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PaperClipAI/doc/run-log-events.md
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Devin FoleyandPaperclip d6d88b9de2 fix: preserve run outcomes when agent file cleanup is deferred (#14945)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - The heartbeat service records each agent turn and releases its
working files.
> - A turn can save its work and finish before instruction-copy cleanup
runs.
> - A cleanup exception can replace that completed result with an
adapter failure.
> - This also loses result accounting and can prevent environment lease
release.
> - This pull request records a cleanup warning and keeps the original
run outcome.
> - The existing recovery sweep retries cleanup from the durable
working-copy record.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

Related cleanup and lock work: #14866 and #14869. Related, distinct
work: #14695 retains warm-process files; #12021 handles provider-process
SIGTERM after a terminal result.

**What happened?**

An agent saved its plan, posted a comment, and requested approval. The
provider completed its turn. Instruction-copy cleanup then timed out on
a directory lock. Its exception escaped a `finally` block and replaced
the provider result, so the completed turn showed `Run failed`.

**Expected behavior**

Keep the provider outcome, usage, cost, saved work, and pending
approval. Record a cleanup warning and let the existing recovery sweep
retry. A real provider failure must keep its original error. A failed
file save must keep its failed-save receipt.

**Steps to reproduce**

1. Complete a legacy adapter turn that saves work and requests approval.
2. Make instruction-copy release throw a directory-lock timeout.
3. Read the run result. Before this change, the cleanup error replaces
the provider outcome.

The new heartbeat tests reproduce the failure without a live provider or
external service.

**Paperclip version or commit**

The regression reproduces on `c83df091b1a5207375eaf23466bb5c62e4e1518e`.
This branch is rebased onto `cf8ad63c80`.

**Deployment mode**

Server-managed agent execution with persistent instruction working
copies.

## What Changed

- Catch instruction-copy release failures in both heartbeat teardown
paths. Stop repeating a failed cleanup attempt within the same run.
- Write a sanitized `instruction_cleanup` warning. A warning-write
failure also preserves the run result.
- Test successful, failed, and throwing providers; both teardown paths;
warning-write failure; accounting; approval state; and execution-control
release.
- Extend the held-lock test to prove a fresh recovery worker removes the
deferred copy and preserves its failed-save receipt.
- Document deferred cleanup and the run-log event.

## Verification

- Red proof: all five new heartbeat regression cases fail with the
original release calls.
- At head `20bea4f431c916d2f5db1970213aab85f5daa34c`, all 417 tests
passed across heartbeat process recovery, agent directory working
copies, and directory merge locks.
- Full local `pnpm -r typecheck`, `pnpm build`, and `git diff --check`
passed.
- [GitHub
CI](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/37031119795)
passed at this head. All 53 reported checks passed; the two Storybook
checks were correctly skipped. This includes general and serialized
tests, browser shards, runner verification, build, typecheck, and the
canary dry run.
- Greptile reviewed this head with 5/5, no code comments, and no
unresolved review threads. The branch has no merge conflicts.
- The local `pnpm test:run` attempt was stopped after it reported eight
failures in unchanged suites. Four Slack/AgentMail cases selected an
unrelated ancestor skills directory and failed with `ENOENT`; the two
Slack cases passed with a temporary local skill-root link, which was
then removed. Three company-skill cases reproduced macOS `EACCES` errors
when renaming read-only cache directories. One gateway case passed when
rerun alone. No full local-suite pass is claimed; the complete CI test
jobs passed.

## Risks

- Cleanup errors now leave recovery work pending. The durable
working-copy record remains available for the existing retry sweep.
- This change preserves provider failures and failed-save receipts. It
does not claim that unsaved file edits were saved.
- Native instruction reservation errors retain their existing behavior
because they guard process ownership.
- No schema, lockfile, workflow, API, or UI changes.

## Model Used

OpenAI Codex, based on GPT-6, with reasoning, repository tools, and code
execution. The exact backend model ID and context-window size are not
exposed by this session.

## 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>
2026-10-02 14:16:18 -07:00

21 KiB
Raw Blame History

Run-Log Events

Run-log events write to the heartbeat_run_events table (packages/db/src/schema/heartbeat_run_events.ts:6-20). They are not Paperclip Telemetry events, and they are not OpenTelemetry exports. A run-log event needs no operator endpoint.

Native PRP Run-Log Events

The hidden native coordinator writes each validated PRP event to the bound run's existing event stream before it acknowledges the runner. The row keeps the PRP eventType, source instance, source event ID, source sequence, protocol schema version, and a SHA-256 digest of the canonical source envelope. Its payload is { "prpEvent": <canonical PRP event> }.

PostgreSQL JSONB cannot represent NUL (U+0000), which can occur in command output such as Vite virtual-module paths. The run-event payload column uses a lossless storage codec for these events: the JSONB projection renders NUL as the literal \u0000, and the reserved $paperclipRunEventJsonV1 field contains the original serialized JSON as a doubly escaped string. Ordinary payloads retain their existing representation. Drizzle reads restore the exact original payload before replay, hash validation, redaction, or API presentation. SQL queries can still inspect ordinary routing fields in the projection; raw SQL readers of the whole payload must apply decodeRunEventPayload. The column remains JSONB and requires no schema migration.

The writer locks the native heartbeat_runs row and allocates the existing per-run seq cursor. A byte-equivalent retry reuses the first row; a changed retry or source-sequence gap is rejected. Company, issue, agent, run, session, and runner-source bindings must match the persisted native run. Bootstrap tickets, reconnect leases, authentication proofs, encryption keys, and raw credential material are never written to the run log.

These records remain run-log events. They do not create an OpenTelemetry or Paperclip Telemetry export, and legacy adapters do not use this writer.

Semantic Settlement Diagnostics and Retry Logs

Before interrupting a Codex turn, the runner durably records a harness.diagnostic event with code provider_interrupt_requested, the stop reason, provider turn ID, and pending tool call IDs. A harmless identical result replay records semantic_tool_result_duplicate with warning severity, call ID, operation ID, and result digest. It does not fail the task or create a user attention request. A true conflict includes the call and operation IDs and both result digests in its error; full arguments belong to the canonical semantic input record, not the error message.

Incomplete close emits the bounded native_session_settlement_incomplete runner diagnostic. Its evidence includes runner suspension, provider drain, final provider state, pending call/operation/source-event IDs and input digests, and incomplete result-delivery command IDs and statuses. If execution and cleanup both fail, execution retains its original error identity and cleanup is attached as cleanupError.

Instruction writes also commit an agent.instruction_write_attempted activity row and a run-scoped instructionToolAttempts entry before permitting the filesystem effect. They retain the call ID, operation ID, and input digest, not instruction text. A later transaction rollback cannot erase this attempt proof. A missing success or definite pre-write failure receipt means the outcome is unknown, even if the current file contains the requested text. Known validation and stale-base failures are saved under the attempt's failure entry and replay their original status, message, and details without a new write. Unknown outcomes remain blocked until reconciled; a committed receipt with a lost acknowledgement can replay its exact result.

The NDJSON output log appends across repeated begin calls for one run. Each new handle adds an attemptId to its lines. If the local file is absent and a durable S3 mirror exists, begin restores that prefix before appending. A failed restore must not replace the mirror with an empty or partial attempt. Publishing a restored prefix uses an atomic create-if-absent operation, so a concurrent restore cannot overwrite lines another attempt has already appended. Earlier attempts therefore remain available for incident diagnosis. Existing records without attemptId remain readable.

These records use the instance run log and its configured storage. They add no Paperclip Telemetry or OpenTelemetry export.

Omitted Unsafe Workspace Export

workspace_export_omitted is an informational system event in the local run log. Its payload is { "reason": "restore_unsafe_archive" }, with "legacy": true when recovering an unsafe failure from an older controller. It records that native finalization discarded an unsafe export and continued with the accepted result. It contains no archive names, link targets, or raw error details. It does not create a task warning, recovery action, Telemetry event, or OpenTelemetry export.

Native Restart Recovery Run-Log Event

Paperclip writes a native.recovery.transition event for every native restart classification and for graceful restart suspension. This immutable run-log record lets operators reconstruct recovery decisions without exporting data to Paperclip Telemetry or OpenTelemetry.

The payload contains the restart kind, recovery request id when one exists, runner disposition, and the controller generation and provider attempt for a claimed recovery. Live-runner adoption also records the runner PID, process group, and process-start fingerprint. A non-claim disposition records a bounded reason instead. Graceful suspension records the signal and confirms that it did not create a retry run.

The event never includes bootstrap tickets, reconnect leases, authentication proofs, encryption keys, environment variables, provider credentials, command arguments, or an unsanitized stderr stream. Detailed failed-attempt diagnostics remain in the bounded native_run_finalizations.recovery_history ledger.

Native Local Process Stop Evidence

The server writes native.local_process_stopped in the same transaction that clears a local run's process identity, after it verifies that its PID and process group are absent. The payload contains only those process IDs. Remote process IDs are never checked against the control-plane host.

The server writes native.process_start_requested before a backend can spawn, and native.process_identity_recorded when it stores a new native process identity. Either invalidates an earlier local stop receipt, including a crash before the new PID callback. Continuation admission accepts only the latest server-authored event among these three types; provider source events cannot supply stop authority. These records stay in the local run log and do not add Telemetry or OpenTelemetry data.

Verified Local Codex Replacement Evidence

The server writes native.stopped_text_turn_verified in the same transaction that schedules a fresh successor for a stopped local Codex run. It records the runner and provider process identities, retained-state digests, provider thread and turn IDs, and IDs of exactly receipted task-completion calls. The server first checks the complete turn inventory, process-stop receipt, and execution binding. Unknown actions or changed retained state prevent this event and replacement.

The record documents why the old execution can be retired. It does not make the old session resumable, rewrite provider files, or authorize replay on its own. It remains in the local run log and adds no Telemetry or OpenTelemetry export.

Sandbox Startup Run-Log Event

Paperclip writes one run.startup.step event to the run log for each bring-up step. This event is a run-log record, not a first-party telemetry event. The generated telemetry contract does not cover it, so this section is its canonical contract.

The event payload carries only three fields.

Field Type Meaning
step string The bring-up step name, for example stage.sync.
durationMs number The wall time of the step. A skipped step reports 0.
outcome string The step outcome (ok, skipped, or failed).

The event no longer carries the per-step round-trip count or the provider duration fields. It dropped roundTrips, providerExecMs, providerGetMs, createRuntimeMs, and ensureSessionMs. The startup spans in doc/observability.md carry that detail now. The sandbox.exec child spans hold the round-trip and provider durations. The acp.handshake step span holds the create-runtime and ensure-session sub-times.

To read the detailed timing, use the startup spans. The spans need an OTLP endpoint. A run with no endpoint keeps only the three run-log fields above.

Run Phase Timing Run-Log Event

Paperclip writes one run.phase.timing event to the run log for each run-lifecycle phase. This event is a run-log record, not a first-party telemetry event. The generated telemetry contract does not cover it, so this section is its canonical contract. The producer is emitRunPhaseTiming in packages/adapter-utils/src/acpx-engine/startup-timing.ts.

The event payload carries only three fields.

Field Type Meaning
phase string The run-lifecycle phase name from the closed allowlist below.
durationMs number The wall time of the phase. A negative or a non-finite value clamps to 0.
outcome string The phase outcome (ok or failed).

The phase field is one member of a closed, low-cardinality allowlist. The producer drops any event whose phase name is outside this allowlist, so a free-form label never reaches the run log. The allowlist has twelve phase names.

Phase Meaning
place_workspace Place the run workspace.
start_transport Start the agent transport.
create_runtime Create the agent runtime.
ensure_session Ensure the agent session exists.
configure_session Configure the agent session.
prepare_turn Prepare the turn.
turn Run the turn.
end_session End the agent session.
settle_reuse Settle the session for reuse.
stop_transport Stop the agent transport.
sync_back Sync the workspace back.
release_staging_lease Release the staging lease.

The payload never carries a command, an argument, a path, an environment value, or a raw identifier. The event rides the ctx.onEvent run-event bridge and is run-log-only. It needs no OTLP endpoint.

ACP terminal failure diagnostics

The shared ACP adapter engine preserves typed terminal session failures in the run error, the acpx.error transcript record, and heartbeat_runs.result_json.terminalSessionFailure. The structured diagnostic contains the provider category, title, and details. It works when raw provider tracing is disabled. The existing UI and CLI render the diagnostic as an error, not as assistant output or an automatic task response. Issue continuation summaries and session-compaction handoffs retain only the generic failure category; provider diagnostic prose is not copied into prompts.

Both pinned ACPX patches pass complete title and detail strings to the in-memory callback. The engine redacts configured environment values (including resolved secrets with arbitrary variable names), launch environment values outside a closed allowlist of public process settings, known boolean flags, and run identifiers, connection URL passwords, the run API key, and common credential forms before truncation. It removes control characters, retains line breaks for JSON and stack traces, and preserves up to 4,096 title characters and 24,576 detail characters. These bounds also keep the escaped transcript JSON below the server's 64 KiB chunk limit. Longer fields end with an explicit omission count and appear in truncatedFields. The error message includes the same sanitized text. Ordinary run retrieval preserves the bounded structured diagnostic even when multibyte text or other result fields exceed the result byte budget. In that reduced response, title and details have 1 KiB and 8 KiB byte budgets, including truncation markers. retrievalTruncated directs callers to the full adapter-bounded text in the run error or transcript. Other provider metadata and action payloads are not copied.

Recovery still uses the typed failure category and the adapter's existing classifier. Provider warnings do not become failures, and timeouts or lost control channels keep their authoritative failure messages. These diagnostics stay in the instance's run records and configured run-log storage. They add no Paperclip Telemetry or OpenTelemetry export.

The sandbox duplex transport also writes one run-log event as one of its three sinks. See the Sandbox Duplex Transport Instrumentation section in the Observability contract.

Execution recovery

Cancelled runs retain resultJson.cancellation: a closed source label (operator, queued_message, shutdown, provider, transport, control_plane, or unknown), whether the stop was expected, the initiator, reason, and recording time. Recorded stop intent survives adapter completion. The local lifecycle event includes this evidence. Started cancellations without an expected stop are also reported to Sentry; its cancellation diagnostics contain only source, expectedness, and initiator type, never initiator IDs or reason text. Historical ambiguous cancellations stay unknown and do not authorize replay.

Provider tool-definition validation failures use provider_tool_definition_invalid / configuration. Automatic retry and continuation recovery stop until the configuration is repaired. Classification uses raw provider diagnostics in memory before redaction; stored diagnostics remain redacted and bounded.

Provider identity diagnostics remain in the local run log. They record the notification method, expected and received thread/turn identifiers, and the classification (root, verified descendant, stale, unrelated informational, or invalid authoritative). They omit the original provider payload and credentials. Repeated informational notices are bounded.

Ignored unrelated Codex notifications use harness.diagnostic with code codex_unrelated_information. The payload retains only the bounded provider method and expected/received thread and turn identifiers. Account updates, skill changes, and unrelated thread information do not create a provider notice in chat. Chat also omits the matching notice stored by older runners. Real provider warnings and errors remain visible.

Recovery lifecycle events retain the original structured failure code, retry attempt, next retry time, and predecessor/successor identifiers. Durable status delivery uses an idempotency marker; delivery grants no provider authority. Failed publication is retried without repeating provider work. These records are not first-party Telemetry.

If execution-continuation setup finds that a task no longer exists, is closed, or its owner changed, the existing cancellation settlement records continuation_task_ownership_changed. The run and wake request become cancelled before adapter dispatch, with the run-log message stale execution continuation cancelled before dispatch. Immediate recovery is suppressed. Missing source context, authorization failures, and other setup errors retain their failure classification. An untyped error with the same message is also still a failure; cancellation requires the typed ownership guard.

Bounded retry exhaustion writes one lifecycle receipt per run, retry reason, scheduled attempt, and retry limit. Repeated or concurrent recovery checks reuse that receipt, including receipts from earlier builds, without advancing the event sequence or publishing another live event. Attention reads select the latest matching receipt in PostgreSQL and project only the run's issue/task identifiers from its context, so historical duplicate receipts cannot multiply run contexts in server memory. Existing duplicate events do not require deletion or migration.

Workspace restore failures

Legacy adapter results can carry workspaceRestoreFailure with the code restore_permission_denied, restore_lock_timeout, restore_unsafe_archive, or restore_failed. The heartbeat records workspace_restore_failed and keeps the run failed and the workspace-finalization barrier closed. Available output, usage, session metadata, and the previous execution outcome survive settlement. executionBeforeRestore retains the earlier error code, exit code, signal, and timeout flag. The ordinary redacted error field retains an earlier error message.

The chat reports the restore phase separately from a missing final response. A saved-plan link requires a stored document and its run-bound revision or a matching run-bound review record. Older unclassified failures use neutral wording. Diagnostics show only a validated relative member path, never an archive link target or host path.

An unsafe archive or an outbound confinement refusal keeps the existing execution recovery hold, including across conversation resets. It cannot start another model turn until an operator uses the existing recovery action to record executionReconciliation with workspaceRepairEvidence (20–12000 characters). This evidence must describe verified safe staging or repair for the referenced failed run. It does not grant plan approval. Saved comments, document revisions, and confirmation IDs and states stay unchanged. Recovery uses the existing delivery identity and links the successor to the original failed run. Repair does not reset the automatic retry budget. Transient failures retain the existing bounded retry policy. Archive confinement remains required.

Sandbox restore tasks also write a Workspace restore diagnostic line to the run log on failure. phase is workspace or asset, so a failed staged-asset copy-back (such as credentials) can be distinguished from workspace restoration. The line contains only an allowlisted OS/transport errorCode (otherwise unknown), an optional numeric HTTP error status, and an optional bounded process exit code. Up to four nested causes are inspected. Messages, URLs, filesystem paths, asset names, credentials, and response bodies are excluded. Every failed outbound task emits its own diagnostic; nested repository failures are logged once by the enclosing workspace task. The original error and restore safety policy are unchanged. These lines stay in the instance run log and its configured durable storage, and are not new first-party telemetry events.

Codex resume usage snapshot

The native runner retains a bounded local harness.diagnostic event with code codex_resume_usage_snapshot. It identifies thread/tokenUsage/updated as resume_usage_snapshot, retains the reported thread and completed-turn IDs, and records cumulative usage counters. It does not include provider credentials or message content. The event establishes the accounting baseline; it is not a new billable usage receipt or a user-facing provider warning. Other provider identity checks remain in force.

AI subscription contention

A fresh task execution cannot enter this wait. A run that already entered this wait writes an informational lifecycle event to the local run log. Its payload contains only retryScheduled, a boolean that reports whether the scheduler created a retry. The message distinguishes an automatic retry from work that is no longer eligible. This pre-provider wait records ai_connection_busy on the cancelled run and does not consume the provider-failure retry allowance. The event contains no credentials and creates no Telemetry or OpenTelemetry export.

Managed Agent File Save Receipts

The server writes instruction_save after managed file collection or a warm turn checkpoint. The payload includes the save state, instruction entry path, storage warning, and error code/message. Agent-directory receipts identify contract: "agent_files" and the applied candidate hash. Legacy instruction receipts instead identify the saved revision.

A validated warm checkpoint reports saved or unchanged, even though its working directory remains owned by the live session. An unstable checkpoint reports pending_collection until stopped collection produces a final receipt. Successful checkpoints can include checkpointStats: scannedEntries, hashedBytes, copiedFiles, and copiedBytes. These counts describe that capture, not cumulative traffic or an atomic snapshot of background writers. They contain no file contents. The receipt remains in the instance run log; it adds no Paperclip Telemetry or OpenTelemetry export.

If instruction-copy release throws, instruction_cleanup records a warning with payload { "state": "deferred" }. The existing working-copy recovery sweep retries cleanup. This event preserves the run outcome and does not claim a file save; instruction_save remains authoritative for collection. The event contains no raw exception, host path, file contents, or lock-owner metadata. Failure to write the warning must not replace the provider outcome or stop lease release.