Your first Paperclip company in 5 minutes
Go from install to a working single-agent company with one small config and one real task.
Overview
The fastest way to understand Paperclip is to make one useful thing happen. Do not start with a full org chart. Start with one agent, one adapter, and one task you can verify quickly.
Install and onboard
Run the onboarding flow and accept the defaults you actually understand.
npx paperclipai onboard --yes
If the setup asks you for five things and you only understand two, stop and use the simplest adapter path available.
Create one agent
Add a minimal AGENTS.md file in the project root:
# Dev Agent
adapter: claude-local
role: software engineer
reports_to: board
budget: $10/month
The goal is not perfect structure. The goal is to see one agent wake up, read context, and finish a small task.
Give it a boring task
Use a task that has an obvious pass or fail signal:
- write a README
- rename a file
- summarize a log
That makes it easy to tell whether the system works before you add more moving parts.
What good looks like
You should be able to answer these questions after the first run:
- did the agent wake up?
- did it read the right context?
- did it produce an output you can inspect?
If yes, you have a real baseline. Everything else builds on that.