Paperclip Complete Guide: From Installation to Building Zero-Human AI Companies

Beyond the era of using a single AI agent well, we are entering an era of orchestrating multiple agents as a unified team. Paperclip is an open-source AI agent orchestration platform that lets you hire various AI agents such as OpenClaw, Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor, assign goals, manage budgets, and monitor tasks. The slogan summarizes it well: "If OpenClaw is an employee, Paperclip is the company."

This guide covers an introduction to the project, which has received over 41,000 stars on GitHub, along with installation instructions for Windows, Ubuntu, and macOS.

What Is Paperclip?

Paperclip is an AI agent orchestration platform built with a Node.js server and React UI. Rather than being a single-agent tool, it is a Control Plane that groups multiple agents into a team to achieve business objectives.

What Paperclip Does and Does Not Do

Key Features

• Goal Alignment: Every task is traced back to the company mission. Agents understand not only the "what" but also the "why"
• Scheduled Execution: Heartbeat-based activation allows agents to operate autonomously on a schedule
• Cost Management: Set monthly budgets per agent to prevent runaway token costs
• Multi-Company: Run unlimited isolated companies from a single deployment
• Audit Trail: Every tool call, decision, and response is recorded in immutable logs
• Governance: Humans control hiring approvals, strategy overrides, and agent termination
• Runtime Skill Injection: Agents learn workflows and project context at runtime without retraining

Prerequisites

Common across all operating systems:

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm 9.15+ (for manual installation)
• PostgreSQL is built in, so no separate installation is required

Windows Installation

Method 1: npx One-Command Install (Recommended)

If Node.js 20+ is installed, a single line is all you need:

npx paperclipai onboard --yes

An interactive setup wizard will launch, and the built-in PostgreSQL will be configured automatically.

Method 2: Global CLI Install

npm install -g paperclipai
paperclipai onboard

Method 3: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip.git
cd paperclip
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Ubuntu (Linux) Installation

Method 1: npx (Recommended)

# Install Node.js 20+ (if not already installed)
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# Install Paperclip and run onboarding
npx paperclipai onboard --yes

Method 2: Build from Source

# Install pnpm
npm install -g pnpm

# Clone source and run
git clone https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip.git
cd paperclip
pnpm install
pnpm dev

The server will start at http://localhost:3100.

Method 3: Global CLI

npm install -g paperclipai
paperclipai onboard

macOS Installation

Method 1: npx (Recommended)

# Install Node.js 20+ (if not already installed)
brew install node@20

# Install Paperclip and run onboarding
npx paperclipai onboard --yes

Method 2: Build from Source

brew install pnpm

git clone https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip.git
cd paperclip
pnpm install
pnpm dev

Method 3: Global CLI

npm install -g paperclipai
paperclipai onboard

Key CLI Commands

Configuration File Structure

Paperclip isolates configuration per instance:

~/.paperclip/instances/<instance-id>/
  config.json      # Main configuration
  .env.local       # JWT secret
  master.key       # Encryption key
  context.json     # CLI context profile

Key Environment Variables

Troubleshooting

Key Takeaways

• Paperclip is an open-source orchestration platform that coordinates multiple AI agents as a unified team
• Unified management of all agents including OpenClaw, Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor
• Control goal alignment, budget management, audit trails, and governance from a single dashboard
• One-line installation on any OS: npx paperclipai onboard --yes
• Built-in PostgreSQL means no separate database installation required
• MIT license, 41K+ GitHub stars, self-hosting only

Reference Links

• paperclipai/paperclip - GitHubOfficial repository (README, source code, issue tracker)
• Paperclip CLI Official DocumentationCLI commands, configuration files, environment variable reference
• Paperclip Official WebsiteProject introduction, feature overview
• paperclipai - npmnpm package page, latest version information