Open-source orchestration platform for zero-human companies, enabling multiple AI agents to collaborate autonomously via heartbeat scheduling, org charts, and governance mechanisms.
Paperclip is a full-stack AI agent orchestration platform built entirely in TypeScript, using a pnpm monorepo architecture with a Node.js 20+ backend, React frontend, and embedded PostgreSQL for zero-config local development. The project is open-sourced under the MIT License (Copyright © 2025 Paperclip AI) and supports fully self-hosted deployment without requiring account registration.
Its core design philosophy organizes AI agents into a "company" structure — through a hierarchical Org Chart that defines roles, reporting lines, and job descriptions, agents have managers, titles, and responsibilities. Tasks are scheduled via the Heartbeat protocol: agents wake up on schedule, check their work, and execute tasks, with delegation flowing up and down the org hierarchy. Every task is traceable to the company mission (Goal Alignment). Paperclip adopts a BYOA (Bring Your Own Agent) strategy with no agent type restrictions — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenClaw, Bash scripts, HTTP webhook bots, or anything that can receive a heartbeat can be "hired."
For governance and risk control, Paperclip provides a complete Ticket System with conversation tracking, decision explanations, tool call tracing, and immutable audit logs. Approval workflows support review/approval stages with the ability to pause/resume/terminate agents. Cost control sets monthly budgets per agent with automatic stops on overrun, plus multi-dimensional token consumption tracking by company, agent, project, goal, ticket, provider, and model.
The platform supports running an unlimited number of companies in a single deployment with complete data isolation (Multi-Company), and offers organization import/export with key sanitization and conflict resolution. Extension capabilities include an instance-level plugin system (out-of-process workers, capability gating, UI extensions), Routines & Schedules triggered by cron/webhook/API, and mobile monitoring/management. The heartbeat scheduling queue is database-driven rather than in-memory, ensuring persistence and recoverability. Project workspaces use git worktree isolation to prevent concurrency conflicts.
Quick start is available via npx paperclipai onboard --yes with four deployment modes: trusted local loopback, LAN, Tailscale, and authenticated private. The repository includes a Dockerfile for containerized deployment, and production environments can connect to external PostgreSQL. The testing framework uses Vitest (unit tests) + Playwright (E2E browser tests). The upcoming Clipmart will offer one-click download and execution of pre-built company templates.