{"slug": "paperclip", "title": "Paperclip", "summary": "Paperclip, an MIT-licensed, self-hosted open source platform, treats AI agents as employees, allowing users to act as a board of directors to approve hires, review strategy, set budgets, and pause or reassign agents. It is model-agnostic, supporting agents like Claude, Codex, Gemini, OpenClaw, and Cursor, and can be triggered via Python scripts, shell commands, or HTTP webhooks. The platform runs locally with an embedded database or connects to Postgres, and supports multiple isolated companies per deployment.", "body_md": "Open Source Alternative to:\n\nLast 30 days\n\nLast commit\n\nRepository age\n\nVersion\n\nLicense\n\nSelf-hosted\n\nRepository\n\nPaperclip treats your AI agents like employees, not tools. You act as the board of directors: you approve hires, review strategy, set budgets, and can pause or reassign any agent at any time. The mental model isn't \"I'm prompting an AI\" – it's \"I'm running a company.\"\n\nIt's model-agnostic by design. Agents can be Claude, Codex, Gemini, [OpenClaw](/openclaw), Cursor, or anything that can receive a heartbeat signal. Python scripts, shell commands, HTTP webhooks – if it can be triggered, it can be hired. You're not locked into any provider.\n\nKey capabilities:\n\n`SKILL.md`\n\ncontext file.Paperclip is MIT-licensed and self-hosted. A single deployment can run multiple separate companies with full data isolation, useful for parallel ventures or templating org configs. It runs locally with an embedded database or connects to your own Postgres instance. No Paperclip account required.\n\nFor teams already using [AI coding agents](/categories/developer-tools/ai-assisted-coding/ai-coding-agents) like [Cline](/cline) or similar tools, Paperclip sits above them – coordinating who has work checked out, maintaining sessions, tracking costs, and enforcing governance across the whole operation.\n\nLast 30 days\n\nLast commit\n\nRepository age\n\nVersion\n\nLicense\n\nSelf-hosted\n\nRepository\n\nEvery Sunday we deconstruct one proprietary app and pick the best open source alternatives worth switching to.\n\nStars\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nStars\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nStars\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nStars\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nOpen Source Alternative to:\n\nStars\n\nStars\n\nStars\n\nStars\n\nStars\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nOpen Source Alternative to:\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nOpen Source Alternative to:\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nOpen Source Alternative to:\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nOpen Source Alternative to:\n\nLast commit\n\nLicense\n\nOpen Source Alternative to:", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paperclip", "canonical_source": "https://openalternative.co/paperclip?utm_source=openalternative.co&utm_medium=rss", "published_at": "2026-08-21 10:59:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-21 11:42:39.130533+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-tools", "ai-infrastructure", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Paperclip", "Claude", "Codex", "Gemini", "OpenClaw", "Cursor", "Cline", "Postgres"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paperclip", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paperclip.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paperclip.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paperclip.jsonld"}}