## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - Sandbox adapters provide controlled execution for untrusted provider
environments.
> - The sandbox channel needs one persistent duplex transport with
strict host control.
> - The transport must remain off unless the instance setting and
provider capability both allow it.
> - The host must detect loss, bound resource use, and expose only safe
telemetry.
> - This pull request adds the broker, gated selection, kill-switch
wiring, fixed observability, and real-process proof.
> - The benefit is safer sandbox execution with bounded failure behavior
and inspectable transport results.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
No public issue exists for this change. The related pull requests are
#11738 and #11750.
**Problem or motivation**
The sandbox duplex channel needs a host-controlled broker, strict
transport gates, bounded provider input, and safe loss telemetry.
Without these controls, a provider can cause replay, resource growth,
unsafe endpoint selection, or data exposure through telemetry.
**Proposed solution**
Add a host broker with nested time limits, request limits, one-shot
loss, and per-id deduplication. Select duplex transport only when the
instance setting and provider capability both equal true. Assign the
endpoint and nonce on the host. Reject invalid readiness data and use
the file bridge on failure. Add fixed redacted telemetry and a
real-process end-to-end test harness.
**Alternatives considered**
Keep the file bridge as the only transport. This avoids new channel
behavior but does not provide persistent duplex operation for supported
sandbox providers.
**Roadmap alignment**
This change supports the Cloud / Sandbox agents section in ROADMAP.md.
## What Changed
- Add the duplex bridge broker with bounded forward, response, and
gateway wait budgets.
- Bound concurrent requests, lifetime requests, and request-id bytes
before retention or forwarding.
- Select duplex transport only when both required gates are true.
- Assign the loopback port and nonce on the host and enforce a
liveness-only READY frame.
- Fall back to the file bridge after invalid readiness, contamination,
bind failure, or timeout.
- Carry the kill switch through the server, acpx engine, and six local
adapters.
- Add fixed, redacted duplex telemetry with a provider allowlist.
- Add a real-process end-to-end harness for readiness, round trips,
loss, and teardown.
- Add regression coverage for limits, loss, UTF-8 splits, concurrency,
and telemetry dimensions.
## Verification
- Adapter-utils, server, and Daytona typechecks pass locally.
- Adapter-utils tests pass, including the codec, broker,
execution-target sandbox, and real-process harness.
- Server kill-switch tests pass.
- Live Daytona tests pass with the required provider key and skip
without that key.
- The root pnpm-lock.yaml file has no diff.
- The branch contains ten commits after origin/master.
## Risks
- Duplex transport remains disabled unless both gates equal true.
- A provider remains an untrusted boundary and needs least-privilege
credentials and quotas.
- The server telemetry recorder stays deferred; the default recorder
does nothing.
- A provider that pre-binds the host port causes a fail-closed fallback
to the file bridge.
- The change adds no database migration and changes no root lockfile.
## Model Used
OpenAI GPT-5, exact model family GPT-5, large context window, reasoning,
and tool use. The model assisted with Git handoff validation and PR
preparation. The implementation commits came from the engineering
worktree.
## 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/... or fix/...) and
contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details
- [x] I have run tests locally and they 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
- [x] I searched the GitHub PR list for similar PRs and confirmed this
is not a duplicate
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - A growing part of that work runs in sandboxed environments rather
than on the operator's local machine.
> - Today sandbox providers can start fresh workspaces and run probes,
but they do not have a shared contract for capturing and reusing
prepared sandbox state.
> - Operators need a way to set up tools, credentials, and project
dependencies once, then reuse that prepared image for later agent runs.
> - This pull request adds reusable sandbox custom images across the
provider contract, server runtime, and board UI.
> - It also keeps probes and sandbox copy flows aligned with
pre-authenticated/custom-image environments.
> - The benefit is faster, more reliable sandbox runs without repeatedly
rebuilding the same environment setup.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
No public GitHub issue was found for this change. Inline feature request
follows.
### Problem or motivation
Sandboxed agents need reusable prepared runtime state so repeated runs
do not require manual setup every time. Operators often need system
packages, CLIs, SDKs, dependency caches, credentials, and project
tooling available before an agent can work productively.
### Proposed solution
Add a provider-level custom-image capability, server-side setup/capture
lifecycle, Daytona/fake provider support, and board UI controls for
creating, testing, selecting, and deleting custom images.
### Alternatives considered
Leaving this as provider-specific setup outside Paperclip would keep the
control plane blind to image state and would not give agents consistent
environment metadata. Re-running setup commands for every lease is
simpler, but slower and less reliable for interactive or credentialed
setup.
### Roadmap alignment
Checked `ROADMAP.md`; this aligns with the Cloud / Sandbox agents
roadmap area and does not duplicate any related public issue or PR found
by search.
Additional context:
- Subsystem affected: cross-cutting (`packages/db`, `packages/shared`,
`packages/plugins`, `server`, `ui`).
- Duplicate search: searched GitHub for `sandbox custom image` and
`sandbox template environment`; no related public issues or PRs were
found.
## What Changed
- Added custom-image shared types, validators, constants, API paths, and
database schema/migration.
- Added server services/routes for custom-image templates and setup
sessions, including runtime cleanup and provider metadata handling.
- Extended plugin/sandbox provider capabilities for interactive setup,
template capture, and template deletion.
- Implemented custom-image support in the fake sandbox provider and
Daytona provider.
- Updated environment runtime/config handling so active custom images
flow into leases, probes, and agent execution.
- Added board UI controls and API client support for custom-image setup,
capture, selection, status, and error states.
- Hardened sandbox copy/probe behavior for insecure clipboard contexts
and pre-authenticated sandbox images.
- Added targeted coverage across shared validators, DB schema, server
routes/services, provider plugins, adapter probes, and UI flows.
## Verification
- `pnpm install --frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts`
- `pnpm vitest run
packages/adapters/claude-local/src/server/test.probe.test.ts
packages/adapters/claude-local/src/server/test.ts
packages/adapters/codex-local/src/server/test.remote.test.ts
packages/adapters/codex-local/src/server/test.ts`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/adapter-claude-local typecheck`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/adapter-codex-local typecheck`
- `pnpm vitest run
packages/db/src/environment-custom-images-schema.test.ts
packages/shared/src/environment-custom-images.test.ts
packages/shared/src/validators/plugin.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/environment-custom-images-service.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/workspace-runtime.test.ts
packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/daytona/src/plugin.test.ts
ui/src/pages/CompanyEnvironments.test.tsx
ui/src/pages/CompanySettings.test.tsx`
- `pnpm -r typecheck`
- `pnpm build`
- `rm -rf packages/db/dist && pnpm test:run`
- Public-safety scan of the final diff found no internal Paperclip issue
links, private instance URLs, or real secret patterns.
## Risks
- Adds a database migration and new environment runtime tables, so
migration ordering and rollback need care.
- Provider implementations may differ in how reliably they can
capture/delete images; unsupported providers surface capability-gated UI
states.
- Custom-image state can contain operator-prepared tooling and
credentials inside the provider image, so providers must enforce their
own access controls and cleanup semantics.
- Broad surface area across shared contracts, server runtime, plugins,
adapters, and UI means CI and Greptile review should be watched closely.
> For core feature work, check [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) first and
discuss it in `#dev` before opening the PR. Feature PRs that overlap
with planned core work may need to be redirected — check the roadmap
first. See `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
## Model Used
OpenAI GPT-5 (`gpt-5`) via Codex CLI with tool use and code execution.
Assisted with branch cleanup, conflict resolution, local verification,
and PR preparation. Earlier branch implementation work was assisted by
Paperclip-managed Claude/Codex agents.
## 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
- [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
- [ ] All Paperclip CI gates are green
- [ ] 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>
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies
> - Agents need isolated sandbox environments to execute work safely;
Paperclip already supports E2B as a sandbox provider plugin
> - Users want to use Daytona (https://www.daytona.io/) as an
alternative sandbox backend, but no plugin existed for it
> - Without a Daytona plugin, teams that prefer Daytona's
pricing/regions/runtime can't run Paperclip agents on it
> - This pull request adds a `@paperclip/sandbox-provider-daytona`
plugin that mirrors the existing E2B plugin shape and wires up Daytona's
`@daytonaio/sdk` for sandbox lifecycle, command execution, and shell
detection
> - The benefit is that operators can pick Daytona as a first-class
sandbox provider without touching core code, broadening Paperclip's
runtime options
## What Changed
- New plugin package `packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/daytona` with
manifest, worker entry, and provider implementation backed by
`@daytonaio/sdk`
- Implements sandbox create/destroy/exec/upload/download lifecycle,
shell command detection, and config/env wiring consistent with the E2B
plugin
- Adds unit tests under `src/plugin.test.ts` and a README documenting
setup and the `DAYTONA_API_KEY` requirement
- Minor adjustments in `scripts/paperclip-issue-update.sh`,
`packages/shared/src/issue-thread-interactions.test.ts`, and
`packages/shared/src/validators/issue.ts` to support the integration
## Verification
- Re-ran the full sandbox provider matrix on the QA Paperclip instance
using Daytona as the runtime — all 6 adapters executed inside the
Daytona sandbox with zero `environmentExecute` timeouts
- 5/6 adapters pass cleanly (or with informational warns); the only
failure is `codex_local`, which is an OpenAI quota/billing issue
unrelated to Daytona
- `pnpm --filter @paperclip/sandbox-provider-daytona test` runs the
plugin unit tests
## Risks
- New optional plugin; no behavior change for users who don't enable it
- Requires `DAYTONA_API_KEY` for runtime use — documented in the plugin
README
- Daytona SDK is a new external dependency; tracked in the plugin's own
package.json so it doesn't affect the core install footprint
## Model Used
- Claude Opus 4.7 (`claude-opus-4-7`), extended thinking, tool use
enabled
## 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 run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [ ] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots (N/A — backend plugin)
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
Nicky Leach
Devin Foley