## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work
> - The release workflow publishes canary npm packages on every push to
`master`
> - The failing canary job built successfully and published several
packages before npm failed on `@paperclipai/mcp-server`
> - The concrete failure was npm trusted-publishing provenance returning
`TLOG_CREATE_ENTRY_ERROR` because an equivalent Sigstore
transparency-log entry already existed
> - The package version was not visible on npm afterward, so the release
script could not safely treat that error as success by itself
> - This pull request adds a narrow recovery path for that npm
provenance failure and keeps the existing registry verification as the
final source of truth
> - The benefit is that transient duplicate transparency-log failures do
not break canary publication when a package can be republished without
provenance or is already visible on npm
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Bug fix, no public GitHub issue found in duplicate search.
- What happened: the Release workflow canary publish failed in
`publish_canary` after npm returned `TLOG_CREATE_ENTRY_ERROR` while
publishing `@paperclipai/mcp-server@2026.609.0-canary.2`.
- Expected behavior: canary publishing should either recover from npm's
duplicate transparency-log failure when the package can still be
published, or fail later in registry verification if the package never
appears.
- Steps to reproduce: inspect
https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/27230012891/job/80411422155
from push `05cb18cf28074a6d1074c7575c5a44133146e368`.
- Deployment mode: GitHub Actions Release workflow, npm trusted
publishing.
- Duplicate search: no open PRs or issues found for `canary publish TLOG
provenance release` or the failing run/job IDs.
## What Changed
- Added `publish_package_to_npm` in `scripts/release-lib.sh` to wrap
canary/stable package publishing.
- Detects npm's duplicate Sigstore transparency-log error and checks
whether the package version is already visible on npm.
- Retries that exact package once with `--provenance=false` when npm hit
the duplicate tlog error but the version is not visible yet.
- Keeps unrelated publish failures as hard failures.
- Added shell-helper tests with fake `pnpm` and `npm` commands, and
included them in `pnpm test:release-registry`.
## Verification
- `node --test scripts/release-lib.test.mjs`
- `pnpm test:release-registry`
- Confirmed `pnpm publish --dry-run --no-git-checks --tag canary
--access public --provenance=false` is accepted by pnpm 9.15.4.
## Risks
- Low risk: the recovery only triggers when npm output contains both
`TLOG_CREATE_ENTRY_ERROR` and the duplicate transparency-log message.
- Publishing without provenance is a fallback for canary continuity; if
npm still does not expose the package, the existing registry
verification step still fails the release.
- The same helper is used by stable publishing too, but only for this
exact npm provenance failure path.
> 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`.
This is a release reliability bug fix. I checked `ROADMAP.md`; it does
not duplicate planned core product work.
## Model Used
OpenAI Codex coding agent, GPT-5-class model, tool-enabled local shell
and GitHub CLI workflow, medium reasoning mode.
## 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 run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [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
- [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>
Dotta