AI Agent

Paperclip

Open-source software for organizing, governing, and running teams of AI agents for work.

Paperclip logo

Paperclip

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What is Paperclip?

Paperclip is an open-source, self-hosted platform for managing AI agents as organized teams, with goals, budgets, governance, task tracing, and integrations for different agent runtimes.

Paperclip vs Similar AI Tools

Pricing ModelFreeFree, FreemiumFreeFree
Free Credits
Key Features
  • Org charts for agent teams
  • Goal alignment and mission tracking
  • Budget limits and cost control per agent
  • Multi-agent workflow with verification and self-healing
  • 50+ AI models auto-routed per agent
  • 1000+ OAuth2 app integrations
  • Seven breakable boxes covering OWASP Agentic Top-10 vulnerabilities
  • Three guided simulations for cascading failures, human-agent trust, and rogue agents
  • Network-isolated Docker containers for safe execution
  • Code-to-runtime reasoning across cloud, Git, and Kubernetes
  • Action-gate enforces read-only policy on every API call
  • Sandboxed JavaScript execution for concurrent research
Pros
  • Open source and self-hosted
  • Works with many agent runtimes
  • Replaces 10+ separate tools with one platform
  • Multi-agent orchestration saves time and context switching
  • Covers full OWASP Agentic Top-10 in a realistic manner
  • Docker isolation prevents accidental damage
  • Read-only by construction prevents accidental writes
  • Evidence-backed verification cross-checks every finding
Cons
  • Requires self-hosting and setup effort
  • Best suited to teams already using AI agents
  • Free tier limited to 5,000 credits per month
  • May have a learning curve for complex workflows
  • Requires Docker and technical setup
  • Not for production use; only for lab environments
  • Requires an LLM API key, incurring token costs
  • Limited to read-only operations, cannot remediate
Best For
  • Founders building autonomous workflows
  • Teams managing multiple AI agents
  • Marketing teams
  • Content creators
  • Security researchers focusing on AI agent vulnerabilities
  • Developers building MCP-based applications
  • Security engineers
  • DevOps teams

How to use Paperclip?

  1. 1Run the onboarding command to set up Paperclip locally or on a server.
  2. 2Connect your database and authentication during the interactive setup.
  3. 3Define a company or project goal for the agent team.
  4. 4Hire agents for roles such as CEO, engineer, marketer, or researcher.
  5. 5Review the proposed strategy, set budgets, and approve execution.
  6. 6Monitor tickets, heartbeats, costs, and audit logs from the dashboard.

Paperclip Key Features

  • Org charts for agent teams
  • Goal alignment and mission tracking
  • Budget limits and cost control per agent
  • Ticket-based task management with full tracing
  • Governance controls for approvals, pauses, overrides, and termination
  • Heartbeat scheduling and delegated work execution
  • Model-agnostic support for multiple agent runtimes
  • Self-hosted, open-source deployment
  • Extensible with drop-in integrations

Paperclip Use Cases

  • Coordinate autonomous business workflows
  • Manage developer, marketing, and research agents
  • Run a self-hosted AI operations dashboard
  • Track agent tasks, costs, and accountability
  • Orchestrate multiple agents across one project or company

Paperclip Pricing & Free Credits

Paperclip currently operates on a Free model.

This tool is completely free to use

Open Source

Free

MIT-licensed and self-hosted; no Paperclip account required.

Deployment

Free

Can run locally with an embedded database or on your own Postgres.

Paperclip Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Open source and self-hosted
  • Works with many agent runtimes
  • Strong governance, budgets, and audit logs
  • Designed for coordinated multi-agent work
  • Interactive setup for quick onboarding

Cons

  • Requires self-hosting and setup effort
  • Best suited to teams already using AI agents
  • Pricing details beyond free/self-hosted are not provided

What is Paperclip best for?

  • Founders building autonomous workflows
  • Teams managing multiple AI agents
  • Developers who want agent governance
  • Operators who need auditability and budget control
  • Users looking for self-hosted agent orchestration

Paperclip FAQ

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