## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - Conversations must use the same tasks, controls, and execution
history.
> - Users need an ongoing chat with an agent without managing task
properties.
> - Agents should clarify and plan work, then hand execution to assigned
project tasks.
> - This pull request combines the reviewed Agent Chat stack for one
squash merge.
> - The benefit is persistent conversation with normal task governance
and shared UI.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
**Subsystem affected**
Task lifecycle, agent runtime tools, shared task UI, and browser/paid
runner tests.
**Problem or motivation**
Users need one persistent conversation with each agent. A separate chat
store or renderer would duplicate task behavior and bypass existing
controls.
**Proposed solution**
Use a task-backed chat per company, user, and agent. Reuse the task
composer and transcript. Clarify and plan in chat, then create assigned
project tasks with the relevant plan. Keep Agent Chat behind its own
disabled-by-default experimental setting.
**Roadmap alignment**
This implements the task-backed direction in [CEO
Chat](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/blob/master/ROADMAP.md#-ceo-chat).
Related proposals: #2504 and #9693. Related request: #7981. The
maintainer requested one squash merge of the complete stack.
Consolidates the reviewed runtime
[#13281](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/pull/13281), backend
[#13282](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/pull/13282), and UI
[#13283](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/pull/13283) layers
with this PR's E2E coverage. All four layers passed CI and received
Greptile 5/5 before consolidation. This PR targets master and includes
the complete feature.
## What Changed
- Add personal canonical chat tasks with ordinary company visibility,
immutable identity, idempotent first sends, and an idle waiting state.
- Process `/new` in queue order. Preserve history, release a chat pause,
and fence old provider context and delayed writes.
- Keep chat lifecycle rules across recovery, finalization, assignment,
task lists, and rollups.
- Support research and plan revision in chat. Hand plans to ordinary
assigned project tasks before execution starts. Reject new chat
subtasks.
- Add repository-aware project creation and discovery tools, including
multiple repository IDs and GitHub URLs, authorization, idempotency, and
durable project-created cards.
- Reuse task UI components for chat, with starred/recent agent
navigation and a separate `enableAgentChat` experimental flag.
- Add deterministic browser tests and 24 paid chat cells across four
Codex/Claude profiles, with validated reports and screenshots.
- Integrate current master recovery, controller lease, queued-message,
and task UI changes. Gate chat interruption and deferred promotion on
ownership/feature policy. Guarantee lease renewal and active controls
are stopped even if teardown fails.
- Preserve master's migration 0273 and generate chat migration 0274 with
idempotent replay for development databases.
## Verification
- Prior exact heads of all four PRs passed Linux CI, including build,
typecheck, general/serialized tests, and browser E2E. Each had Greptile
5/5 and no unresolved findings.
- Integrated local verification passed: full repository typecheck and
production build, Storybook build, token gates, 340 focused UI tests,
all 20 deterministic chat browser tests, two migration replay tests, 88
focused chat/queue/native/controller tests, and provider/session
regressions including real lease expiry. These include the three
lifecycle regressions for the final admission/teardown fixes; server
typecheck also passes. Current head
`1268eda16cc2af892055917e7292f068820be135` has Greptile 5/5 with no
unresolved findings and passing security scans. All final-head CI gates
passed: build, full Runner verification, typecheck/release registry,
canary, all general/serialized test shards, and all browser E2E shards
([CI
run](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/34696739927)).
Local PostgreSQL startup contention required serialized retries; skipped
fixtures do not count as passing coverage.
- The earlier paid campaign passed all 24 chat cells and retained 32
screenshots:
[report](https://d1p6rlowie26tp.cloudfront.net/runner-e2e/campaigns/gha-34648511170-1/index.html?report=agent-chat#suite-agent-chat).
It tested `abacbdfd2f660709ec37312cdb758284c8399d04`; it is prior
evidence, not a paid run of this integrated head.
- Manual check: enable Agent Chat in Experimental settings, open an
agent, clarify and revise a plan, then hand off to an assigned project
task. Stop a reply, send `/new`, and verify fresh context with retained
history. Disable the setting and verify agent shortcuts/new chat turns
are blocked.
## Risks
- Queue/session integration can affect retries and delayed writes. Tests
cover ownership, cancellation, reset boundaries, idle recovery, and
ordinary task behavior.
- Migration 0274 adds conversation fields and constraints. Replay is
idempotent and preserves existing development chat history.
- This combines the previously reviewed stack at the maintainer's
request. Agent Chat remains off by default and is separate from
Conference Room.
## Model Used
OpenAI Codex, GPT-6 Astra (`gpt-6-astra`), with reasoning, code
execution, browser tools, and parallel review. The exact context-window
size is not exposed in this session. Codex and Claude also ran as test
subjects in the linked paid campaign.
## 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
- [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>
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip manages AI agents that perform work.
> - Paperclip Runner connects durable task runs to local provider
processes.
> - The full-stack paid matrix exposed failures after the runner
integrity repair.
> - Verified JavaScript entrypoints lost their relative module graph
when Linux executed them through descriptor paths.
> - Returned provider startup errors also remained pending and became
indeterminate after recovery.
> - Sparse Codex tool lifecycle events lost the `write_document`
identity before task transcript projection.
> - This pull request repairs those three boundaries and makes the
structured-question fixture deterministic.
> - The benefit is repeatable provider startup, exact failure replay,
and correct inline Plan placement.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Refs #12721 and #12700.
**What happened?**
The paid runner matrix failed ACPX and OpenCode startup before provider
session creation. The runner journal then replaced the original startup
error with an indeterminate recovery result. Native Codex saved a Plan
but rendered it only as a fallback card. A legacy Claude waiting reply
could also echo the reserved terminal marker before the answer arrived.
**Expected behavior**
Verified JavaScript providers must start from immutable
descriptor-backed artifacts. Returned startup failures must persist as
terminal failed command results. Native tool lifecycle updates must
preserve the `write_document` boundary. Pre-answer fixture output must
not contain the reserved terminal marker.
**Steps to reproduce**
1. Run the local provider cells in the Runner Full-Stack E2E workflow.
2. Observe ACPX and OpenCode fail during `session.open` before provider
execution.
3. Observe recovery report `execution_indeterminate` instead of the
original startup error.
4. Run the native Codex Plan cell and observe the fallback Plan card
after the tool activity row.
5. Run the legacy Claude structured-question resume cell and observe an
early marker echo in waiting prose.
**Paperclip version or commit**
`0f9452101740835ce0b1488a204bf48acd5bafc3`
**Deployment mode**
Local development with the paid GitHub Actions acceptance workflow.
## What Changed
- Bundle the ACPX sidecar and OpenCode proxy as self-contained Node ESM
entrypoints before hashing and verified descriptor launch.
- Anchor ACPX dynamic provider package resolution at a
controller-derived provider-pack root and keep that root out of the
provider child environment.
- Persist executor-returned startup errors as redacted durable failed
command results while retaining indeterminate recovery for true process
death.
- Coalesce sparse native tool items by stable ID so a late
`write_document` name, input, and result reach the transcript boundary
once.
- Forbid the structured-question fixture from spelling or announcing its
reserved terminal marker before the user answers.
## Verification
- Rust and TypeScript regression tests cover durable failed replay, true
crash ambiguity, bundle closure, package-root derivation, environment
filtering, exact Codex tool lifecycle coalescing, and prompt
determinism.
- Local execution is intentionally limited to formatters and static diff
checks. GitHub Actions will run tests, type checks, builds, and security
checks.
- After ordinary CI is green, scoped paid cells will validate one ACPX
launch, one OpenCode launch, native Codex Plan projection, and legacy
Claude structured resume before a complete matrix rerun.
- Prior failing matrix:
https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/33682434315
## Risks
- Bundling changes the bytes covered by provider launch hashes.
Provider-pack generation already hashes the final built files.
- ACPX still loads qualified provider packages dynamically. The
controller supplies a normalized package root, while existing version,
digest, path, and descriptor checks remain active.
- Durable `failed` is terminal. Replays return the same redacted result
and do not execute the provider effect twice.
> 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 Codex based on GPT-5 with agentic reasoning, repository
inspection, code editing, Git, parallel subagents, and GitHub Actions
coordination. The exact deployed snapshot and context-window size are
not exposed to this task.
## 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 linked related public work or described the bug in
this PR
- [x] I have not referenced internal or instance-local Paperclip issues
or links
- [x] My branch name describes the change and contains no internal
ticket id
- [ ] I have run tests locally and they pass (intentionally deferred to
GitHub Actions)
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] No documentation change is required for this runtime repair
- [x] I have considered and documented the 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
Dotta