## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work.
> - Agents can pause a task and ask the user structured questions.
> - The answer is durable in the issue interaction, but delivery to the
next run is not durable.
> - A process restart can therefore leave an answered interaction
without a continuation attempt.
> - Native runners also need a provider-neutral question contract before
the task page can consume native events safely.
> - This pull request adds a content-free delivery outbox and an
optional native steering seam.
> - Direct adapters keep their existing heartbeat continuation path.
> - The benefit is reliable answer delivery without changing runtime
selection or task-page behavior.
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Refs #12202. This pull request replaces the question-delivery foundation
from that stale task-thread pull request. The task-thread projection
will follow in a smaller pull request.
**What happened?**
Question answers were stored in the issue interaction. The server then
made one in-memory continuation wake. A server stop between those
operations could leave the answer stored but not delivered. The combined
native task-thread pull request also made this behavior hard to review
separately from UI changes.
**Expected behavior**
The answer and its delivery receipt must commit in one transaction. The
server must retry pending receipts after a restart. Existing direct
adapters must keep the current wake path. A native runtime may use the
optional steering seam, but this pull request does not enable native
steering in production.
**Steps to reproduce**
1. Create an `ask_user_questions` interaction.
2. Answer the interaction.
3. Stop the server before the continuation wake completes.
4. Start the server again.
5. On current master, no durable record tells the server to retry the
answer delivery.
**Paperclip version or commit**
Current `master` at `4d82f5eae`.
## What Changed
- Add the `issue_question_response_deliveries` table and migration.
- Store only routing state, a correlation ID, and a payload digest in
the delivery row. The answer remains in the existing interaction result.
- Commit an answered interaction and its pending delivery row in one
transaction.
- Add bounded claims, retry recovery, cumulative terminal state, and
content-free activity records.
- Keep every built-in direct adapter and external adapter on the
existing heartbeat wake path.
- Add an optional native steering seam. No production caller supplies
that seam in this pull request.
- Retain the provider-neutral `paperclip.question_set.v1` presentation
on recovered interactions.
- Run delivery immediately after an answer and sweep pending rows at
startup and on the existing server interval.
- Add focused database, service, route, startup, adapter-matrix, digest,
and duplicate-delivery tests.
## Compatibility Boundary
- This pull request does not change adapter selection.
- This pull request does not start runnerd.
- This pull request does not create native run records.
- Direct adapters never call the native steering seam.
- The existing interaction result stays authoritative for answer
content.
- The migration is additive and does not rewrite existing rows.
- This pull request has no UI, dependency, workflow, package-manager, or
lockfile changes.
- The diff has 19 files.
## Verification
- `pnpm exec vitest run
server/src/__tests__/question-response-delivery.test.ts
server/src/services/issue-thread-interactions.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/issue-thread-interaction-routes.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/server-startup-feedback-export.test.ts` — 4 files
and 120 tests passed.
- `pnpm -r typecheck` — passed for all applicable workspaces. This
includes Cargo format and check, protocol drift checks, and migration
safety.
- `pnpm build` — passed. This includes the Rust release binary, server
build, and UI production build.
- `git diff --check` — passed.
- Secret patterns were not present in the changed text files.
- The repository token gates currently report violations from unchanged
files on `master`. This pull request does not change those files.
## Risks
The main risk is routing a direct-adapter answer into a native session.
The service checks the persisted runtime mode, and the adapter matrix
proves that all direct adapters use only the existing wake path. The new
table is additive. It has foreign keys, unique correlation constraints,
bounded attempts, and status checks. Activity records omit question and
answer content.
## Model Used
OpenAI Codex, GPT-5 family. The client does not expose the exact
deployment ID or context window. Agentic reasoning, tool use, and code
execution were enabled.
## 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 or instance-local Paperclip issues
or links
- [x] My branch name describes the change and contains no internal
Paperclip ticket ID or instance-derived details
- [x] I have run the affected tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] I have documented the new contracts and compatibility boundary
- [x] I have considered and documented compatibility and security 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
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