Files
PaperClipAI/maps
DottaandPaperclip d9bcf4dfe8 fix(auth): let Cloud stack admins manage experimental settings (#16907)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - People use experimental settings to opt into product features.
> - Cloud stack Admins can manage their company, but cannot save an
experiment.
> - Requiring an Owner role adds unrelated privileges to this workflow.
> - This pull request gives trusted Cloud stack Admins permission to
update experiments.
> - Other instance administration and platform settings keep their
existing checks.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

**What happened?**

A person with the Cloud stack Admin role receives “Instance admin access
required” when they enable an experimental setting, such as Fast
responses.

**Expected behavior**

Cloud stack Admins can save editable experimental settings. This
permission does not grant general instance-admin authority. Members,
Support users, and agents cannot change experiments. Cloud-managed and
operator-hidden settings remain protected.

**Steps to reproduce**

1. Sign into a Cloud staging workspace as a stack Admin.
2. Open Settings → Experimental.
3. Enable Experimental fast responses.
4. Observe the permission error instead of a saved setting.

**Additional context**

Related: #10343 introduced computed Owner elevation. #15748 added Fast
responses and the company Connections settings page. The roadmap and
existing PRs were checked. This is a small authorization fix for the
existing settings path.

## What Changed

- Derive experiment-management authority from the current trusted Cloud
stack Admin role on each request.
- Apply that authority only to the experimental settings PATCH route.
Keep general settings, environment defaults, and task drain restricted
to instance admins.
- Preserve existing hidden-setting checks, managed feature restrictions,
and activity records.
- Add role and role-downgrade regressions, allowed and denied route
cases, staging coverage, and updated OpenAPI and access documentation.

## Verification

- Before the fix, the Admin fast-response request returned 403 and the
new role assertions failed. The first sandboxed HTTP run could not bind
local sockets; the regression run outside that sandbox reached the
expected authorization failures.
- Focused Cloud actor, settings route, managed-overlay, and health
tests: 149 passed.
- `node scripts/check-maps.mjs` and `git diff --check` pass.
- `pnpm -r typecheck` and `pnpm build` pass.
- Greptile reviewed commit `7c33b90066121f03183579d2fae2650755e025e4` at
5/5. Its one style finding is fixed and resolved.
- The full local `pnpm test:run` did not pass. It reported two early
collection failures before workspace build outputs were ready and a
15-second timeout in the unchanged AgentMail recovery test. The run was
stopped after those failures while the full CI suite continued. No full
local-suite pass is claimed.
- The first current-head CI attempt failed the unchanged Runner test
“preserves a real listening process and its marker when a health RPC
times out” with `runner_remote_process_identity_unavailable` /
`process_identity_changed`. The test passes in a local isolated run.
This recovery does not establish the CI failure's cause. [Failed
job](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/39332989655/job/118336142261).
The failed shard passed on its single rerun. The failure cause remains
unconfirmed. All CI checks on commit
`7c33b90066121f03183579d2fae2650755e025e4` are now green. [Final CI
run](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/39332989655).
- No deployed staging behavior is claimed. Manual acceptance after
deployment: as a stack Admin, enable Fast responses, reload, and confirm
Connections appears. Confirm Members and Support users still cannot save
experiments.

## Risks

- This intentionally extends experimental settings write access to Cloud
stack Admins. It does not persist an instance-admin role or expand other
instance controls.
- Production retains its existing managed feature policy. Staging
retains its editable experiment allowlist and protected execution and
owner-elevation settings.
- No database migration or UI change is required.

## Model Used

OpenAI Codex, based on GPT-6, with reasoning, repository tools, code
execution, and browser inspection. The runtime does not expose an exact
model snapshot or context-window size.

## 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>
2026-10-19 21:48:00 -05:00
..

Paperclip maps

The maps describe the same capabilities from two perspectives:

  • Feature map: what a person can do, where to reach it, and how to verify the user journey. Preserve its Poteto format.
  • Agent access map: the APIs and agent entry points for those capabilities, their permission boundaries, and access verification.

These are sibling directories under maps/. Each feature file has a same-named agent access companion. Reuse the product map's sub-feature IDs, so tasks/create identifies the same capability in both maps. Product behavior remains governed by the implementation spec; a map cannot grant authority or redefine a permission denial as success.

Access contract

Every business operation needs both an API and a usable agent entry point for an actor authorized to perform it. A dedicated tool is optional when REST, the CLI, an assigned MCP client, or native search_api / call_api already provides the operation. Record which agent surfaces actually have that path; an installed CLI or optional MCP package cannot be assumed available to every native/remote run.

Track these independently:

Dimension Values and meaning
API present, missing, not-applicable, or unreviewed. Use exact methods/paths; distinguish protocols from REST.
Agent access available, partial, missing, restricted, operator-only, not-applicable, or unreviewed. Name the supported surface and actual entry point.
Policy Actor, action/grant, company/resource/ownership scope, responsible-user intersection, run requirements, work modes, and gates relevant to the operation.
Evidence source-only, verified, failed, blocked, or not-run. Source presence and successful board calls are not agent verification.
Review depth baseline records representative operations and known gaps; operation-reviewed enumerates the capability's meaningful operations and their individual access contracts.

Broad capabilities such as task properties must be split into operations before they count as operation-reviewed: renaming, metadata edits, assignment, dependencies, and lifecycle changes can use different tools and permission rules. An available read path cannot certify a write path. List/get/create/update/delete, execution/control, credential handling, and resolution are separate where their authority or transport differs. Do not duplicate request schemas from OpenAPI.

Exceptions and restrictions

Presentation-only state, static developer fixtures, and pre-start/local operator work may use not-applicable for a domain API, with a concrete reason and the existing local path. When a capability combines shared data with presentation, split the operations: browser recents do not exempt resource lookup from API coverage. Promoting local state to a shared feature requires revisiting the entry.

A board-only endpoint is restricted for agent identity, not an automatic exception or a missing API. Cite the enforced policy and record whether the agent can request the authorized human's action and observe its result. An unresolved delegation question remains in Gaps. Company access, a job title, a personal assistant's OAuth grant, or an accepted interaction does not grant board identity. Keep budget, approval, secret and execution authority intact.

Check actual route/service authorization and production tool admission. OpenAPI actor labels and scenario/evaluation tool declarations are supporting metadata; record disagreements rather than using them as proof of access. Native API fallback restrictions, tool field/scope limits, and rollout settings are part of the agent path, even when a legacy agent can call the REST endpoint directly.

Companion file format

Each agent-access-map/<area>.md has an H1, a relative link to its product file, followed by one H2 backticked ID per product sub-feature. Each capability contains these fields:

  • Review: baseline or operation-reviewed.
  • API: presence state and exact operation IDs, or a reasoned exception.
  • Agent access: availability state and concrete entry points by surface.
  • Policy: relevant permission and runtime boundaries, with source references.
  • Evidence: evidence state, reviewed commit and sources or executed proof.
  • Verification: allowed/denied assertions and observable result; record what has actually run separately from the proposed recipe.
  • Gaps: missing APIs/paths, discovery drift, unreviewed operations or policy decisions; use none only for the enumerated scope that was reviewed.

For an operation-reviewed capability, use H3 backticked operation IDs and repeat API, Agent access, Policy, Evidence, Verification and Gaps for each operation. Use small operation names such as create, update, read, or run-now. The enclosing capability has Review: operation-reviewed only after its meaningful operations have been enumerated. The following excerpt shows one operation; include the others before using that review label:

## `definition`

Review: `operation-reviewed`.

### `create`

API: `present` — POST /api/companies/{companyId}/routines.
Agent access: `available` — agent REST, CLI routine create and native call_api
under the enabled rollout and active-run/mode gates.
Policy: same company; assigneeAgentId must be the calling agent; cite the
routine authorization and native API policy sources.
Evidence: `source-only` — reviewed commit and source links; no live proof.
Verification: `not-run` — create an owned routine; reject assignment to another
agent; inspect saved configuration, attribution and retry behavior.
Gaps: verify ownership and responsible-user resolution with a permitted agent
context; source presence alone does not qualify this operation.

Keeping the maps synchronized

When a change adds/removes a capability or changes its behavior, API, permission, tool binding, CLI support, or work mode, update the affected companion and product recipe as appropriate in the same change. Preserve IDs across renames where the capability is unchanged; update the affected cross-links together. Indexes discover recipes automatically. An API-only change may update the companion without rewriting unchanged user instructions.

maintain-verification-skill owns reconciliation of both maps. It follows changed source and authorization, checks real agent reachability, and records product gaps without implementing them during a maintenance pass. The creation skill uses this structure. verify-paperclip consumes the relevant recipes and reports evidence/drift; map editing belongs to maintenance.

Run the structural check after map changes:

node scripts/check-maps.mjs

It checks paired areas/IDs, navigation metadata, required fields, and local references. It does not certify endpoint authorization, production bindings, operation completeness, or live behavior. Source audits must check those against the existing API and tool contracts; avoid a second schema catalog or runtime.

For live access proof, use Paperclip's existing API/runner/MCP fixtures or an owned isolated instance. Use the actual agent identity, target and work mode. Assert the allowed result and relevant denial (another company/private resource, wrong owner, missing grant, invalid run, restricted mode or resolver). Mutations also need persisted state/attribution and retry behavior. Capture evidence using the existing artifact workflow; keep executed run results separate from generated maps/generated/coverage.json, which lists page references.

Local authorship and generated indexes

Change only the recipes, access contracts and stories whose behavior or intent changed. Feature recipes own navigation metadata; stories own small parameters.paperclip annotations. Do not register entries or refresh counts in shared READMEs, inventories, fingerprints or review journals.

node scripts/storybook-catalog.mjs validates and generates aggregate navigation, Storybook data, verification routes and the page inventory. All outputs live in ignored maps/generated/, ui/storybook/generated/, and the ignored Storybook preview.tsx wrapper. Start/build and UI typechecking generate their own inputs. A clean merged checkout therefore assembles both branches' changes automatically.

Git provides history and diffs. PRs, issues and CI artifacts retain review/run evidence for the named revision. Capability associations do not create whole-file review dependencies. Keep durable scenario limits in the affected recipe or story.