PaperClipAI/docs/adapters/claude-local.md

---
title: Claude Code
summary: Claude Code local adapter setup and configuration
---

The `claude_local` adapter runs Anthropic's Claude Code CLI locally. It supports session persistence, skills injection, and structured output parsing.

## Prerequisites

- Claude Code CLI installed (`claude` command available)
- Either `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` or `CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN` in adapter or
  environment env (or host env), or a Claude Code subscription login
  available to the execution target

## Configuration Fields

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|-------|------|----------|-------------|
| `cwd` | string | Yes | Working directory for the agent process (absolute path; created automatically if missing when permissions allow) |
| `model` | string | No | Claude model to use (e.g. `claude-opus-4-6`) |
| `promptTemplate` | string | No | Prompt used for all runs |
| `env` | object | No | Environment variables (supports secret refs) |
| `timeoutSec` | number | No | Process timeout (0 = no timeout) |
| `graceSec` | number | No | Grace period before force-kill |
| `maxTurnsPerRun` | number | No | Max agentic turns per heartbeat (defaults to `300`) |
| `dangerouslySkipPermissions` | boolean | No | Skip permission prompts (default: `true`); required for headless runs where interactive approval is impossible |

## Prompt Templates

Templates support `{{variable}}` substitution:

| Variable | Value |
|----------|-------|
| `{{agentId}}` | Agent's ID |
| `{{companyId}}` | Company ID |
| `{{runId}}` | Current run ID |
| `{{agent.name}}` | Agent's name |
| `{{company.name}}` | Company name |

## Session Persistence

The adapter persists Claude Code session IDs between heartbeats. On the next wake, it resumes the existing conversation so the agent retains full context.

Session resume is cwd-aware: if the agent's working directory changed since the last run, a fresh session starts instead.

If resume fails with an unknown session error, the adapter automatically retries with a fresh session.

### Poisoned `previous_message_id` (recovery)

Symptom in logs / issue thread:

```
API Error: 400 diagnostics.previous_message_id: must be the `id` from a prior /v1/messages response (starts with `msg_`)
```

What it means: the on-disk Claude Code transcript JSONL for that session contains a malformed (non-`msg_`-prefixed) `previous_message_id`. Anthropic's `/v1/messages` rejects every resume attempt against that transcript with a deterministic 400. Without guards, Paperclip would re-persist the same poisoned session id and the issue is stranded permanently — see [RED-976](../../../) / [RED-978](../../../).

What the adapter does automatically:

1. **Auto-rotate on resume.** If a `--resume` attempt returns this 400, the adapter retries once with a fresh session, deletes the poisoned `<session>.jsonl` from the local Claude config dir (best effort), and uses the fresh session id going forward.
2. **Validate-before-persist.** A result that carries this 400 never gets its `session_id` written back to the task session store, even if Claude Code emits one in the result event. The adapter returns `sessionId: null`, `sessionParams: null`, and `errorCode: "claude_poisoned_previous_message_id"`.
3. **Clear-on-error.** The adapter sets `clearSession: true` on the result, which causes the heartbeat service to drop any persisted session row for that issue (`clearTaskSessions`). The next continuation starts from a clean slate.

On-call checklist if you see this in production:

- Confirm `errorCode` is `claude_poisoned_previous_message_id` in the run row — that means the guards fired correctly and the issue auto-recovers on the next heartbeat.
- If the same issue still loops after one heartbeat, check that `agentTaskSessions` for that `(agentId, taskKey)` was cleared. If not, the adapter return value was lost (e.g. a malformed run finalization) — escalate; do **not** manually edit the row, file a child issue with the run id.
- For remote execution targets (sandbox/SSH), the poisoned JSONL is on the remote and the adapter only logs the cleanup intent. The fresh-session retry still succeeds because it uses a new session id, and the server-side `clearSession: true` is authoritative regardless of remote disk state.

## Skills Injection

The adapter creates a temporary directory with symlinks to Paperclip skills and passes it via `--add-dir`. This makes skills discoverable without polluting the agent's working directory.

## Remote credential ownership

When no API key or `CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN` is configured,
`claude_local` uses a snapshot-owns-auth topology for managed sandbox execution
targets. When the run uses a sandbox execution target and no explicit
`CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` is configured, Paperclip creates a remote
`CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` under the run's Claude runtime directory. It uploads
sanitized host-side settings such as `settings.json` and `CLAUDE.md`, but the
managed seed does not upload host Claude credential files.

After the seed is copied, the remote materialization command checks the
execution target's own `$HOME/.claude` directory. For each missing credential
file, it copies `.credentials.json` or `credentials.json` from that remote home
into the managed `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR`. That means credentials baked into the
sandbox image win for managed remote Claude runs.

Worked example: a sandbox image contains `$HOME/.claude/.credentials.json` from
its own Claude Code login. Paperclip starts a managed remote `claude_local` run,
uploads only the sanitized config seed, and sets `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` to the
remote runtime config path. Because the managed config has no credential file,
the adapter copies the sandbox image's `$HOME/.claude/.credentials.json` into
that path before invoking Claude. The sandbox snapshot owns the credential for
the run.

This differs from [`codex_local`](/adapters/codex-local), where a
Paperclip-managed sandbox run uploads a host-owned `CODEX_HOME/auth.json` and
therefore shadows any Codex login already present inside the sandbox image.

For manual local CLI usage outside heartbeat runs (for example running as `claudecoder` directly), use:

```sh
npx paperclipai agent local-cli claudecoder --company-id <company-id>
```

This installs Paperclip skills in `~/.claude/skills`, creates an agent API key, and prints shell exports to run as that agent.

## Environment Test

Use the "Test Environment" button in the UI to validate the adapter config. It checks:

- Claude CLI is installed and accessible
- Working directory is absolute and available (auto-created if missing and permitted)
- API key/auth mode hints (`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` vs `CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN` vs subscription login)
- A live hello probe (`claude --print - --output-format stream-json --verbose` with prompt `Respond with hello.`) to verify CLI readiness

The probe sees the same layered env as a real run: when an environment is
selected, its environment variables (secret refs included) are resolved and
merged under the adapter config's `env`, so environment-level auth is
reflected in the test result. A secret binding that is missing surfaces as
an `environment_env_binding_missing` failure instead of a silently passing
probe.