## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - Cloud deployments consume a verified image and exact-source
migrator.
> - An image alone is not deployable until source checks and artifact
checks pass.
> - GitHub-hosted queues delayed those checks and the final readiness
signal.
> - This PR gives trusted master work a separate concurrency allowance
on existing AWS runners.
> - Community PRs and arbitrary source inputs keep the GitHub-hosted
fallback.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Refs #13243.
**What existing behavior does this improve?**
Time from a master merge to the Cloud deployable v1 signal.
**Current behavior**
For merge d0b7ba4, the image was available after 7m 42s, but readiness
took 16m 05s. Typecheck queued for 6m 40s and the final readiness job
queued for 1m 46s.
**Proposed behavior**
Allow up to 36 concurrent post-merge verification and migrator jobs on
the existing four-vCPU, 16-GiB AWS runners. Workers launch on demand and
terminate after their job; no always-on worker pool or AWS Reserved
Instance purchase is introduced. Keep the combined runner ceiling
unchanged. A separate operator switch enables this route only after the
restricted runner group and Fleet exist.
**Reason and benefit**
Remove GitHub-hosted queue delays from the cloud deployment path. The
gain depends on queue pressure and which remaining job finishes last;
the observed queues are not additive savings.
**Breaking changes**
None to source verification or readiness contracts. Paid routing is
limited to canonical master push/manual events, with exact source checks
on reusable and migrator jobs.
## What Changed
- Route source verification, artifact waiting, dispatch, and readiness
jobs to the separate post-merge Fleet when enabled.
- Require source inputs to match the event's master SHA. Preview inputs
and raced older migrator dispatches stay GitHub-hosted.
- Keep npm publication on GitHub-hosted runners for trusted publishing.
- Bound AWS job timeouts below the 45-minute instance lifetime.
- Document activation, capacity reservation, and rollback.
- Exercise each actual runner selector against allowed and rejected
event/source combinations.
## Verification
- 268 routing and timeout cases pass, including unapproved PR, fork,
branch/tag, arbitrary ref, and disabled-switch cases.
- All 461 focused workflow, preview, and readiness tests pass. The 284
routing/preview cases also pass after the review fixes.
- actionlint passes for changed workflows with the existing
SC2012/SC2016/SC2129 warnings excluded.
- Full local typecheck and build pass (167s and 206s). `pnpm test:run`
completed: 10,600 passed, 65 skipped, and 13 failed in the unchanged
company-skills-service/runtime-skill-cache suites with local filesystem
permission errors. Linux CI is the required test gate; this is not a
claim of a fully passing local suite. Current-head Linux CI is green,
Greptile is 5/5, and all findings are resolved. The final Build retry
passed on a verified 60 GiB AWS runner after correcting the earlier
disk-capacity failure.
- After activation, verify a master run selects the separate group and
all readiness prerequisites pass.
## Risks
- A missing or incorrectly restricted runner group can leave eligible
jobs queued. Enable the switch only after Fleet and group verification.
- PR bursts have 64 slots after reserving 36 for post-merge work. The
image Fleet retains eight, for the same 108-runner total.
- A migrator dispatch racing a newer merge uses GitHub-hosted runners.
This preserves source trust but can retain some queue delay.
- Roll back placement by disabling AWS_POST_MERGE_CI_ENABLED and
rerunning the whole workflow.
## Model Used
OpenAI GPT-6 through Codex, with reasoning, repository tools, and code
execution. The exact serving model ID and context window are not exposed
by this environment.
## 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 — focused change tests
pass; full-suite local permission failures are disclosed 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>
Publish exact-source shared and database migrator packages for each master merge through the existing trusted Release workflow, independently of the full release and image build.
Co-Authored-By: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
Devin Foley