Paperclip: AI Agent Orchestration

Understand the project

Practical overview

When it fits

Use Paperclip when multiple agents need shared goals and centralized oversight of tasks, permissions, work history and costs.

Who it is for

Teams coordinating multiple AI agents toward shared business goals.
Operators who need a dashboard for agent tasks, permissions, history and spending.

Documented uses

Assign business goals and coordinate agent work toward them.
Organize agent tasks, skills, permissions and work history in one interface.
Monitor budgets and costs across agents.
Choose models and execution harnesses for individual agents.

Before you choose

Requirements & limits

The self-hosted quickstart requires Node.js 24.11 or newer and does not require a Paperclip account. Paperclip Cloud is presented via a waitlist.

Paperclip coordinates agents that users bring; it is not itself a single agent.
The project describes integrations with several agent tools and allows custom processes, HTTP endpoints and external adapter packages.
The documented stack is a Node.js server and React UI; the repository is TypeScript and MIT-licensed.
The documented test-drive path requires a provider API key for the chosen harness.

Check current requirements in the official documentation. Source-based guidance does not mean OpenViST has run or independently tested this project.

Source-based practical guide

Install and open Paperclip locally

Set up a local Paperclip instance and open its onboarding flow.

Before you start

Node.js 24.11.0 or newer.
A normal, non-administrator user account; the local setup starts embedded PostgreSQL.

Steps

Install Node.js 24 or newer, if it is not already installed; check the version with the command below.
Documented command
```
node --version
```
Install and enable pnpm using Corepack: the command below, corepack enable, then corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate.
Documented command
```
npm install -g corepack
```
As your normal user, run the command below.
Documented command
```
npx paperclipai onboard --yes
```
When setup completes, use the browser opened automatically, or visit http://localhost:3100 to reach onboarding.

Expected outcome

A local Paperclip server runs at `http://localhost:3100`, with the onboarding flow ready for creating a company, agent, and first piece of work.

Guide limitations

This recipe covers local installation and opening onboarding; it does not cover configuring an agent or starting agent work.
Closing the terminal running the command stops Paperclip. To run it again after restarting the machine, use npx paperclipai run.
AI agents need an API key from an AI provider before they can do work; provider usage can incur charges.

Documentation 1 ↗Documentation 2 ↗

COMPARE OPTIONS

Compare options for Agent orchestration

These projects document a common task and share a project role. This is a source-based comparison, not an execution benchmark or a guarantee of interchangeability.

Project	Documented purpose	Platform	Access and requirements
Paperclip	Assign business goals and coordinate agent work toward them.	Server, Web	The self-hosted quickstart requires Node.js 24.11 or newer and does not require a Paperclip account. Paperclip Cloud is presented via a waitlist.
Insurance Agentic AI	Route insurance questions to a life, home or auto specialist.	Docker, Self-hosted, Web
AI Chatkit	Create and orchestrate agents with custom behavior logic.	Linux, Self-hosted, Server, Web	The repository is public and identified as open source. Its README documents a local development setup with Python and Node-based frontend tooling.

Evidence and transparency

Sources & review

Official repository ↗Guide documentation ↗

Source record details

Source availability: Active
Sources checked: 13 October 2026
Original website title: paperclipai/paperclip · Official homepage title · retained in its source language

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Paperclip