## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip manages AI agents that each have an associated execution
environment (local, Kubernetes, etc.)
> - Instance administrators can create and delete environments;
currently the DELETE endpoint has no protection against deleting managed
or in-use environments
> - Deleting the managed local environment or the instance-default
environment would break all agents using those environments with no path
to recovery
> - The endpoint also suffered a TOCTOU race: a check-then-delete
pattern allowed the managed-local or default guard to pass if the
environment's role changed between the read and the delete
> - This pull request adds a blast-radius read endpoint so admins can
preview impact, hard-blocks the dangerous deletes atomically, cleans up
all dependent references after a valid delete, and fixes a concurrent
creation race in ensureLocalEnvironment
## Linked Issues or Issue Description
Fixes#9251
## What Changed
- **New endpoint** `GET /api/environments/:id/delete-blast-radius`
(instance-admin gated): returns reference counts (agent defaults,
workspace selections, issue selections, project selections, secret
bindings, active leases, active setup sessions) and blocking reasons —
no config, env-var values, or secret data returned.
- **Atomic delete guard** `environmentService.removeIfDeletable(id)`:
performs the DELETE with an inline `WHERE driver != 'local' AND NOT
EXISTS (instanceSettings where defaultEnvironmentId = id)` predicate,
eliminating the TOCTOU race between the app-level check and the DB
write.
- **Route hardening**: `DELETE /environments/:id` now calls
`getDeleteBlastRadius` first (app-level check + logging), then calls
`removeIfDeletable` (atomic guard). If the atomic guard returns null the
route fetches a fresh blast-radius snapshot and rejects with a 409
Conflict carrying `deleteBlockedReasons`.
- **Reference cleanup on valid delete**: after a successful delete, the
route clears environment selections on all company execution workspaces,
issues, and projects; syncs env-var secret bindings to `{}` (removing
bindings for the deleted environment); syncs config secret refs to `[]`
for the environment target; and removes the SSH private-key secret if
one was stored.
- **Race fix in `ensureLocalEnvironment`**: the insert-or-nothing path
now catches a `environments_name_idx` unique-constraint violation and
falls through to the existing SELECT, treating the name conflict as
idempotent.
- **Shared types**: `EnvironmentDeleteBlastRadius` and
`EnvironmentDeleteBlockedReason` exported from `@paperclipai/shared`.
- **OpenAPI**: registers the new blast-radius endpoint; updates the
delete-environment response schema to document 403/404/409.
- **Tests**: 56 existing environment-route and service tests continue to
pass; new service-level regression tests assert the atomic guard rejects
`local`-driver environments and instance-default environments and
succeeds for deletable ones.
## Verification
```
corepack pnpm exec vitest run \
server/src/__tests__/environment-routes.test.ts \
server/src/__tests__/environment-service.test.ts
# 56 tests, all passing
corepack pnpm --filter @paperclipai/shared typecheck
node scripts/ensure-plugin-build-deps.mjs
cd server && ../node_modules/.bin/tsc --noEmit
```
## Risks
- **Blast-radius endpoint auth**: guarded by
`assertCanAccessInstanceEnvironments`, the same gate as the existing
environment-list and delete routes. Non-admin callers receive 401/403
before any data is returned.
- **Atomic guard may reject a delete that the app-level check passed**:
this is intentional — it means the environment became protected between
the read and the write. The caller receives a fresh blast-radius
snapshot explaining why.
- **Secret cleanup ordering**: cleanup runs after the atomic DELETE
succeeds, in parallel across companies. If cleanup partially fails the
environment row is already gone; partial-cleanup state is recoverable by
re-running the sync operations. Risk: low — these are idempotent
upsert/sync operations.
- **ensureLocalEnvironment race fix**: swapping a unique-constraint
error for an idempotent SELECT adds one extra query on the conflict
path. This path is rare (only fires during concurrent boot) and is
significantly safer than the previous behavior.
- **No migration**: all changes are application-level; no schema changes
required.
## Model Used
- Provider: Anthropic
- Model: claude-sonnet-4-6 (Claude Sonnet 4.6)
- Context window: 200k tokens
- Mode: agentic tool use via Paperclip agent system (Claude Code)
## 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. `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
- [ ] 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
- [ ] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Priya Raman <priya.raman@paperclip.ing>
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
Co-authored-by: Harold Kim <harold.kim@paperclip.ing>
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