PaperClipAI/maps/feature-map/instance-operations.md

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Instance operations

An operator can install and run Paperclip, diagnose the instance, configure supported deployment settings, manage its service, and produce a recoverable database backup.

Implementation: CLI entry point, instance settings, backup command.

Agent access: companion.

Sub-features

• install-update: inspect install channel/version and apply supported update or rollback operations.
• server-service: start/stop the intended instance and inspect its service health.
• configuration: configure database, server binding, storage, secrets, and available experimental settings.
• diagnostics: use doctor/health output to distinguish readiness from a listening port.
• backup: create and inspect backups and verify restore only into a separate disposable target.

How to get to it (user POV)

operator-cli

Use paperclipai install, run, service, doctor, configure, channels, or update --help for the intended operation.

settings-backup

Use currently visible instance settings for experiments/access and paperclipai db:backup --help for one-off backup. Some legacy general-settings URLs redirect.

Driving it with Playwright and the Paperclip CLI

Preconditions: follow the baseline. Use a disposable data directory/service identity. Do not update, restart, or restore over an unrelated live instance as a documentation test.

operator-cli

Automated: doctor, update command, and service manager cover command contracts.

Manual: Inspect the selected installation/channel and configuration, start the isolated instance, confirm health and browser access, then stop that instance. For update changes, use the dry-run/check path first and verify installed version and rollback state on an owned disposable installation.

Routine HTTP monitoring may use GET /api/liveness (or HEAD). It returns only process startup status and the public build commit without SQL or authentication. It remains reachable during an idle drain. Use /api/health for explicit database readiness, signed bootstrap, and authorized diagnostics; liveness does not establish database health or claim a workspace.

Automated: static UI idle completion covers real aborted file streams, disconnects before file lookup, nested routers, and unfinished parent/fallback writes. Mounted Express applications retain their conservative hold. It does not qualify provider cleanup or a hosted sleep/wake cycle.

Manual: On an otherwise idle disposable instance, close a static UI download served by the admitted application before it finishes. Repeat with a disconnect before headers arrive. Confirm that neither leaves a permanent request hold. An unfinished application write must still prevent sleep after its client leaves.

settings-backup

Automated: experimental settings and database backup routes cover their UI/API contracts.

Manual: Change a harmless experimental setting, reload, and confirm the affected route honors it. Back up a disposable instance, inspect the reported file and metadata, and restore using the documented procedure into a second isolated target. Verify a known record after restoration.

Cloud staging: On a managed *.staging.paperclip.app instance, verify experiments are visible and editable by an instance admin, and changes survive reload. Production keeps its hidden controls and managed feature values. Staging retains other Cloud restrictions. Settings policy tests, route tests, and health tests exercise simulated Cloud identities and persistence; they do not establish a deployed staging walkthrough.

Gotchas

• Source-checkout update/check commands report manual update guidance; they do not qualify a managed installation. Rollback restores retained CLI payloads, not database migrations. Service status applies to its selected service identity, not automatically to an owned foreground dev server.

• A successful backup write does not prove restoration works.

• Settings visibility and mutability differ for cloud-managed and self-hosted instances.

• Keep the three data paths distinct: first-party Telemetry, operator-configured OpenTelemetry, and local run logs.

Storybook verification

backup

Scope: ui Storybook: Mount shipped InstanceGeneralSettings in CompanySettings with daily/weekly/monthly retention presets, selected values, saving/error/loading and cloud-hidden controls. Backup creation and restore remain separate CLI/operator checks. Production: PATCH /api/instance/settings/general must enforce instance settings authority and managed hidden fields, persist retention and survive reload. Separately inspect a real backup and restore a known record into a second disposable target; a successful write does not prove restoration. Sources: Source: InstanceGeneralSettings.tsx, CompanySettings.tsx, instance-settings.ts, db-backup.ts. Tests: InstanceGeneralSettings.test.tsx, instance-settings-routes.test.ts, instance-settings-managed-overlay.test.ts, instance-database-backups-routes.test.ts

install-update

Scope: cli Storybook: No authored story required for install, channel selection, update or rollback command execution. Production: Use an owned managed installation: check/dry-run, installed version, retained payload rollback and failure. Source-checkout guidance is a separate case; rollback does not undo database migrations. Sources: Source: index.ts, install.ts, update.ts. Tests: install-command.test.ts, update-command.test.ts

diagnostics

Scope: cli Storybook: No authored story required for doctor/health command results. Production: Run doctor against an owned data directory; check readiness and nonzero failures. A listening port alone does not prove readiness; repair requires observing the repaired result. Sources: Source: doctor.ts. Tests: doctor.test.ts