## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - The runner subsystem executes agent work across local and managed
provider backends.
> - The lower pull requests restore the task runtime, provider backends,
and managed-provider control plane.
> - The restored system needs repeatable full-stack checks before it can
ship safely.
> - Paid live checks also need clear access, cost, and secret controls.
> - This pull request adds acceptance, live evaluation, chaos, and
release gates for the restored runner stack.
> - The benefit is measurable runner parity with safer release
decisions.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
**Subsystem affected**
Cross-cutting. This change covers runner tests, release workflows,
server contracts, and evaluation tools.
**Problem or motivation**
The runner stack did not have one complete acceptance surface for native
Codex, ACPX, Claude Managed, and AWS AgentCore. Release checks could
miss provider drift, task-view regressions, cost-policy errors, and
destructive cleanup errors.
**Proposed solution**
Add a 57-cell full-stack catalog, a Daytona image, and opt-in paid
workflows. Add live evaluation, chaos, cost-limit, redaction, and
release contract checks. Add AWS AgentCore infrastructure and guarded
provisioning tools. Keep the native runner experimental flag off by
default.
**Alternatives considered**
We considered manual smoke tests only. They do not give repeatable
evidence and they do not protect release branches. We also considered
one large pull request. The stacked pull requests keep each review below
the Greptile file limit.
**Roadmap alignment**
This work supports the shipped Cloud / Sandbox agents milestone and the
shipped Agent evals & feedback milestone in `ROADMAP.md`.
Related stack:
- #12699 adds managed provider backends and lifecycle support.
- #12691 adds qualified OpenCode and ACPX provider backends.
- #12685 restores task runtime rendering and steering.
## What Changed
- Add the runner full-stack harness with 57 catalog cells and 60 unit
tests.
- Add a Daytona runner image with digest-pinned base images and
base-aware image-content checks.
- Add guarded live evaluation and chaos workflows with a fixed
40-execution matrix; live and full-stack paid schedules now run only on
Sundays or by manual dispatch.
- Add in-flight reported-usage cost stops, post-turn cost caps,
exact-threshold failure classification, secret redaction, retry
classification, and actor authorization.
- Reattach stream and hard-budget listeners before restart-recovery
continuations so restored paid sessions cannot bypass in-flight
interruption.
- Preserve OpenCode usage and cost across tool-loop messages and turns
while exposing an explicit current-run delta to durable accounting.
- Keep PNG/WebM evidence in access-controlled artifacts only, reject
SVG, and publish only pruned inert structured per-attempt evidence.
- Add AWS AgentCore infrastructure, provisioning checks, and smoke
tools; reject unsafe model identifiers, require exact stack ownership
markers, and make failed-stack replacement explicit.
- Add evaluation-session contracts and capability reports.
- Add release workflow checks for immutable action pins, frozen
dependency installs, exact weekly cron shape, paid-run guards,
provider-secret isolation, and chaos test paths.
- Reauthorize the original and triggering numeric actor IDs as the first
step of every provider-secret job, including partial reruns, before
checkout or provider access.
- Give each full-stack matrix cell only its matching provider
credential, expose Daytona only to Daytona cells, and disable shared
dependency caches anywhere paid credentials or OIDC write access are
present.
- Protect the legacy manual E2E workflow with the same default-branch,
allowlist, environment, and per-job authorization boundary.
- Rotate live-eval candidates by week and retain 120 days of compatible
history so the seven-week trend window remains viable.
- Restore the root runner-acceptance commands and reconcile reported
snapshots,
raw receipts, and terminal usage without double counting or losing late
usage.
- Mark ACPX token deltas exact only when every budget field is present,
keep
cumulative cost/request authority separate, reject non-USD cost
labeling,
and include thought tokens in output-token budgets.
- Keep `enableNativeRunner` off by default. The acceptance harness
enables it only in its isolated test instance.
## Verification
Passed locally:
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/paperclip-runner typecheck`
- `pnpm test:runner-acceptance:typecheck`
- `pnpm test:runner-acceptance` (19 tests)
- focused OpenCode proxy, driver, runnerd transport, live-session, and
turn-stream tests (106 tests)
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/paperclip-runner exec vitest run
src/live/clean-room-server.test.ts` (22 tests)
- `pnpm test:e2e:runner:typecheck`
- `pnpm test:e2e:runner:unit` (62 tests)
- `node --test scripts/__tests__/release-verify-workflow.test.mjs`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/paperclip-runner
test:runner-workflow-evals` (22 tests)
- `pnpm -r typecheck`
- `pnpm build`
- `node --test
packages/paperclip-runner/scripts/aws-agentcore-provisioning.test.mjs`
(6 tests)
- `git diff --check`
- `cargo test --manifest-path
packages/paperclip-runner/runner/Cargo.toml -p paperclip-runner-core
--lib --locked` (161 tests)
- focused ACPX provider-event tests (10 tests)
- The rebased PR changes 92 files. `pnpm-lock.yaml` is unchanged.
I did not run paid live provider jobs or provision AWS resources. Those
checks need credentials and can create cost.
## Risks
The paid workflows can create provider cost. They require an allowlisted
original and triggering actor, the protected `runner-e2e-paid`
environment, explicit opt-in variables, and cost limits. The four
provider credentials exist only in that master-only environment, which
requires allowlisted reviewer approval and disables administrator
bypass; repository and organization Actions scopes contain no copies.
Provider usage arrives after a billable request, so the live guard
cannot prevent one request from crossing a threshold. It interrupts
immediately on the first reported threshold hit and permits no
continuation.
Visual evidence can contain secrets rendered as pixels. PNG/WebM remain
only in access-controlled workflow artifacts; SVG and per-attempt XML
are excluded, and S3/Pages receive a pruned structured dashboard.
The AWS scripts can create cloud resources. They use explicit commands,
least-privilege roles, KMS encryption, saved nonsecret metadata, and
explicit teardown.
This pull request does not enable the experimental native runner for
existing instances.
> 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 with GPT-5. The model used extended reasoning, tool use,
code execution, and parallel subagents.
## 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
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