Paperclip

An open-source, self-hosted orchestration runtime. You run the server, you own the data.

Overview

Paperclip is a self-hosted platform — you run the server, you own the data. It has no usage-based pricing from the platform, no data leaving your infrastructure, and no reliance on a third-party SaaS. It is the recommended runtime for teams with data residency requirements, internal tooling use cases, or enterprises that need agent infrastructure alongside existing on-premise systems.

Envelope connects to your Paperclip instance via its REST API. When a deployer installs an Envelope team targeting Paperclip, Envelope sends an InstallRequest to your Paperclip base URL, which provisions the agents and returns provisioned agent IDs and a dashboard URL.

Concept mapping

Paperclip's model maps closely to the Envelope schema — the translation layer is thin.

| Envelope concept | Paperclip equivalent | |---|---| | Team | Agent group | | Agent | Agent | | Run | Task execution | | Install | Agent provisioning | | reportsToKey | Agent hierarchy / escalation chain |

Credentials

Deployers supply these at install time. Envelope encrypts them before transmission to the runtime — plain-text values never leave the deployer's session.

| Key | Description | |---|---| | paperclipBaseUrl | The API URL of your Paperclip instance (e.g. http://localhost:3100/api) | | paperclipApiKey | An admin API key from your Paperclip instance | | companyId | Your Paperclip company UUID — found in company settings |

Deploying a team

Use the guided deploy wizard or the API. The wizard walks through platform selection, credential entry, variable configuration, and one-click install. To deploy via API, send a POST to /api/installs with the team definition and platform credentials. See the install contract in the schema spec for the full request/response shape.

Install request shape

{
  "templateId": "tmpl_abc123",
  "platform": "paperclip",
  "companyId": "org_789",
  "credentials": {
    "paperclipBaseUrl": "https://paperclip.yourcompany.com/api",
    "paperclipApiKey":  "pc_admin_key_..."
  }
}

Looking for a full walkthrough? The Paperclip tutorial covers the full setup sequence from a fresh Paperclip install to a live team invocation.