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DottaandPaperclip
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## Thinking Path > - Paperclip manages AI agents and their work. > - AI Connections separate account access from models and harnesses. > - A pool must act as one connection while retaining each task’s account. > - Core must enforce member access and preserve session and recovery rules. > - A plugin supplies rotation policy without receiving credentials. > - This change adds durable routing and native connector setup and management. ## Linked Issues or Issue Description **Subsystem affected** AI Connections, Connectors, plugins, run dispatch, and session compatibility. **Problem or motivation** Operators need to rotate new tasks across saved accounts while each task keeps its account and session. Pool setup must fit the existing connector catalog and account workflow. **Proposed solution** Add an experimental router binding, a capability-gated plugin hook, and transactional task pins. Plugins declare native pooled connectors through `aiConnectionRouter`. Core hosts the existing-account picker, ordering step, and account settings. Related usage contract: #14936. Companion private plugin: https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip-cloud/pull/643. **Roadmap alignment** This extends Apps and AI Connections. Core supplies generic enforcement and native connector UI; the private plugin owns rotation and quota policy. The prior duplicate search found no matching router implementation. ## What Changed - Add a router binding without changing existing concrete bindings. Keep the instance flag and new pools disabled by default. Require manual operator configuration. Show no routing toggle in Experimental settings on either open-source or Cloud installs, even after routing is enabled. - Persist company-scoped pools, one shared cursor per pool, and pins keyed by company, pool, agent, and task. Commit pins and cursor advances together with revision checks and bounded retries. Persist run-ID affinity before allocation. - Pass only authorized metadata and normalized usage to plugins. Core retains credential handling, member access checks, runtime qualification, and recovery evidence. Probe outside locks with a shared 15-second budget and freshness cache. - Resolve routing before credential preparation and backend selection. Preserve pins through turns, session resets, removed members, and quota waits. Retain admitted recovery after disable or uninstall. - Separate credential session epochs from token generations. Verified refresh preserves the epoch; reconnect and manual replacement change it. Include the credential slot ID in session and usage-cache identity, so reconnecting an indexed legacy account invalidates its old session even when both epochs are zero. - Validate pool member installations before accepting saved-agent bindings and recheck compatibility when the harness changes. Install only authorized members in the new-agent transaction and record their IDs in local activity. Pool membership cannot install a restricted shared connection. - Preserve pool bindings when agents hire teammates through either creation API or native caller runtime inheritance. Block stale manager credential references; retain explicit child authentication precedence and reject incompatible inherited pools. - Add native connector registration through plugin metadata. Reuse the Connectors catalog, setup header, account header, sidebar, dialogs, and usage display. Setup selects and orders saved connections. Advanced settings hold usage rules and member runtime defaults. New-account setup opens in another tab. - Use revision-checked pool archival from the Connectors catalog and account page. Keep task pins, cursors, recovery evidence, and underlying connections. Reject ordinary connection updates or removals that bypass pool revisions. - Add pool selectors, composer models, override notes, quota status, run details, activity records, and local run-log records. Keep session-adoption copy minimal. - Show **Used by** below the pool connections. List current company agents with shared avatars and profile links. Include paused agents; exclude terminated agents and agents using another pool. - Add Core stories for the generic connector workflow and runtime surfaces. Cloud stories reuse these production routes and tokens through a preview-only alias. ## Verification - Final head `73cb953bca30ed83e4505dd820edd9b5edffd28b`: full workspace `pnpm -r typecheck`, `pnpm build`, and `pnpm check:token-gates` pass locally. - All 422 focused connector/settings/shared-contract/migration tests and all 156 database-backed AI connection, hiring, reconnect, and durable-routing cases pass (69 hiring cases rerun after the final auth-precedence fix). The merged shared contract retains connection instructions and pool metadata. The pool migration is generated at sequence 0299 after the latest upstream migrations; this PR makes no lockfile changes. - All four full-app Playwright tests pass on the final head after a cold restart and migration, against the installed private plugin and isolated database, with no route or pool-API mocks. They cover hidden routing controls after manual opt-in, native pool creation, ordering, membership edits, rename, paused defaults, enabling/save/refresh persistence, stale edits, cancellation/removal, preserved underlying accounts, unavailable routers, and Used by avatars and profile links. Exact command: `PAPERCLIP_CONNECTION_POOL_E2E=1 AI_CONNECTIONS_TEST_COMPANY_ID=a37b9625-5ecf-4e29-8081-04df3d6e7d6f AI_CONNECTIONS_TEST_URL=http://127.0.0.1:3108 pnpm exec playwright test --config tests/ai-connections-app/playwright.config.ts connection-pools.spec.ts`. - [Native setup, ordering, and management screenshots](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/pull/14967#issuecomment-6006976278) address the review follow-up. [Earlier selector, quota, and run-detail screenshots](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/pull/14967#issuecomment-5971537316) show the runtime surfaces. Core previews: `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/ui storybook`, then **Connectors / Pool host** or **AI Connections / Connection pools**. Cloud owns its host-backed plugin stories; both repositories’ Operator Setup Required story assertions pass. - Live acceptance used OpenAI/Codex and Anthropic/Claude ACPX, resumed both exact sessions after restart, preserved pinned accounts through explicit reset and controlled quota deferral/recovery, and committed only two allocations across fourteen runs. A later UI-created task test again rotated OpenAI then Anthropic and resumed OpenAI through follow-up/restart/quota recovery. That later Anthropic execution was blocked by its saved OAuth token expiring (provider 401). No live usage probes ran. - The full local `pnpm test:run` was attempted earlier and did not complete because of macOS embedded PostgreSQL bootstrap/shared-memory failures and the 40,000-file Git fixture timeout. The focused database suites above now pass; full-suite verification is provided by the split CI lanes. The preceding CI run had one runtime readiness timeout; it passes locally both alone and inside the larger runtime suite. That larger local suite also encountered an embedded PostgreSQL setup failure and two macOS temporary-path alias assertions; those two assertions pass with canonical TMPDIR=/private/tmp. All final-head CI checks are terminal green, including full general/serialized server suites, Runner checks, browser E2E shards, canary verification, build, and typecheck. Greptile is 5/5 on that exact head with no unresolved threads. ## Risks - The migration adds routing tables and a credential epoch column. Install the private plugin only with the compatible Core contract. - Routing and each pool require opt-in. Production distribution and fleet defaults remain unchanged. - Unknown usage stays eligible. Known pinned exhaustion waits; revoked access requires operator repair. - Legacy adapters require compatible members. Runner model and effort overrides remain limited by qualified backend support. ## Model Used OpenAI GPT-6 through Codex, with reasoning, repository editing, code execution, and browser testing. The exact deployment model ID and context window 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 - [x] My branch name describes the change and contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details - [x] I have run tests locally and they pass (targeted suites; full-suite limitations are reported above) - [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>
Apps, Connections, and Integrations
Audience: internal engineers and product contributors working on integrations.
Start here when adding a provider: Connection authoring runbook. It is the canonical agent tutorial from provider research and protocol classification through manifest generation, branding, secrets, deterministic tests, real-account proof, and PR submission.
Runtime authentication: AI Connections.
Long-term memory: Experimental memory connectors.
Provider notes: Google Workspace, Gmail, Asana, PostHog, Neon, AgentMail, and iMessage Photon. Optional credential custody: Vercel Connect.
Post-read action: classify a new integration request, pick the right Paperclip layer to change, and avoid creating a parallel connection framework.
Decision Record
Board decisions from PAP-13211 make the Apps v2 substrate on the PAP-10341 branch canonical:
- D1: Apps v2 is the substrate. The active model is
tool_applications,tool_connections, catalog entries, profiles, policy rules, action requests, gateway sessions, audit events, and runtime slots. Connections v1 is retired as an implementation path. - D2: one credential authority per connection, brokered projections. The
default is the Paperclip instance vault: durable third-party credentials live
in
company_secretsas secret refs. A reviewed remote MCP method may instead opt in to Vercel Connect, in which case Vercel is the durable credential authority and Paperclip stores only the connector reference and redacted grant metadata. A connection must never mix those two sources. Adapter config, plugin config, harness credential files, and run environments may receive only brokered or projected credentials. - D3: the vocabulary and three-door IA are product law. The default product doors are Apps, Connections, and Review. Protocol and operator-depth concepts live behind Developer or Advanced surfaces.
- D4: unification lands on PAP-10341. Pages, CircleBack-style harness MCP OAuth, provider gallery work, and plugin-provided integrations converge on this branch instead of spawning new integration substrates.
- D5: inbound stays thin. External clients that call Paperclip use scoped Paperclip tokens and existing profiles/rules. They do not get a separate permission model.
Canonical Object Model
Use connection as the unifying noun. A connection is four things:
- A stored credential reference.
- A capability catalog.
- A governance layer.
- An audit trail.
Everything else is an axis on that object:
| Axis | Values | It answers |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | outbound, inbound | Who is the client? |
| Transport | MCP, native REST/OpenAPI, OAuth app install, webhook | How do bytes move? |
| Auth mode | OAuth, API key/PAT, app installation, none | What does the secret represent? |
| Credential owner | company, user, run | Whose identity acts? |
| Packaging | catalog entry, plugin, skill | How does it ship? |
MCP is a transport, not a product category. "Install the Discord app", "connect Google Drive", and "add an MCP endpoint" all produce governed connections with different transport/auth values.
Layer Stack
When you are unsure where a change belongs, place it on the narrowest layer that solves the problem:
| Layer | Owns | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Surface | user-facing Apps, Connections, Review, Developer/Advanced screens | gallery cards, setup wizard, review queue |
| Governance | profiles, bindings, allow/ask-first/block rules, quarantine, audit | read-only profile, ask-first write policy |
| Capability | action catalogs, schemas, risk classes, changed-tool review | search_issues, create_comment, schema hash |
| Credential | company_secrets, OAuth broker, credential resolver, token broker |
Slack bot token ref, Google OAuth refresh token ref |
| Identity | actor attribution and token exchange | board user, agent run, first-party service identity |
| Transport | how the external system is reached | remote HTTP MCP, local stdio, REST/OpenAPI, webhook |
The agent should not hold a durable provider credential. It should hold a Paperclip run/session token; the server or broker resolves the connection, checks governance, invokes the provider, and writes audit.
Identity vs. connections
Signing a user in and connecting a resource are different planes with different owners, different token profiles, and different homes. Do not merge them. This section is the public, connections-side statement of the identity model so connector implementers inherit the rule without depending on private identity-service documentation or re-deriving it.
| Plane | Question | Lives where | Token profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1. Sign-in methods | Who are you? | paperclip-id (id.paperclip.ing → Account) |
Minimal-scope provider tokens (openid email profile), used once to authenticate, encrypted at rest, never exported |
| P2. Connections (Apps) | What may your agents touch? | Paperclip App instances (tool_connections), acquired via the connect broker for hosted + self-hosted |
Rich-scope, long-lived resource tokens in the instance's encrypted vault; per-agent grants; risk-tier policy defaults |
| P3. Login with Paperclip | Who may authenticate against us? | paperclip-id OIDC provider + DB-backed client registry |
Our ES256 ID/access tokens issued by us to registered RPs (instances, the broker, future third parties) |
Everything in doc/connections/ — the First-30 matrix,
the connection authoring runbook, and the connect-broker work —
lives on plane P2. It never acquires, stores, or brokers a P1 sign-in token.
The standing rule (D7)
Adopted as a standing rule (decision D7) with the identity-model plan. State it verbatim in any P2 design so the app-store work cannot drift into merging the planes:
Sign-in tokens are never reused as resource tokens; id.paperclip.ing never stores resource tokens; no connections hub on the ID service.
P2 tokens flow broker → instance vault as pass-through only; the id.paperclip.ing Account page therefore must not grow a "Connections" hub. The reasons to hold the planes apart (from the plan §3):
- Scope discipline. Sign-in wants the narrowest grant; connections want deliberately broad ones. One button that does both is how you grant repo access just to log in.
- Blast radius. id.paperclip.ing holding every customer's Vercel/Slack/GitHub resource tokens would make it the single juiciest target in the fleet; the broker is intentionally pass-through.
- Self-hosted symmetry. Instances own their vaults, so self-hosters don't depend on our uptime to use their own connections.
- Legibility. Sign-in and connections answer different user questions, and every product we benchmarked (Vercel, Railway, GitHub, Google) keeps them on separate pages with separate names.
The explicit Vercel Connect exception does not change D7 or merge P1 and P2.
The operator chooses Vercel as the P2 credential authority for an individual
connection. id.paperclip.ing is not involved, and neither sign-in tokens nor
provider tokens pass through it. The deployment's Vercel access token or
workload OIDC identity is bootstrap authority for that external vault, not a
provider resource credential.
Naming alignment
Use the surface-correct name for each plane; they intentionally differ:
| Surface | Plane | Name to use |
|---|---|---|
| Paperclip App instances | P2 | "Connections" |
| id.paperclip.ing Account | P1 | "Ways to sign in" |
| id.paperclip.ing admin | P3 | "OIDC clients" (until the app store productizes it) |
Packaging Rule
Default to a catalog entry when an integration can be described as metadata: manifest, auth config, action catalog, resource filters, and policy defaults.
Use a plugin only when the integration needs product code such as custom UI pages, its own tables, workers, migrations, routines, or specialized ingestion. A plugin may bundle catalog entries, but it must not bypass the connection, profile, policy, credential, and audit model.
Use a skill for agent instructions. Skills may use connections; they must not own durable tokens.
Canonical Docs
- Glossary defines product and internal terms.
- Identity vs. connections is the public statement of the P1/P2/P3 boundary and the D7 standing rule for connections work.
- Security threat model harvests the keeper from PAP-2359 and maps it onto Apps v2.
- First-30 matrix harvests the keeper from PAP-2432 and is the source matrix for connector playbook work.
- Connecting any remote MCP server is the baseline: how an operator connects a standards-compliant remote MCP endpoint with no Paperclip code change, and how sign-in resolves a client.
- Connection authoring runbook is the one end-to-end, agent-executable guide for adding a vendor as a catalog entry on Apps v2: research, connection-type selection, OAuth/API-key/generated-URL setup, encrypted credential handling, branding, implementation, browser and live-provider testing, verification, and PR submission.
- Vercel Connect operator guide documents the optional external credential source, deployment flags, runtime resolution, recovery, and smoke requirements.
- MCP access governance remains the operator runbook for the current gateway, profile, policy, approval, runtime, and audit APIs.
Migration Notes
Connections v1 contributed useful policy, UX, and rollout thinking, but its
implementation branch is no longer the target. When you see old tickets or code
using connections, connection_grants, or a provider-directory mental model,
translate the intent into Apps v2:
| Connections v1 intent | Apps v2 home |
|---|---|
| Provider directory | Apps gallery / tool_applications |
| Configured provider instance | Connection / tool_connections |
| Grant allowlist | Profiles, profile bindings, policies |
| Resource filters | Policy/profile conditions plus provider config |
| Tool broker | Tool gateway and runtime supervisor |
| Connection UX tail | Apps, Connections, Review, Developer/Advanced IA |
Do not add new work to the retired v1 branch. If an old ticket still describes a valid product gap, retarget it to an active Apps v2 issue or close it as superseded with a link to the replacement.