## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - The first agent helps the board define work and hire other agents.
> - That agent can have the general role while its instructions require
hiring skills.
> - Missing skills and blocked schema discovery make valid requests
fail.
> - Repeated confirmation and invalid waiting guidance can turn these
failures into extra runs.
> - This PR supplies the required skills, opens read-only schema
discovery, and corrects the guidance.
> - The agent can complete an authorized hire while company approval and
duplicate checks still apply.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Refs #13068 — the first-task onboarding flow that this change repairs.
Refs #12029 — related drift between the sandbox allowlist and bundled
hiring guidance. This PR adds schema access; it does not replace the
earlier hiring-route fix.
**What happened?**
A general-role onboarding chief received hiring instructions without the
core hiring skills. Sandbox requests to the documented OpenAPI endpoint
failed. The agent then guessed question and hire payloads. The persona
required new confirmation after validation errors and described waiting
states that agents cannot set.
**Expected behavior**
A direct request authorizes the requested hire. The chief asks only for
material missing details, uses valid API payloads, and completes the
task. Formal company approval gates still apply. A saved human-input
card gives the task a valid waiting state.
**Steps to reproduce**
1. Create an onboarding chief with role `general` through the board.
2. Ask it to hire a friendly robot with a supplied name and
responsibilities.
3. Check its assigned skills, schema requests, question cards, hire
requests, and final task state.
**Paperclip version or commit**
Reproduced on the first-task onboarding implementation after #13068. The
live local verification used this branch at `112f44610`.
**Deployment mode**
The original failure used a hosted sandbox with legacy Codex ACP. Live
verification used an isolated local instance and real `codex_local`
execution. Queue and HTTP/2 transport access is covered by automated
tests.
## What Changed
- Give board-created onboarding chiefs the existing core skills
regardless of role. Preserve explicit skill version pins, including
aliases. Keep ordinary general-agent defaults and authorization checks.
- Allow exactly `GET /api/openapi.json` through both sandbox bridge
transports.
- Publish validator-tested question, free-text, hire, and waiting
examples. Regenerate the runner API reference and capability inventory.
- Clarify direct authorization, material ambiguity, and correction of
confirmed pre-creation validation failures. Preserve uncertain-outcome
reconciliation, duplicate protection, and company approval gates.
- Align disposition instructions with agent permissions and the saved
human-input waiting path.
## Verification
- After rebasing onto current `master`: 69 targeted server tests, 110
queue/HTTP2 bridge tests, and 4 capability inventory tests passed. These
cover core skill defaults, version pins, actor restrictions, schema
access, published examples, hire validation, idempotency, and approval
gates. Waiting recovery tests and live question flows also passed before
the rebase.
- `pnpm -r typecheck` and `pnpm build` passed again after the rebase.
Frozen dependency installation and both generated capability checks
passed.
- Ran the full `pnpm test:run` suite. The initial run had 14 failed
server files due to local database resource limits, a missing built test
fixture, and socket failures. All 14 files passed after fixture repair
and isolated retries. UI, CLI, workspace packages, database tests, and
all 145 serialized server files passed.
- Real one-request hiring replay: one hire, one successful run, task
done in 2m16s. No repeated approval or recovery escalation.
- Real two-turn browser conversation: start with an unspecified hire,
then supply a name and friendly robot responsibilities. One
clarification card, one hire, two successful runs, task done in 3m27s of
execution. No failed writes, confirmation cards, or recovery actions.
- Assigned the hired robot a welcome-message task through the browser.
It produced a warm message under 100 words and finished in one
successful 66-second run, with no questions or recovery actions.
- The two-turn flow still asked an optional preferences question and
gave a technical final reply. These are remaining presentation limits.
- Greptile: 5/5 on `b71f83ba2`, with zero unresolved review threads.
Fixed its generator finding and passed 1,655 published-example/runtime
API tests plus server typecheck. All latest-head CI checks are green (32
passed; 2 unrelated Storybook checks skipped). The signoff-policy
browser test initially timed out while waiting for an approver run. Its
shard passed on one rerun without code changes. [CI
run](https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/actions/runs/34698211049).
## Risks
- Onboarding chiefs receive more default skills. Ordinary general agents
retain existing defaults, and explicit versions take precedence.
- Prompt guidance can affect model behavior. The live replays are
examples, not a guarantee that every model follows the guidance.
- Retry guidance applies only when validation confirms that nothing was
created. Uncertain outcomes still require checking existing agents.
- No database migration or new public endpoint. Existing company
boundaries, approval gates, and bounded recovery remain in force.
## Model Used
OpenAI Codex, model `gpt-6-astra`, with reasoning, tool use, code
editing, and live browser verification. The exact context-window size is
not exposed in this session.
## 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>
7e6d512597