AGENTS.md

Guidance for human and AI contributors working in this repository.

1. Purpose

Paperclip is a control plane for AI-agent companies. The current implementation target is V1 and is defined in doc/SPEC-implementation.md.

2. Read This First

Before making changes, read in this order:

1. doc/GOAL.md
2. doc/PRODUCT.md
3. doc/SPEC-implementation.md
4. doc/DEVELOPING.md
5. doc/DATABASE.md

doc/SPEC.md is long-horizon product context. doc/SPEC-implementation.md is the concrete V1 build contract.

3. Repo Map

• server/: Express REST API and orchestration services
• ui/: React + Vite board UI
• packages/db/: Drizzle schema, migrations, DB clients
• packages/shared/: shared types, constants, validators, API path constants
• doc/: operational and product docs

4. Dev Setup (Auto DB)

Use embedded PGlite in dev by leaving DATABASE_URL unset.

pnpm install
pnpm dev

This starts:

• API: http://localhost:3100
• UI: http://localhost:3100 (served by API server in dev middleware mode)

Quick checks:

curl http://localhost:3100/api/health
curl http://localhost:3100/api/companies

Reset local dev DB:

rm -rf data/pglite
pnpm dev

5. Core Engineering Rules

1. Keep changes company-scoped. Every domain entity should be scoped to a company and company boundaries must be enforced in routes/services.
2. Keep contracts synchronized. If you change schema/API behavior, update all impacted layers:

• packages/db schema and exports
• packages/shared types/constants/validators
• server routes/services
• ui API clients and pages

3. Preserve control-plane invariants.

• Single-assignee task model
• Atomic issue checkout semantics
• Approval gates for governed actions
• Budget hard-stop auto-pause behavior
• Activity logging for mutating actions

4. Do not replace strategic docs wholesale unless asked. Prefer additive updates. Keep doc/SPEC.md and doc/SPEC-implementation.md aligned.
5. Keep plan docs dated and centralized. New plan documents belong in doc/plans/ and should use YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md filenames.

6. Database Change Workflow

When changing data model:

1. Edit packages/db/src/schema/*.ts
2. Ensure new tables are exported from packages/db/src/schema/index.ts
3. Generate migration:

pnpm db:generate

4. Validate compile:

pnpm -r typecheck

Notes:

• packages/db/drizzle.config.ts reads compiled schema from dist/schema/*.js
• pnpm db:generate compiles packages/db first

7. Verification Before Hand-off

Run this full check before claiming done:

pnpm -r typecheck
pnpm test:run
pnpm build

If anything cannot be run, explicitly report what was not run and why.

8. API and Auth Expectations

• Base path: /api
• Board access is treated as full-control operator context
• Agent access uses bearer API keys (agent_api_keys), hashed at rest
• Agent keys must not access other companies

When adding endpoints:

• apply company access checks
• enforce actor permissions (board vs agent)
• write activity log entries for mutations
• return consistent HTTP errors (400/401/403/404/409/422/500)

9. UI Expectations

• Keep routes and nav aligned with available API surface
• Use company selection context for company-scoped pages
• Surface failures clearly; do not silently ignore API errors

10. Definition of Done

A change is done when all are true:

1. Behavior matches doc/SPEC-implementation.md
2. Typecheck, tests, and build pass
3. Contracts are synced across db/shared/server/ui
4. Docs updated when behavior or commands change