Paperclip: Run a Small AI Agent Team (Claude Code + Codex) Without the Chaos

In this video, I'll walk through Paperclip, an open-source app for managing teams of AI agents like Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI. I'll show how adapters, organizations, goals, the org chart and task delegation fit together, then set up a small notes-app example with a coordinator, a coding agent and a review agent. After that, I'll cover approvals for strategies and hires, enforced review stages, budgets and how heartbeats work. I'll also look at routines, Skill Studio and connector permissions, and finish with who I think Paperclip is actually for. -- Key Takeaways: 📎 Paperclip is a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted app that sits above the agents you connect and organizes their work. 🔌 Adapters connect Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenCode and Pi, plus custom processes and HTTP services. 👥 You can build an org chart with a CEO-style coordinator, but a coordinator plus a couple of agents is a more sensible start. 🔍 Tasks hold the brief, comments and progress updates, and a checkout mechanism stops competing runs from claiming the same task. 💻 Local setup needs Node 24.11 or newer and one command, and it uses an embedded PostgreSQL database. ✅ You approve or request revisions on the coordinator's strategy and on proposed hires before anything happens. 🎯 Review stages are enforced when an agent tries to close a task, so a reviewer checks the actual app first. 💸 Budgets work at the company, agent and project level, but enforcement uses recorded spending, so stops can lag. ⚡ Timer heartbeats are off by default, routines handle recurring jobs, and Skill Studio lets you test and restore shared instructions. 👍 Worth trying if you already coordinate several agents; for one agent doing short requests, it's probably more structure than you need.