## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work
> - Every master push publishes a canary through release.yml, gated by
release-verify.yml — the fleet's staging deploys and the
nightly/beta/stable chain all start from those canaries
> - release-verify splits the server test suite across three shards with
a 20-minute job cap, while pr-trusted splits the same suite across five
> - The server suite grew on 2026-09-10 and the three shards moved to
17-19 minutes; that evening every push-triggered canary run was
cancelled by the 20-minute cap mid-verify, and no canary published after
18:50 UTC
> - This pull request mirrors pr-trusted's five-way server split in
release-verify, putting shards back at the 10-15 minute range with real
headroom
> - The benefit is a canary lane that reports test verdicts instead of
dying on an infrastructure cap
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
**What happened?**
Push-triggered Release runs stopped publishing canaries on 2026-09-10.
Runs at 19:34, 22:30, and 22:37 UTC were all cancelled by "The job has
exceeded the maximum execution time of 20m0s" on a `verify_canary /
General tests (server (N/3))` shard. No canary published after 18:50
UTC, which also starves the staging fleet's continuous deploys.
**Expected behavior**
release-verify's server shards finish well inside the 20-minute cap and
runs conclude with a test verdict, as pr-trusted's five-way split of the
same suite does (10-15 minutes per shard).
**Steps to reproduce**
1. Compare server shard durations in the `verify_canary` job across
2026-09-10: 11-14 minutes in the morning, 17-19 minutes from 15:06 UTC,
over 20 minutes by evening.
2. Observe runs 34521169020, 34537798488, and 34538332689 cancelled at
the cap.
**Paperclip version or commit**
`master` at `d1ba17eec` (current tip; its canary run was one of the
cancelled ones).
## What Changed
- `release-verify.yml`: the `general-server` matrix goes from three
shards to five, byte-for-byte the shape `pr-trusted.yml` already runs,
with a comment recording why.
## Verification
- The identical five-way split runs green on every pr-trusted run (10-15
minutes per shard today, including on PRs merged this evening).
- The suite's own growth (slower chat-connector tests) is being
addressed separately; this PR only removes the artificial cliff.
## Risks
- Low risk: two more runners per verify run; no test content changes. If
shard durations regress further, the cap fires again — which is the
correct signal once shards have honest headroom.
## Model Used
- Claude (Anthropic), model ID `claude-fable-5` (Claude Fable 5),
extended thinking, tool use via Claude Code CLI.
## 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
c5c80e1feb