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DottaandClaude Opus 5.5 958f9aa9f3 feat(issues): limit agent-created task trees to parent and child (#19312 )

## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - Agents split work into tasks. A task can have a parent task.
> - Today agents can nest tasks to any depth: parent, child, grandchild,
and deeper.
> - Deep agent-made trees are hard to follow, and an agent that works on
a child task makes grandchildren by default.
> - This pull request limits agent-created trees to two levels: a
top-level task and its children.
> - A request for a grandchild does not fail. The server puts the new
task beside the requester and tells the agent.
> - Board users keep full control. They can still nest to any depth.
Existing deep trees stay valid.
> - The pull request also records which task created each new task, so
the audit trail stays complete when the parent changes.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

No public issue exists. This is the feature description. Related: #16853
(budgets that include descendant work) also reasons about task trees;
this change does not alter its traversal.

**Subsystem affected**

Issues (tasks): create, child create and move in the issue service and
routes. Agent tools, chat suggestions and creation provenance use these
paths.

**Problem or motivation**

Agents create subtasks as deep as they want. An agent that runs on a
child task gets that child as the default parent, so its follow-ups
become grandchildren. The trees become deep and hard to read. The parent
link is also the only record of which task created a follow-up, so that
record is lost when the parent changes.

**Proposed solution**

Limit agent-created trees to a parent and its children. When an agent
asks for a grandchild, put the new task under the requester's parent and
return `parentAdjusted`. Do not reject the request. Keep board users
unrestricted. Record the originating task in a new server-set
`origin_issue_id` column. Keep `origin_run_id` as the originating run.

**Alternatives considered**

Reject grandchild requests with an error. We did not do this, because
agents then fail mid-task. Add a database constraint. We did not do
this, because existing deep trees must stay valid and nesting can return
later.

## What Changed

- Add `MAX_AGENT_TASK_HIERARCHY_DEPTH` (2) and the
`IssueParentAdjustment` type in `packages/shared`.
- Add `resolveNewTaskParent` and `planIssueParentChange` in
`server/src/services/issues.ts`. `create`, `createChild` and `update`
use the agent limit by default (`parentDepthPolicy: "flatten"`).
- The issue create, `/children` and PATCH routes pass `allow_nested` for
board users. For agents, the routes check authorization against the
parent that the server actually writes.
- The requester keeps its behavior when the server moves a task beside
it: `blockParentUntilDone` blocks the requester, and the new task
inherits the requester's workspace and privacy.
- The server never moves a task above a low-trust boundary root that
contains the requester.
- These subsystems keep any depth, because they find their work by
parent: watchdog reviews, monitor recovery, email-channel placement, and
routines that a person configured.
- An agent move of a task that has children skips only the parent change
and returns `reason: "has_children"`.
- Add `issues.origin_issue_id` (nullable, `on delete set null`, indexed)
in migration `0434`. Only the server sets it. The `createdFrom` detail
field, the `createdFromIssueId` filter and task-creation provenance read
it first.
- Chat prompts now let a chat agent create one task, a task with
children, or separate tasks. The conversation is never a parent.
- The runner `create_task` tool accepts an optional `parentTaskId`. A
chat agent can create a top-level task and then put subtasks under it.
The run must be able to read and change the parent. A conversation is
never a parent. The depth limit still applies. Project tools map the
field to `parentId` through the issue route. The protocol manifest,
semantic contracts and eval fixture are regenerated.
- Watchdog runs that have an active watchdog keep their requested parent
on all create paths, because their access is limited to the watched
subtree.
- Fix a bug that the test drive found: the chat (MCP) `create_task`
ignored the requested `status`, so a `backlog` task became `todo` and
started to run. It now uses the same rule as the native tool.
- Update `skills/paperclip`, `doc/SPEC-implementation.md`, and add the
plan `doc/plans/2026-11-05-two-level-task-hierarchy.md`.

## Verification

- `cd server && npx vitest run
src/__tests__/agent-task-hierarchy-depth.test.ts
src/__tests__/agent-task-hierarchy-depth-routes.test.ts`: 19 new tests
for service and route behavior, all pass.
- Related suites (64 files: issues service, thread interactions,
privacy, watchdogs, provenance, runner tool authority, decisions,
routines, project tools): 1208 tests pass. Two tests changed because of
the intended behavior and pass now. Two `email-channels.integration`
tests fail locally because the test cannot find a bundled skill file
from this worktree path. This change does not touch that code.
- `packages/db`: migration safety, snapshot drift and journal tests
pass.
- Typecheck passes for `server`, `packages/shared`, `packages/db`, `cli`
and `ui` (local `ui` errors come only from generated Storybook catalog
files that are absent).
- Local test drive on an isolated instance with real Claude agents: 29
of 29 use cases pass, including an agent on a child task (follow-ups
placed beside it, with the notice) and a chat that creates a top-level
task with three subtasks.
- I did not run the full `pnpm test:run` or `pnpm build` locally. CI
runs them.

## Risks

- Behavior change for agents: some follow-ups that were grandchildren
are now siblings. The parent of the requester is woken when all its
children finish, which now includes these tasks.
- The runner `create_task` input contract adds one optional field, so
the protocol manifest and the pack contract change. The tool output does
not change: it shows the actual `parentId`, and the activity log records
`parentAdjusted`.
- Migration `0434` adds a nullable column, a foreign key and an index.
It does not backfill rows.
- `IssueCreationSource.run` is now nullable.

## Model Used

- Claude Opus 5.5 (`claude-opus-5-5`) in Claude Code, with tool use
(shell, file edits, local test runs).

## 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
- [ ] All Paperclip CI gates are green
- [ ] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups
- [ ] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-11-05 21:22:33 -06:00

31 KiB

Raw Blame History

Capability Capability Contract

This generated contract is a self-contained derivative of the Paperclip skill, its seven references, the Paperclip Evals corpus, and the legacy MCP tool surface. It does not import or contact the Paperclip control plane.

The skill/reference inventory and eval cases are the only normative behavior sources. Paperclip does not use the legacy MCP calls as a production capability surface; all MCP names below are traceability aliases folded into normative eval rows. Their disposition, grants, assertions, and evidence contract are inherited from the target row rather than classified independently.

Baseline Counts

Skill/reference headings: 166
Eval cases: 106 across 16 groups
Total normative rows: 272
Legacy MCP aliases folded into normative rows: 42

Eval group	Cases
hb	5
co	6
st	8
cm	6
se	4
su	4
bl	5
dp	3
ix	9
ap	6
ar	4
er	9
rf	22
mh	4
rs	3
wk	8

Regeneration

pnpm --dir packages/paperclip-runner generate:capability-inventory imports the canonical baselines and rewrites every generated file.
pnpm --dir packages/paperclip-runner check:capability-inventory validates counts, uniqueness, normative dispositions, one-to-one MCP folds, required fields, and generated-file drift without requiring the external eval repository.

Skill / Reference Rows

Legacy MCP Alias Index

This is a compatibility/traceability index, not a tool catalog. “Inherited disposition” is shown only to make the normative target easy to audit.

Legacy MCP name	Folded into normative row	Inherited disposition	Source anchor
paperclipMe	eval:hb-inbox-lite-01	control_plane_owned	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:290
paperclipInboxLite	eval:hb-inbox-lite-01	control_plane_owned	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:296
paperclipListAgents	eval:rf-api-mgr-heartbeat-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:302
paperclipListSkills	eval:rf-cskill-audit-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:308
paperclipGetAgent	eval:rf-api-mgr-heartbeat-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:314
paperclipListIssues	eval:se-q-filters-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:323
paperclipGetIssue	eval:se-get-issue-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:338
paperclipGetHeartbeatContext	eval:hb-context-01	control_plane_owned	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:344
paperclipListComments	eval:se-get-issue-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:353
paperclipGetComment	eval:hb-wake-comment-01	control_plane_owned	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:366
paperclipListIssueApprovals	eval:ap-board-approval-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:373
paperclipListDocuments	eval:dp-base-revision-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:379
paperclipGetDocument	eval:dp-base-revision-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:385
paperclipListDocumentRevisions	eval:dp-base-revision-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:392
paperclipListProjects	eval:rf-wf-project-setup-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:402
paperclipGetProject	eval:rf-wf-project-setup-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:408
paperclipGetIssueWorkspaceRuntime	eval:rf-iws-start-url-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:417
paperclipControlIssueWorkspaceServices	eval:rf-iws-start-url-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:423
paperclipWaitForIssueWorkspaceService	eval:rf-iws-target-restart-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:440
paperclipListGoals	eval:su-parent-goal-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:466
paperclipGetGoal	eval:su-parent-goal-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:472
paperclipListApprovals	eval:ap-approval-wake-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:478
paperclipCreateApproval	eval:ap-board-approval-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:487
paperclipGetApproval	eval:ap-approval-wake-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:496
paperclipGetApprovalIssues	eval:ap-approval-wake-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:502
paperclipListApprovalComments	eval:ap-approval-deny-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:508
paperclipCreateIssue	eval:su-parent-goal-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:514
paperclipUpdateIssue	eval:st-done-comment-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:521
paperclipCheckoutIssue	eval:co-body-contract-01	control_plane_owned	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:528
paperclipReleaseIssue	eval:er-release-01	control_plane_owned	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:540
paperclipAddComment	eval:cm-multiline-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:546
paperclipSuggestTasks	eval:ix-suggest-tasks-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:553
paperclipAskUserQuestions	eval:ix-questions-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:565
paperclipRequestConfirmation	eval:ix-confirmation-plan-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:577
paperclipRequestCheckboxConfirmation	eval:ix-checkbox-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:589
paperclipUpsertIssueDocument	eval:dp-plan-doc-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:601
paperclipRestoreIssueDocumentRevision	eval:dp-base-revision-01	always_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:612
paperclipLinkIssueApproval	eval:ap-board-approval-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:627
paperclipUnlinkIssueApproval	eval:ap-board-approval-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:636
paperclipApprovalDecision	eval:ap-approval-wake-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:646
paperclipAddApprovalComment	eval:ap-approval-deny-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:668
paperclipApiRequest	eval:rf-api-404-report-01	optional_agent_tool	packages/mcp-server/src/tools.ts:677

Capability	Primary disposition	Source anchor
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:paperclip-skill:10	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:10
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:terminology:14	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:14
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:authentication:20	control_plane_owned	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:20
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:conversation-tasks:32	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:32
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:server-verified-external-chat-turns:54	control_plane_owned	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:54
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:the-heartbeat-procedure:94	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:94
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:generated-artifacts-and-work-products:206	always_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:206
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:status-quick-guide:254	control_plane_owned	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:254
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:monitors-and-watchers-say-only-what-you-actually-scheduled:264	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:264
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:delegating-review-tasks:285	always_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:285
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:managing-a-user-s-inbox:296	control_plane_owned	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:296
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:issue-dependencies-blockers:304	control_plane_owned	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:304
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:requesting-board-approval:329	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:329
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:issue-thread-interactions:350	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:350
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:standalone-decisions:380	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:380
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:mcp-tool-approval-gates:484	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:484
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:niche-workflow-pointers:526	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:526
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:cases:536	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:536
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:company-skills-workflow:541	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:541
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:routines:552	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:552
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:task-files-and-workspace-choices:563	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:563
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:issue-workspace-runtime-controls:571	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:571
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:proposing-credentials-safely:578	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:578
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:reading-granted-secrets:585	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:585
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:critical-rules:611	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:611
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:comment-style-required:632	always_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:632
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:update:664	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:664
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:task-documents-and-deliverables:674	always_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:674
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:planning-required-when-planning-requested:688	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:688
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:key-endpoints-hot-routes:719	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:719
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:searching-issues:749	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:749
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:full-reference:759	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:759
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:conversational-confirmation-answers:763	always_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:763
skill:skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:incidental-feedback:780	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/SKILL.md:780
skill:skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:paperclip-api-reference:1	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:1
skill:skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:response-schemas:9	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:9
skill:skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:agent-record-get-api-agents-me-or-get-api-agents-agentid:11	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:11
skill:skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:company-portability:44	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:44
skill:skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:issue-with-ancestors-get-api-issues-issueid:116	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:116
skill:skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:issue-update-response-patch-api-issues-issueid:202	optional_agent_tool	skills/paperclip/references/api-reference.md:202

31 KiB Raw Blame History