## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip runs agents for people with different GitHub accounts.
> - Managed operations must use the intended person's eligible
connection.
> - A failed duplicate connection must not hide a healthy grant for the
same account.
> - Legacy hosts also need their existing Git configuration when managed
access is not configured.
> - Runner networking and local Git operations must not depend on GitHub
broker availability.
> - This pull request separates those policies and improves failure
diagnostics.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
**What happened?** New runs always cleared host Git credentials and
installed managed launchers. Network permission depended on GitHub
environment variables. A launcher failure could stop even local `git
status`. A newer unhealthy duplicate could take precedence over a
healthy connection, and generic health errors were shown as reconnect
requirements.
**Expected behavior:** Use a healthy eligible managed connection for the
intended account. Preserve host authentication only for unconfigured
standard-trust local or SSH execution. Permit local Git during broker
failures and keep network permission independent of GitHub credentials.
**Steps to reproduce:** Configure healthy and unhealthy grants for one
GitHub account, dispatch an agent, and execute Git commands. Separately
run an unconfigured legacy host with existing GitHub CLI authentication.
Stop the broker and run local `git status`.
**Paperclip version or commit:** Master at 668110469. **Deployment
mode:** Self-hosted. **Installation method:** Git checkout. **Agent
adapters involved:** Native Codex runner and shared adapter execution
setup. **Database mode:** Existing instance database; no migration.
**Access context:** Responsible person's managed grant, or explicitly
unconfigured legacy host. **Node.js version:** 26.4.0 locally.
**Operating system:** macOS development and Linux execution hosts.
**Relevant logs or output:** Previously `GitHub credential context
unavailable` hid configuration, transport, and capability errors. New
diagnostics identify these categories without credential values.
**Additional context:** Refs #13005 and #13022. Dependency provisioning
is addressed separately in #13093.
## What Changed
- Prefer healthy eligible grants and retry credential acquisition once
for the same principal and account before starting an operation.
- Preserve host Git configuration only when managed access is
unconfigured on a standard-trust local or SSH target.
- Project authentication mode and validated Git metadata into native
runner boundaries; refresh resumed provider settings when modes change.
- Enable network access through an explicit standard-trust controller
decision, independently of GitHub. Omitted or restricted decisions stay
disabled; replace warm providers when that decision changes.
- Run local Git with cleared credentials when the managed broker fails,
with specific redacted diagnostics.
- Retry access-refresh conflicts once without treating concurrency as
expired authorization.
- Show retry instead of reconnect for transient GitHub health failures.
Add optional authorization and run-diagnostic fields without a database
migration.
## Verification
- All latest-head CI gates are green, including typecheck, general and
serialized suites, browser tests, canary, native runner verification,
and build. Greptile is 5/5 with no remaining findings; the security scan
passed.
- Full recursive typecheck and build passed. UI token gates passed.
- Full general server run: 7,110 passed, one transient socket hangup;
that file passed on retry. All remaining workspace groups passed,
including 5,552 UI and 478 CLI tests. The complete serialized rerun
passed all 144 suites / 2,179 tests after the initial isolated timeout
passed on retry.
- 195 final launcher and native session tests passed, including
host/managed transitions, local/remote warm network-policy changes,
broker rotation, and attempts to override validated controller
filesystem roots.
- GitHub gateway fallback, duplicate connection selection, refresh
conflicts, per-user reauthorization, and native transport/security
suites passed.
- Additional live native fixtures passed SSH public-key authentication
and a Git credential helper in fresh and resumed host-mode sessions. An
unwritable managed configuration directory preserved local Git (exit 0)
while GitHub CLI failed with `configuration_directory_unavailable` (exit
4). The temporary SSH listener and keys were removed.
- Applicable Rust suites passed except two timing failures under load;
each failed case passed in isolation. The final environment contract
test passed.
- Linux native runner acceptance passed in both managed and legacy host
modes: DNS, HTTPS, npm package download, fresh-worktree Git status,
authenticated GitHub user lookup, repository read, and a new run
continuing the same provider conversation. Managed broker outage
preserved local Git and rejected authenticated access without host
fallback.
- Matching Linux server/runner artifacts and the separate provisioning
repair are deployed to the development instance. A fresh UI-dispatched
task and a new run after a server restart both passed all six shell
checks through the live controller and credential broker. Both runs
selected the expected healthy connection/grant and retained the same
provider conversation. Neither connection was repaired or reconnected.
The sandbox roots are assigned from the validated execution-target probe
**after** ordinary bindings are merged. Regression coverage supplies
forged roots and verifies they cannot override the controller paths.
Networking is enabled only for an explicit
`PAPERCLIP_RUNNER_NETWORK_ACCESS=enabled` controller decision; omitted
values remain disabled.
## Risks
Unconfigured standard-trust local and SSH runs regain access to host Git
authentication resources. Managed, sandbox, plugin, and low-trust runs
do not gain this fallback. Revoked managed access never falls back to
another account. Deploy server and runner artifacts together;
already-started operations retain their captured identity. An
unauthenticated command can still fail when it requires GitHub access.
## Model Used
OpenAI GPT-6 through Codex, with code editing, shell execution, tests,
and browser inspection. The exact model variant and context-window size
are 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>
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