KEY`.
Create `runner-e2e-paid`, restrict deployments to the default branch, and put
only `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`, `XAI_API_KEY`, and
`DAYTONA_API_KEY` in it. `KIMI_MODEL_API_KEY` remains a local-only catalog name
for pending explicit profiles and is intentionally absent from the workflow
environment. Product E2E pending-profile admission remains gated separately.
Do not duplicate these credentials as repository- or
organization-level Actions secrets: environment scoping is the boundary that
prevents branch or pull-request jobs from requesting them. Require approval
from an account in `RUNNER_E2E_ALLOWED_ACTOR_IDS` for this environment and
disable administrator bypass. The authorize, target-lock, catalog, image,
report, history, and Pages jobs receive none of these secrets.
Each full-stack matrix cell receives only its selected profile credential, plus
Daytona only for Daytona cells. Secret-bearing and OIDC jobs use frozen installs
without a shared dependency cache.
On disposable GitHub Linux runners with Ubuntu's unprivileged-user-namespace
restriction, the authorized default-branch workflow provisions an AppArmor profile before provider credentials are exposed. The profile is attached to the exact
lockfile-pinned Codex executable. It grants `userns` so Codex can construct its
filesystem sandbox; it does not disable the kernel restriction or Codex's
workspace policy. Setup fails before invoking a model if the noninteractive
profile load fails. Target-controlled tests only probe the existing sandbox and never invoke sudo or load host policy. This host-only profile disappears with the ephemeral runner.
See [Ubuntu's namespace restriction documentation](https://documentation.ubuntu.com/security/security-features/privilege-restriction/apparmor/).
Local developer machines are never modified by this setup. Legacy Codex fixtures
disable optional shell-environment snapshots to avoid persisting credentials;
other suites retain the persisted-state scanner. The `first-task` suite omits
private home/workspace credential-persistence scanning so its evaluation focuses
on onboarding behavior. Artifact redaction and publication scanning remain in
force for every suite.
The Paperclip server process also receives none; the browser posts each value
once to the encrypted company secret API and agents/environments retain only
secret references.
The context-integrity catalog lists six pending Kimi/Grok cells for discovery:
two cases each across `legacy-kimi-cli`, `legacy-kimi-acp`, and `legacy-grok`.
The launcher and direct Playwright runner reject these profiles before loading
credentials. Pi has no qualified model source and is not cataloged. Admission
remains blocked until identity, authentication, skills, session, and billing
evidence is qualified together.
Create `runner-e2e-history`, also default-branch-only, for the OIDC publishing
job. It contains no long-lived AWS key. Required reviewers may be added when a
human approval on every nightly publication is acceptable; otherwise rely on
the actor gate, environment branch restriction, and protected default branch.
## Runner fleet isolation
When `RUNNER_E2E_AWS_ENABLED=true`, paid matrix cells, reusable runner builds,
and Daytona image builds use the exact RunsOn fleet
selector `runs-on/fleet=paperclip-public-pr-x64/env=public-ci`, matching the AWS
fleet selected by `pr-trusted.yml` only after its stable numeric-ID trust gate.
Any other or missing toggle value falls back to the GitHub-hosted
`ubuntu-latest` runner and its lower concurrency ceiling. The workflow chooses
between those two reviewed literal labels; it never evaluates a configured
runner label.
Daytona image builds depend on successful campaign authorization and keep the
existing GHCR publication and signing permissions. They receive no provider
credentials and do not enter the `runner-e2e-paid` environment.
Keep both runner targets restricted to `paperclipai/paperclip` and workflows
that independently authorize trusted source revisions. Never let a fork or
untrusted pull-request workflow target them. The RunsOn fleet must launch a
fresh ephemeral instance for every job, prohibit persistent runner reuse, and
disable interactive SSH/debug access unless a separate incident procedure
explicitly authorizes it.
Changing the runner does not widen who can authorize secret access. The paid
workflow still has only schedule and manual triggers, requires its trusted
definition to come from the protected default branch, requires allowlisted
stable actor IDs before checkout, and repeats that authorization as the first
matrix step. Provider credentials come only from the protected
`runner-e2e-paid` environment. The fleet selector is an exact workflow literal;
the only repository-controlled routing input is its boolean rollout switch, so
configuration cannot redirect a secret-bearing job to an arbitrary runner.
The optional target branch is code, not workflow authority. A CODEOWNER who
dispatches a target branch explicitly authorizes that branch's selected test
process to receive the cell's scoped provider credential. The workflow resolves
the target only inside the same repository, pins one SHA for the campaign, and
checks it out only after authorization. Target-controlled code cannot replace
the report sanitizer or the AWS history publisher. Fork refs and
target-controlled workflow definitions do not enter this path.
## AWS OIDC and S3
The AWS role trust policy should accept only GitHub's OIDC audience and the
publishing environment subject:
```json
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {
"Federated": "arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:oidc-provider/token.actions.githubusercontent.com"
},
"Action": "sts:AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity",
"Condition": {
"StringEquals": {
"token.actions.githubusercontent.com:aud": "sts.amazonaws.com",
"token.actions.githubusercontent.com:sub": "repo:paperclipai/paperclip:environment:runner-e2e-history"
}
}
}
]
}
```
Grant only List on the bucket prefix and Get/Put on its objects. Do not grant
Delete, ACL, bucket-policy, or wildcard-resource permissions:
```json
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": "s3:ListBucket",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET",
"Condition": {
"StringLike": { "s3:prefix": ["runner-e2e", "runner-e2e/*"] }
}
},
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject"],
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET/runner-e2e/*"
}
]
}
```
Enable S3 versioning, default encryption, and Block Public Access. Disable
object ACLs. CloudFront receives read-only access through Origin Access Control;
the bucket itself stays private. Log S3 data writes and alert on attempts to
write outside the prefix or assume the role with a different subject.
Campaign prefixes are content-digested and immutable. The publisher refuses a
different digest at an existing campaign key. Only the compact history and
latest pointers are mutable, and S3 versioning makes those updates recoverable.
## Public evidence boundary
CloudFront and GitHub Pages are public. Fixture identifiers, timing, token
usage, costs, normalized results, and trusted runner PNG screenshots are
expected public data. Each
public screenshot must carry the explicit `public-runner-fixture` marker in
the normalized result. This includes a `failure.png` capture. Screenshot paths
must be safe PNG basenames and must be tied to the exact normalized execution
ID and attempt. The runner capture helper accepts only the exact issue route
for the live fixture that the harness created. Other issue routes, credential
pages, setup pages, and administration pages fail closed. The
CloudFront-backed S3 history also publishes one
synthetic campaign-summary PNG generated by trusted publisher code solely from
fixed catalog labels and sanitized numeric/status fields. Video, archives,
generated Playwright/blob/HTML report trees, SVG or other active content,
credentials, Paperclip homes, databases, workspaces, master keys,
raw/unredacted logs, unmarked images, and unallowlisted files are not public.
Per-attempt JSON snapshots, result copies, logs, Markdown, and text files stay
in the retained Actions artifact. Credential redaction does not remove hidden
reasoning or provider session identities, so a text extension never admits a
file to the public bundle. Graded results remain in `normalized-results.json`.
The packaged evidence uploaded as a 30-day GitHub Actions artifact has a
different, broader boundary. Text is exact-value and key-shape scanned and
redacted. PNG and WebM are raw-byte scanned; SVG is rejected during packaging
because it is active content. Raster pixels cannot be exhaustively
secret-scanned by bytes, so fixture authors must treat every marked capture as
public and must never extend the allowed task route to credentials, secrets,
private user data, or other non-public content. Adding or changing a marked
capture requires review of the visible page state. Videos remain
access-controlled.
Before permanent publication, the campaign publisher creates a separate S3
stage and retains only result PNGs with the explicit `public-runner-fixture`
marker under `evidence/`. This applies even to malformed JSON and renamed
process logs. Original packaged evidence and grades remain unchanged.
It then launches publisher-only Chromium with networking blocked to render one
`public-images/campaign-summary.png`. That fixed-path PNG is capped at 12 MiB
and its signature is validated. Per-attempt XML is excluded because browsers
can process XML/XSLT;
the only public XML is the root `junit.xml`, which the report aggregator
constructs from fixed markup and XML-escaped fields. Videos, archives,
raw/unallowlisted logs, SVG, undeclared images, generated reports, and symlinks
fail closed or are removed before the immutable manifest is calculated.
GitHub Pages is built from a second stage without the synthetic summary PNG but
with the same trusted-fixture screenshot allowlist. A leak detected by the
existing packager scan fails the cell and withholds the unsafe file.
Rotate the affected credential immediately if a secret-scanning failure or
unexpected public object is observed. Preserve the access-controlled Actions
artifact and S3 object versions for incident analysis; do not weaken scanning
to make a campaign publish.
`agent-chat-qualification.worker-crash-retry` is local-only and explicit-only.
Linux with Python pidfd support is required; unsupported hosts fail before signalling.
The fault target comes from the public run detail, must be native and running,
and must have an exact `--run-id` command argument. PID 1, the harness PID,
noninteger PIDs, remote profiles, and mismatched identities are refused. The
fixture workspace must be within the disposable instance root. The helper pins an owned pidfd, verifies the exact run argument and recorded
process start ticks again after evidence capture, and signals through that handle.
PID reuse cannot redirect the signal. This is one
specific process signal, never a name-based or machine-wide process kill.
The bounded fixture command is released even on failure; normal instance cleanup
still owns all disposable processes and files. No credentials enter the prompt,
fault metadata, or structured grading fixtures.