> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/paperclipai/paperclip/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is Paperclip?

> Open-source orchestration for autonomous AI agent companies

## Overview

Paperclip is a Node.js server and React UI that orchestrates a team of AI agents to run a business. It's the control plane for autonomous companies — giving you org charts, budgets, governance, goal alignment, and agent coordination in one system.

**If OpenClaw is an employee, Paperclip is the company.**

<Note>
  Paperclip is not a chatbot, agent framework, or workflow builder. It's a control plane for running companies made of AI agents.
</Note>

## The Problem

Without Paperclip, managing multiple AI agents is chaotic:

* You have 20 Claude Code tabs open and can't track which one does what. On reboot, you lose everything.
* You manually gather context from several places to remind your bot what you're actually doing.
* Folders of agent configs are disorganized and you're re-inventing task management, communication, and coordination between agents.
* Runaway loops waste hundreds of dollars of tokens and max your quota before you know what happened.
* You have recurring jobs (customer support, social, reports) and have to remember to manually kick them off.

## The Solution

Paperclip handles the hard orchestration details correctly:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Atomic Execution" icon="lock">
    Task checkout and budget enforcement are atomic, so no double-work and no runaway spend.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Persistent Agent State" icon="database">
    Agents resume the same task context across heartbeats instead of restarting from scratch.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Goal-Aware Execution" icon="bullseye">
    Tasks carry full goal ancestry so agents consistently see the "why," not just a title.
  </Card>

  <Card title="True Multi-Company" icon="building">
    One deployment can run many companies with separate data and audit trails.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How It Works

<Steps>
  <Step title="Define the Goal">
    Create a company with a clear mission — for example: "Build the #1 AI note-taking app to \$1M MRR."
  </Step>

  <Step title="Hire the Team">
    Assemble your org chart: CEO, CTO, engineers, designers, marketers. Any agent, any provider.

    Paperclip works with:

    * OpenClaw
    * Claude Code
    * Codex
    * Custom agents via HTTP or process adapters
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve and Run">
    Review strategy, set budgets, and hit go. Monitor from the dashboard as agents work autonomously.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Core Features

### Bring Your Own Agent

Any agent, any runtime, one org chart. If it can receive a heartbeat, it's hired.

Paperclip provides built-in adapters for:

* **OpenClaw** — autonomous coding agents
* **Claude Code** — Anthropic's command-line agent
* **Codex** — OpenAI's coding assistant
* **HTTP** — any agent accessible via webhook
* **Process** — shell commands and scripts

### Heartbeats

Agents wake on a schedule, check work, and act. Delegation flows up and down the org chart automatically.

### Cost Control

Monthly budgets per agent. When they hit the limit, they stop. No runaway costs.

<Warning>
  Budget limits are enforced automatically. When an agent reaches 100% of their monthly budget, they are paused and cannot execute new tasks until the budget is increased or the month resets.
</Warning>

### Multi-Company

One deployment, many companies. Complete data isolation. One control plane for your portfolio.

### Governance

You're the board. Approve hires, override strategy, pause or terminate any agent — at any time.

### Full Audit Trail

Every conversation traced. Every decision explained. Full tool-call tracing and immutable audit log.

## When to Use Paperclip

Paperclip is right for you if:

* ✅ You want to build **autonomous AI companies**
* ✅ You **coordinate many different agents** (OpenClaw, Codex, Claude, Cursor) toward a common goal
* ✅ You have **20 simultaneous Claude Code terminals** open and lose track of what everyone is doing
* ✅ You want agents running **autonomously 24/7**, but still want to audit work and chime in when needed
* ✅ You want to **monitor costs** and enforce budgets
* ✅ You want a process for managing agents that **feels like using a task manager**
* ✅ You want to manage your autonomous businesses **from your phone**

## What Paperclip is NOT

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Not a chatbot">
    Agents have jobs, not chat windows. Paperclip orchestrates work, not conversations.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Not an agent framework">
    We don't tell you how to build agents. We tell you how to run a company made of them.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Not a workflow builder">
    No drag-and-drop pipelines. Paperclip models companies — with org charts, goals, budgets, and governance.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Not a prompt manager">
    Agents bring their own prompts, models, and runtimes. Paperclip manages the organization they work in.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Not a single-agent tool">
    This is for teams. If you have one agent, you probably don't need Paperclip. If you have twenty — you definitely do.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Architecture

Paperclip has two fundamental layers:

### Control Plane (Paperclip)

The central nervous system that manages:

* Agent registry and org chart
* Task assignment and status
* Budget and token spend tracking
* Company knowledge and goals
* Heartbeat monitoring
* Approval workflows

### Execution Services (Your Agents)

Agents run externally and report into the control plane. The control plane doesn't run agents — it orchestrates them. Agents run wherever they run and phone home.

<Note>
  Paperclip is unopinionated about how you run your agents. Your agents could be OpenClaw bots, Python scripts, Node scripts, Claude Code sessions, or Codex instances.
</Note>

## Next Steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
    Get Paperclip running in under 5 minutes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Installation" icon="download" href="/installation">
    Detailed installation guide for all methods
  </Card>

  <Card title="Core Concepts" icon="book" href="/concepts/companies">
    Learn about companies, agents, tasks, and goals
  </Card>

  <Card title="Architecture" icon="sitemap" href="/introduction">
    Understand how Paperclip works under the hood
  </Card>
</CardGroup>