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

# Paperclip

> Open-source human control plane for AI agents — org charts, budget caps, approval workflows, cost tracking, and immutable audit logs.

<div style={{display: "flex", gap: "8px", marginBottom: "1.5rem", flexWrap: "wrap"}}>
  <Badge>Open Source</Badge>
  <Badge color="#F97316">Applications Layer</Badge>
</div>

# Paperclip

**Treat AI agents like headcount — org charts, reporting lines, budget caps, and audit logs for running AI as an autonomous workforce.**

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/tumbleweedlabs/QT0SlrwbzlJBSMcS/images/og-paperclip.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=QT0SlrwbzlJBSMcS&q=85&s=62a11704b449051efc5bd6e313c2e15e" alt="Paperclip" width="1200" height="630" data-path="images/og-paperclip.jpg" />
</Frame>

<CardGroup cols={4}>
  <Card title="Type" icon="code-branch">Open Source (MIT)</Card>
  <Card title="Stack Layer" icon="browsers">Applications</Card>
  <Card title="Pricing" icon="credit-card">Free / self-hosted</Card>
  <Card title="API" icon="plug">Any agent runtime</Card>
</CardGroup>

## What it is

Paperclip is an open-source human control plane that brings organizational structure to AI agent deployments. Rather than treating agents as ad-hoc chat sessions, it structures them into org charts with reporting lines, assigns budget caps per agent or team, and enforces governance controls — treating AI labor more like headcount than tooling. Features include persistent agent state, task management, approval workflows for high-risk actions, real-time cost tracking, and immutable audit logs.

It supports any agent runtime (Claude, OpenAI, Cursor, and others) and is fully self-hostable with no vendor account required. This makes it particularly relevant for organizations in regulated industries or with compliance requirements around AI decision-making.

<Tip>
  **Use this when** you're deploying multiple AI agents for ongoing business operations — not one-off tasks — and need organizational structure, budget governance, and a full audit trail over what the agents do.
</Tip>

## Get started

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="paperclip.ing ↗" icon="globe" href="https://paperclip.ing/">
    Product overview and self-hosting guide.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Related tools

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="HumanLayer" icon="github" href="/library/control-surfaces/humanlayer">
    Claude Code IDE with context engineering and parallel session management.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Ruflo" icon="github" href="/library/agents/ruflo">
    Multi-agent orchestration platform with federated agent collaboration.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>