PaperClipAI/doc/runner-api-tools.md

Runner API escape hatch

search_api and call_api extend the native runner when an available dedicated operation cannot express the requested work. Existing tools remain preferred; agents do not have to search before using them. Only two tool definitions are advertised. The API catalog is returned on demand, never injected into the initial prompt.

Default availability and operator controls

The escape hatch is enabled by default. No environment variable is required. The native hire_agent tool shares this availability policy. Set PAPERCLIP_RUNNER_API_TOOLS_ENABLED=false on the server to disable these tools. An explicit true also enables them; other explicit values fail closed.

Operators can restrict availability with PAPERCLIP_RUNNER_API_TOOLS_COMPANY_IDS, a comma-separated list of company UUIDs. An unset list allows every company; an explicitly empty list allows none. IDs must match exactly. This restriction also applies when the enabled flag is unset.

A server-owned binding can disable these tools for a baseline eval but cannot override an operator restriction. The server checks the policy when advertising tools, when accepting a call, and immediately before HTTP dispatch after preparing any files. Existing dedicated tools remain available. Operators must update the environment of each server process and restart it for deployment-level changes; this environment switch is not a live settings API.

All company, run, work-mode, credential, and lifecycle checks below still apply.

Discovery and requests

{"query":"create project","limit":5}

Search is deterministic lexical ranking over OpenAPI paths, summaries and the old skill reference. It supports task/issue and other terminology, exact METHOD /api/path/{parameter} lookup, and opaque query/catalog-bound pagination. Results include resolved request schemas, response descriptions, authorization metadata, work modes, examples where available, and relevant dedicated tools with their supported parameters. limit defaults to five and is capped at ten.

{"operationId":"PATCH /api/projects/{id}","pathParams":{"id":"PROJECT_UUID"},"body":{"description":"Updated project description"}}

The catalog determines method and path. companyId is filled from the active binding. Scalars and arrays are accepted in query. body defaults to JSON; contentType supports text and raw uploads. files accepts entries containing exactly one authorized artifactId or task-workspace path, and an optional multipart field. No arbitrary URL, headers, authentication, or remote file URL can be supplied. Routes still validate payloads and enforce permissions.

Requests have a 30-second HTTP timeout, 16 KiB URL limit and 10 MiB payload/response transfer limit. Responses above 24 KiB and binary responses become company-owned assets with retrievable references; text previews are limited to 2,000 bytes. Tool responses identify the HTTP route with apiOperationId. The native protocol reserves operationId and callId for semantic tool-call identity; API metadata must not masquerade as that envelope. Saved mutation receipts are normalized at the tool boundary as well, without repeating their HTTP request. All redirects are refused. Oversized or interrupted mutation responses have an unknown outcome, requiring inspection before another mutation. Mutation responses with HTTP 5xx, HTTP 408, redirects, or malformed JSON also retain an unknown outcome. A server may have committed the write before it failed to return a valid response.

Authority and replay

The server revalidates the active native run, assigned task and actor, then creates a server-held agent JWT bound to that company and run. Requests go through the actual HTTP router with its authorization, validation and domain audit behavior. An additional runner.api_called receipt attributes mutations to the run even where older route audit events omit that field. The run and work mode are checked again after asynchronous file preparation, so a stopped run cannot dispatch an upload prepared under its earlier binding.

Ask and pre-acceptance Plan permit reads through the escape hatch. Existing dedicated-tool exceptions are unchanged. Runner-owned checkout, completion, status/assignment transitions, approval decisions and execution-control actions cannot be bypassed through generic calls. Routine creation, schedule/trigger changes and manual/public routine execution require the existing scheduling clients. Direct workspace runtime commands, runtime-slot stop/restart, case automation retries and skill test-run controls also require their existing execution clients. Gateway session credentials cannot enter generic results. Routine metadata remains readable; annotation threads, comments and thread resolution remain available through the fallback. API-only ordinary fields, such as a task's billingCode, remain accessible even when a dedicated tool covers other fields on that endpoint.

Mutation call IDs reserve a durable receipt in the run's existing resultJson before dispatch. Replays return the recorded result. Reusing an ID with different arguments is rejected. A crash after reservation leaves an unknown outcome and never automatically resends the mutation. The limit is 512 mutation receipts per run. No database migration is needed.

Workspace uploads use the existing workspace resource containment checks, no-symlink file opens covering every path component, and bounded descriptor reads. Local uploads require Linux or macOS; authorized artifacts work on other hosts. Lifecycle-sensitive endpoints require an inline JSON object, so a raw uploaded JSON file cannot hide protected fields from policy checks. Artifacts must belong to the bound company. Secret-value access, credential management, secret proposals and company exports require their existing secure clients. Search describes these operations as restricted. call_api rejects them before creating a replay receipt or making an HTTP request. Safe secret metadata listing remains available. Agent credentials are never returned to the model. Streaming, WebSocket, MCP and authentication handshakes are documented as protocol operations requiring their existing clients.

Catalog maintenance

runner-api-catalog.ts builds from the server OpenAPI registry. Experimental pipeline, Cases and smoke-lab routes now share their validators with discovery. Seven Cases/pipeline route shapes are multiplexed by resource identity: the Cases router intentionally forwards unknown resources to the pipeline router. Their separate catalog entries explain which resource identifier is required. Registry authorization descriptions are documentation; actual route checks are authoritative.

Regenerate old-skill enrichment after editing its API reference:

node scripts/generate-runner-api-reference.mjs
node scripts/generate-runner-api-reference.mjs --check
node scripts/generate-runner-experimental-api-metadata.mjs
node scripts/generate-runner-experimental-api-metadata.mjs --check

Mounted-route coverage tests include experimental routes. Three WebSocket mounts are explicitly classified in the catalog. Shared protocol-action catalogs, provider projections and generated compatibility checks include both tools.

Verification and paid evals

The companion paperclip-evals worktree contains evals/runner-api-tools. Its README documents explicit case/model selectors, the cumulative budget ledger, fixture reset, progressive batches, and Evalbook generation. No command defaults to running the entire paid suite. Capability, forced operation contracts and paired common-operation regressions are reported separately.

Provider-free integration tests exercise real runnerd → PRP → authority → HTTP, route validation and audit, stale bindings, Ask/Plan restrictions, identity spoofing, file containment, uncertain mutation receipts and fixture isolation.

The Evalbook viewer uses the existing shared viewer and stylesheet on master. The report retains actual persisted-state summaries for private local inspection; public replay continues to withhold company-state details.

The ACPX sidecar includes the upstream terminal-usage accounting correction from origin/codex/evalbook-default-chat-sept6. Its qualified Claude executable requires Linux x64. The first macOS stage records a zero-cost ACPX admission failure. A later user-authorized OpenCode/OpenRouter Sonnet profile reached a real HTTP read, but the attempt failed on a missing harness completion contract and incomplete terminal accounting. The harness contract is corrected. The missing fourth request was subsequently recovered from the matching OpenRouter session and generation billing record; the original failed attempt remains immutable. New attempts retain an append-only, flushed event journal and bounded provider trace outside disposable runtime files. Provider-free startup succeeds for OpenRouter Sonnet and DeepSeek. See doc/plans/2026-09-07-runner-api-production-readiness.md for remaining release gates.