## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies.
> - Heartbeat liveness recovery decides when stalled issue trees need
manager-visible follow-up.
> - Automatic recovery issue creation is useful, but operators need
instance-level controls for how aggressive it is.
> - Without controls, recovery behavior is harder to tune for local
development, production operations, and noisy edge cases.
> - This pull request adds configurable liveness auto-recovery settings
across shared contracts, API routes, services, and the instance
experimental settings UI.
> - The benefit is that operators can keep liveness findings advisory or
enable bounded recovery automation with explicit intervals and lookback
windows.
## What Changed
- Added shared types and validators for liveness auto-recovery settings.
- Extended instance settings routes and services to persist and validate
the new controls.
- Wired heartbeat/recovery services to honor enablement, minimum
interval, and lookback settings.
- Added UI controls for liveness recovery under instance experimental
settings.
- Covered the new server behavior with instance settings and liveness
escalation tests.
## Verification
- `pnpm exec vitest run --project @paperclipai/server
server/src/__tests__/heartbeat-issue-liveness-escalation.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/instance-settings-routes.test.ts --pool=forks
--poolOptions.forks.isolate=true`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/shared typecheck`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server typecheck`
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/ui typecheck`
## Risks
- Moderate behavioral risk because recovery automation timing changes
when enabled; defaults keep existing advisory behavior unless the
setting is turned on.
- No database migration in this PR; settings are stored through the
existing instance settings path.
> For core feature work, check [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) first and
discuss it in `#dev` before opening the PR. Feature PRs that overlap
with planned core work may need to be redirected — check the roadmap
first. See `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex, `gpt-5`, coding model with tool use and local command
execution; context window not exposed by the runtime.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [ ] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
---------
Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
## Thinking Path
> - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies.
> - The heartbeat harness is responsible for waking agents, reconciling
issue state, and keeping execution moving.
> - Some dependency graphs can become live-locks when a blocked issue
depends on an unassigned, cancelled, or otherwise uninvokable issue.
> - Review and approval stages can also stall when the recorded
participant can no longer be resolved.
> - This pull request adds issue graph liveness classification plus
heartbeat reconciliation that creates durable escalation work for those
cases.
> - The benefit is that harness-level deadlocks become visible,
assigned, logged, and recoverable instead of silently leaving task
sequences blocked.
## What Changed
- Added an issue graph liveness classifier for blocked dependency and
invalid review participant states.
- Added heartbeat reconciliation that creates one stable escalation
issue per liveness incident, links it as a blocker, comments on the
affected issue, wakes the recommended owner, and logs activity.
- Wired startup and periodic server reconciliation for issue graph
liveness incidents.
- Added focused tests for classifier behavior, heartbeat escalation
creation/deduplication, and queued dependency wake promotion.
- Fixed queued issue wakes so a coalesced wake re-runs queue selection,
allowing dependency-unblocked work to start immediately.
## Verification
- `pnpm exec vitest run
server/src/__tests__/heartbeat-dependency-scheduling.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/issue-liveness.test.ts
server/src/__tests__/heartbeat-issue-liveness-escalation.test.ts`
- Passed locally: `server/src/__tests__/issue-liveness.test.ts` (5
tests)
- Skipped locally: embedded Postgres suites because optional package
`@embedded-postgres/darwin-x64` is not installed on this host
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server typecheck`
- `git diff --check`
- Greptile review loop: ran 3 times as requested; the final
Greptile-reviewed head `0a864eab` had 0 comments and all Greptile
threads were resolved. Later commits are CI/test-stability fixes after
the requested max Greptile pass count.
- GitHub PR checks on head `87493ed4`: `policy`, `verify`, `e2e`, and
`security/snyk (cryppadotta)` all passed.
## Risks
- Moderate operational risk: the reconciler creates escalation issues
automatically, so incorrect classification could create noise. Stable
incident keys and deduplication limit repeated escalation.
- Low schema risk: this uses existing issue, relation, comment, wake,
and activity log tables with no migration.
- No UI screenshots included because this change is server-side harness
behavior only.
> For core feature work, check [`ROADMAP.md`](ROADMAP.md) first and
discuss it in `#dev` before opening the PR. Feature PRs that overlap
with planned core work may need to be redirected — check the roadmap
first. See `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
## Model Used
- OpenAI Codex, GPT-5-based coding agent. Exact runtime model ID and
context window were not exposed in this session. Used tool execution for
git, tests, typecheck, Greptile review handling, and GitHub CLI
operations.
## Checklist
- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after
screenshots
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge
Dotta