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PaperClipAI/tests/runner-e2e/FIXTURES.md
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DottaandPaperclip 0f5fafe16b fix(runner): preserve task replies and warm process continuity (#13738)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip lets people manage AI agents and their work.
> - The Runner connects provider sessions to task state, replies, and
delegated work.
> - Full-stack tests found lost final replies, rejected helper calls
that stopped the parent, and unnecessary process restarts.
> - A completed child could also receive a new assignment wake that the
scheduler then cancelled.
> - This change fixes those boundaries and gives agents clearer teammate
instructions.
> - The tests retain strict completion and process-continuity
requirements.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

**What happened?**

A generated attachment comment could suppress an agent's final reply. A
known Codex helper could stop its parent when it requested a Paperclip
tool. Native Daytona processes restarted between turns because Paperclip
minted an unused GitHub broker token. Reassigning a completed child
queued a run that immediately cancelled. Revision instructions also
allowed agents to do work assigned to a named teammate themselves.

**Expected behavior**

Keep the final reply. Reject helper tool requests without borrowing
parent authority or stopping the parent. Keep an unconfigured sandbox
process alive between turns. Treat assignment-only changes to completed
tasks as metadata changes. Preserve explicit teammate assignments during
revisions.

**Steps to reproduce**

Run the retained Runner E2E cases for file handoff, teammate reuse,
Daytona warm continuity, and Legacy Claude interview/plan acceptance.
The focused regression tests reproduce the reply, helper,
process-lifetime, and assignment-wake defects without provider calls.

**Paperclip version or commit**

The live lifetime and completion campaign used `db3857807`. This PR
replays the changes on master `c65fc9e3c`. See Verification for the
limits of that evidence.

**Deployment mode**

Isolated local instances and native Runner sessions in Daytona
sandboxes.

Related work: #13546 handles a different queued-run issue after an
issue-lock compare-and-set failure. This PR prevents the unnecessary
assignment wake earlier. #13410 covers retained user services; this PR
covers the provider process. No duplicate fix was found.

## What Changed

- Exclude generated deliverable-binding comments from final-reply
deduplication. Preserve the attachment and explicit user-facing replies.
- Reject Paperclip tool and input requests from known Codex helper
threads without terminating the parent. Keep unknown-thread rejection
intact.
- Explain how to hire or reuse a persistent teammate and preserve named
delegation on revisions. Update generated protocol fixtures.
- Use stable, token-free GitHub wrappers for unconfigured native
sandboxes. Preserve credential isolation, configured-account rotation,
and cleanup after partial staging failures.
- Do not queue assignment-only wakes for done or cancelled tasks. Keep
explicit reopening behavior.
- Make warm-continuity fixtures create real review cards. Read the
persisted final response selected by production presentation logic.
Missing selected evidence still fails.

## Verification

- Before rebase: 560 focused route, native-executor, and launcher tests
passed. The new regressions were reproduced before their fixes.
- Live E2E: Legacy Claude interview/plan acceptance passed 3/3
repetitions. Daytona warm continuity passed 2/3 full repetitions. Each
successful run retained one process and provider session for all three
turns.
- The remaining Daytona repetition stopped after a same-URL browser
reload left the page blank. Both completed turns retained the same
process. Its failed verdict remains unchanged; this PR does not claim
the blank-page cause is fixed.
- Reports:
https://pages.paperclip.ing/runner-e2e-lifetime-race-20260920/investigation.html
and
https://pages.paperclip.ing/runner-e2e-behavior-followups-20260919-results/investigation.html
- Post-rebase `pnpm build` and `pnpm -r typecheck` passed. All 414
Runner E2E harness unit tests and its typecheck passed. Codex protocol
tests: 88 passed, 2 ignored.
- Latest-head CI: 55 successful checks and 2 intentional skips.
Greptile: 5/5 with no review threads. The unchanged workspace exposure
tests hit a fixed-port collision on the first CI attempt; their local
suite passed (25 tests, 3 platform skips), and the CI shard passed on
one retry.
- The duplicate local `pnpm test:run` was stopped after the full hosted
general and serialized test shards passed. It did not finish locally and
is not counted as a local full-suite pass.

## Risks

Configured GitHub accounts retain run-scoped credential rotation and can
still restart warm processes. That limitation requires a separate
design. Known provider helpers cannot use Paperclip coordination tools
directly; they must return findings to the parent. The delegation prompt
is an instruction, not an enforced guarantee; Codex Mini hiring/reuse
failures remain open. No schema or workflow changes are included.

## Model Used

OpenAI GPT-6 through Codex, with repository tools, code execution, and
parallel coding agents. The exact deployment suffix and context-window
size are not exposed in 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 issues and shared reports)
- [x] My branch name describes the change and contains no internal
Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details
- [x] I have run focused tests locally and they pass; full hosted test
shards also 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>
2026-09-21 08:56:35 -05:00

8.8 KiB

Runner E2E fixture authoring

The fixture catalog is executable production-contract data. Keep it small, typed, deterministic, and free of raw credentials.

Suites and matrices

A RunnerSuiteFixture declares one durable testing purpose: stable ID, label, description, profiles, environments, cases, expected size, and definition or ranking metadata. Its execution IDs are globally prefixed as <suite>.<profile>.<environment>.<case>. Add a new suite when the testing purpose or desired cross-product differs; do not inflate an existing suite with unrelated dimensions.

The suite definition fingerprint is historical comparison metadata. Any profile, model qualification, environment, task, or ranking-snapshot change must change that fingerprint automatically so the dashboard can annotate the boundary instead of silently joining unlike totals.

Agent profiles

Add RunnerProfileFixture entries in catalog.ts. A profile declares:

  • a stable ID and searchable groups;
  • legacy or native generation;
  • adapter/provider and required credential;
  • a model imported from its adapter constant or qualified runner profile;
  • supported environment IDs;
  • expected runtime metadata; and
  • an agent payload factory.

Do not duplicate model IDs, qualification decisions, CLI versions, or runner artifact rules. Codex profiles import DEFAULT_CODEX_LOCAL_MODEL, OpenCode profiles import QUALIFIED_OPENCODE_MODEL, and ACPX profiles import QUALIFIED_ACPX_PROFILES. Add or qualify models at their owning production source first.

OpenRouter breadth profiles are generated from openrouter-models.json, not written by hand. That reviewed snapshot must contain exactly five unique, available, tool-capable models with rank, canonical ID, display name, supported parameters, source URL, capture time, and verified content hash. Refresh it manually with pnpm test:e2e:runner:models:update; nightly campaigns never change fixture definitions.

Agent adapterConfig.env values must be {type:"secret_ref", secretId, version:"latest"} objects supplied to the factory. A fixture source containing a raw secret-looking value is rejected by catalog validation.

Environments

An EnvironmentFixture declares driver/provider, credential requirements, attempt deadline, lifecycle behavior, expected execution target, and a payload factory validated by the shared environment schema.

The local environment is instance-managed: company creation ensures it exists, and the public API intentionally rejects a second local environment. The setup registry therefore discovers that row through the public environments API. This still provides full isolation because every cell starts a new Paperclip instance and database.

Daytona creates sandbox environments through the public API. The core fixture keeps reuseLease:false and runnerLifecycleMode:"per_turn". The dedicated warm-continuity fixture uses reuseLease:true and runnerLifecycleMode:"warm"; its distinct configurationKey is part of the suite fingerprint even though both fixtures report environmentId:"daytona". Keep short provider cleanup backstops, a Daytona secret reference, and an immutable image digest. Teardown must delete the environment with reusable-lease destruction and must fail the cell if cleanup cannot be confirmed. Keep CPU, memory, and disk explicit: lease metadata and the per-test public-list-price runtime estimate depend on that pinned billable resource shape. Changing it requires updating billing tests and reviewing the versioned Daytona rates in billing.ts.

Usage and billing data

Do not add fixture-authored token or dollar expectations. The live harness reads usage from selected public heartbeat-run records and records coverage per run. Provider-reported dollars remain distinct from runtime estimates. A zero or missing native usage payload is unavailable unless a real token-bearing receipt or provider cost proves otherwise. New execution environments must provide lease/resource metadata for a runtime estimate or explicitly remain unavailable; never infer that missing billing data means free execution.

Future providers (SSH, E2B, Modal, Cloudflare, Kubernetes, Novita, exe.dev) should implement the same setup/probe/cleanup contract before being added to a matrix. Unsupported profile/environment combinations belong in supportedEnvironments, not in ad hoc test conditionals.

Task cases and matchers

A RunnerTaskFixture owns a work mode, a typed flow, expected run count, nonce-based title/prompt/marker factories, per-environment attempt deadlines, deterministic matchers, and expected terminal state. Single-turn prompts should make one bounded request with observable output and no nondeterministic judging. The plan_revision_acceptance flow must also provide revision-request and Plan marker factories. question_resume_completion must define the deterministic browser answer and prove exactly two successful runs with no pending interaction. plan_approval_completion must target the exact two-step canonical Plan revision, capture its pending UI, approve in the browser, and prove exactly two successful runs. warm_three_turn provides exactly two browser follow-up messages, preserves one project/execution-workspace scope, verifies host file contents after every turn, and finishes within three ten-minute turn deadlines. Native turns 1 and 2 include an actionable human review in the completion report's attentionRequests. Paperclip creates the review gate from that report. An explicit question-tool wait yields the turn and suppresses its final prose, so it is not interchangeable with this completion-review fixture. Turn 3 reports Done without another review.

Every selected case runs in its own isolated Paperclip process, and independent cases may run concurrently. Follow-up turns inside one case retain their shared task state. Each case creates and tears down its own company, secrets, environment selection, agent, and browser-created task. The current plan case proves three runs on the same issue: publish a two-step Plan, request a three-step revision through the UI, and accept the exact new revision through the UI before verifying implementation and Done.

The matcher union supports message exact/contains/regex/ordered checks, issue and run state, runtime/environment metadata, files, artifacts, JSON paths, and JSON Schema. The initial cases use normalized message_contains plus state, runtime, and environment assertions; the plan flow additionally verifies canonical document revision IDs, bodies, step counts, interaction targets, and visible previews. Add matcher behavior and credential-free tests together.

Adding a task expands its suite's matrix. Update the suite's intentional size, the complete-catalog size, and credential-free unit tests in the same change. Paid tests never silently skip a missing credential or unsupported artifact.

New Paperclip object fixtures

Register new objects in live-fixtures.ts with explicit dependencies in FixtureRegistry. Setup must use a public API. Teardown runs in reverse order and is invoked after partial setup failures. Direct database writes and private test-only runner endpoints are prohibited.

The expected dependency shape is:

company
└── encrypted secrets
    └── environment
        └── agent
            └── browser-created task

Projects, goals, apps, and configuration fixtures can be inserted into that graph without changing the launcher. Keep returned fixture state to IDs and sanitized metadata; never retain raw secret values.

Required checks

Run before a fixture change is reviewed:

pnpm test:e2e:runner:unit
pnpm test:e2e:runner:typecheck
pnpm test:e2e:runner -- --list

Then run the narrowest paid cell that exercises the fixture. A full matrix is a manual or scheduled campaign, not a PR requirement.

Persistent chat fixtures

chat-cases.ts defines the six-case agent-chat suite; chat-flow.ts drives the production composer, plan revision/approval controls, questions, reset command, and project cards. Keep its 24 local cells intentional. expectedRunCount counts provider turns, including cancelled and handed-off task runs, but excludes synthetic /new runs. Assertions must inspect all company runs because ordinary issue lists exclude the source conversation. assertChatHandoff rejects missing projects/plans, chat children, wrong assignees, and execution before plan commit.

Retained api-state.json, chat-handoff.json, and plan-revision evidence include persisted comments, session generations, run context and logs, project workspaces, task documents, and ordering. They pass through the normal sanitizer. Screenshots are allowlisted to the exact disposable agent chat. Cleanup cancels all active runs in the isolated company, including handed-off work; usage from failed and cancelled runs must not disappear from campaign totals.