If an agent is an employee, Paperclip is the company

A company of agents, not a pile of chats

Picture three AI assistants, or agents, on the same project: one writing product copy, one answering customers, one watching the numbers. Kept in three chat windows, nobody knows who is doing what, what it costs, or why. Paperclip is an open-source app that runs agents the way a company runs people.

• Every task has its reason — work is a task, and every task traces back to the company's goal, so an agent picking one up knows what to do and why. Every step an agent took is kept for you to read.
• An org chart — every agent has a title, a boss and a job of its own. The first is the CEO, which can hire other agents and hand work down to them. You stay in charge above it, and can pause any agent at any time.
• Budgets — give each agent a monthly budget, so spending does not run away.

Paperclip is normally installed by hand on a server, with a database beside it and one more command to make the first administrator. On Erawan it is one button in your browser: the database is made for you, and you are taken in as the owner.

Before you start: an OpenAI API key with credit

The agents in this lesson run on OpenAI's Codex, which comes with Paperclip. It needs an OpenAI API key from an account with credit on it. A ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription does not work here: Paperclip offers signing in with a subscription only on a computer of your own, and asks for an API key everywhere else. The API is paid separately from ChatGPT, as you use it.

Step 1 — Create the app

Open the Paperclip page in the console. Without an Erawan account you are taken to sign up first. Press Deploy Paperclip on the right. There is nothing to fill in; everything is set up for you.

The app builds and starts on its own in a few minutes.

When it is running, wait for a line under the app's address: The first time you open it, it sets you up as the owner. That line means your way in is ready. It usually comes a few seconds after the app starts.

Step 2 — Create an OpenAI API key

On platform.openai.com, open API keys and press Create new secret key. Name it Paperclip and choose an Expiration; Create secret key stays grey until you do.

A name, then an expiry, and the button works

Copy the key straight away: OpenAI shows it once. Then check under Billing that the account has credit. Paperclip accepts a key from an account with none, and you only find out when the first agent starts work.

Copy it for step 4

Step 3 — Become the owner and name your company

Press Open site. It opens a one-time invitation made for you: Set up Paperclip. Fill in Name, Email and Password and press Create account and continue. This is your Paperclip account, separate from Erawan.

Your own invitation: it works once, for the first person to open it

Paperclip's setup has four short steps. First, What is the name of your organization? Type your company's name and press Continue.

Step 1 of 4: your company's name

Then Create your first agent. It will be your CEO; keep the name CEO or give it one, and press Next.

Step 2 of 4: the first agent, your CEO

Step 4 — Connect the model with your API key

The next step is Connect a model. Do not press the OpenAI card yet. Press Use API key instead under the cards first: every card starts on Subscription, which does not work on Erawan, and the link goes away once a card is chosen.

Press Use API key instead first, then the OpenAI card

Now press OpenAI, paste the key from step 2 into API key and press Connect. Paperclip checks the key with OpenAI before it keeps it.

Paste the key and press Connect

When it says CEO is ready to work!, press Get started.

Step 4 of 4: the CEO is ready

Step 5 — Your first task: let the CEO interview you

You land on your first task, Paperclip onboarding. The CEO greets you and asks What would you like to do? Choose Interview me and propose a plan and an agent team to execute it and press Continue.

Choose the interview and press Continue

This is the first time the CEO thinks with your model, so give it a minute. It comes back with four questions about your company. Answer each one in your own words and press Next.

Four questions: the more concrete your answers, the better the plan

Once you have answered, the CEO proposes a plan and a team of agents to hire, as you asked. Read it before you accept, and if you want something changed, say so in a comment on the task.

If something is not right

• “This Paperclip is waiting on its first admin” — you reached the bare address instead of your invitation, usually by pressing Open site in the seconds before the invitation was ready. Go back to the console, wait for the line about becoming the owner, and press Open site again. Until somebody owns the app, a fresh invitation is always waiting.
• “This environment does not support browser sign-in” — the OpenAI card was chosen while still on Subscription. Press Back once: you stay on the same step and the card is let go. Then press Use API key instead first, and the card after.
• The CEO's run fails with “ACP agent reported a terminal limit failure.” — OpenAI refused the work: the account has no credit, or has hit its rate limit. Add credit on OpenAI's Billing page, then press Retry on the run.

Using it safely

• Only you are in charge — the invitation works once, for the first person to open it, and Open site goes to the plain address afterwards. Anyone who finds the address can make a Paperclip account, but such an account sees no company and cannot make one. To bring somebody in, invite them from inside Paperclip.
• Look in on your agents — the CEO can hire agents and hand out work on its own. Open Agents now and then, and pause any agent doing something you did not want.
• Keep the damage of a leaked key small — put only the credit you mean to spend on the OpenAI account, and give each agent a budget in Paperclip.

What it costs

There are two costs. The first is the app on Erawan: Paperclip uses the Hobby plan, database included. On a free account it runs for 30 days from your first app's deploy; after that you take Hobby, ฿99 a month at the launch price. See every plan

The second is the model, paid to OpenAI as you use it. The CEO works only when there is something for it: a new task, a comment, your answer. Its timer to wake up on its own is off until you turn it on.

Your company, its tasks and its agents live in your own app. Paperclip is open source.

Where to go next

• Give the CEO real work — make a task the way you would for a colleague, with the outcome you want and by when, and assign it to the CEO.
• Your own domain — set up a domain, then restart the app once so Paperclip accepts the new name.

Start with the interview: once the company has a goal, the agents know which way to work.