forked from farhoodlabs/paperclip
Devin Foley
e3c875c1c7
## Thinking Path > - Paperclip orchestrates AI agents for zero-human companies > - Heartbeats run inside managed sandboxes (E2B, Cloudflare Sandbox), and each run begins by uploading the agent's workspace as a tar archive > - PAPA-381's E2B runs were failing at 5 and 11 minutes — two distinct failure modes were entangled: workspace tar extraction errors on Linux, and sandbox idle/lease timeouts during normal heartbeat gaps > - Workspace tar extraction failed because macOS bsdtar embeds `LIBARCHIVE.xattr.*` PAX headers that GNU tar on Linux rejects with "This does not look like a tar archive"; the existing `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1` only suppresses AppleDouble `._*` sidecars, not inline PAX xattr entries > - E2B sandboxes also expired between heartbeats because `timeoutMs` defaulted to a short window and was never refreshed per execute, and Cloudflare sandboxes idled out because `sleepAfter` defaulted to 10 minutes > - This pull request adds `--no-xattrs` to the workspace tar invocation, refreshes the E2B sandbox lifetime on each execute and bumps the default `timeoutMs` to 1h, and raises the Cloudflare `sleepAfter` default to 1h > - The benefit is that long-running heartbeat-driven runs (Claude, Codex, etc.) survive across both their initial workspace upload and the natural idle gaps between executes on both E2B and Cloudflare ## What Changed - `packages/adapter-utils/src/sandbox-managed-runtime.ts`: added `--no-xattrs` to `createTarballFromDirectory` so macOS bsdtar produces a clean POSIX tar that GNU tar on Linux can extract, with an inline comment explaining why `COPYFILE_DISABLE=1` alone is insufficient. - `packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/e2b/src/plugin.ts`: refresh the sandbox lifetime on every execute (so long runs don't expire mid-job) and raised the default `timeoutMs` to 1h. - `packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/e2b/src/manifest.ts` and `plugin.test.ts`: updated manifest defaults and added regression coverage for the new behavior. - `packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/cloudflare/src/config.ts`, `manifest.ts`, `plugin.test.ts`: raised default `sleepAfter` from 10m to 1h, mirroring the E2B 1h default, and added a regression test asserting the acquire-lease request body sends `sleepAfter: "1h"` when not overridden. ## Verification - `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/plugin-e2b test` - `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/plugin-cloudflare-sandbox test` - Locally cherry-picked the `--no-xattrs` fix onto master and confirmed end-to-end via a real PAPA-381-style heartbeat-driven E2B run that the workspace upload now extracts cleanly on Linux. The user (board operator) tested this on master and reported "Ok, that worked." - Manual reviewer steps: trigger an E2B heartbeat from a macOS host (this is where the bsdtar xattr headers come from), confirm the workspace tar extracts on the Linux sandbox side; run a long (>15 min) Cloudflare sandbox flow and confirm no lost-lease/idle errors between executes. ## Risks - Low risk overall. - `--no-xattrs` is widely supported by both macOS bsdtar and GNU tar (Linux). Worst case it silently no-ops on a future host that doesn't support it; in that case the existing failure mode reappears, it doesn't introduce a new one. - Raising default `timeoutMs` (E2B) and `sleepAfter` (Cloudflare) from short values to 1h means sandboxes stay alive longer between executes by default. This is the intended behavior — operators that want a tighter idle window can still override via plugin config. - E2B per-execute sandbox lifetime refresh adds a small API call per execute; it is bounded by the same client that already handles execute traffic, so no new dependencies or retry semantics. ## Model Used - Claude (Anthropic), `claude-opus-4-7`, extended thinking enabled, tool use enabled (file/grep/git tools and Paperclip control-plane API). Used to diagnose the dual failure mode (workspace tar PAX xattr headers + sandbox lifetime), write the fixes and tests, and drive the verification loop with the board operator. ## 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 (N/A — no UI changes) - [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>
@paperclipai/plugin-e2b
Published E2B sandbox provider plugin for Paperclip.
This package lives in the Paperclip monorepo, but it is intentionally excluded from the root pnpm workspace and shaped to publish and install like a standalone npm package. That means operators can install it from the Plugins page by package name, and the host will fetch its transitive dependencies at install time without adding lockfile churn to the Paperclip repo.
Install
From a Paperclip instance, install:
@paperclipai/plugin-e2b
The host plugin installer runs npm install into the managed plugin directory, so package dependencies such as e2b are pulled in during installation.
Configuration
Configure E2B from Company Settings -> Environments, not from the plugin's instance settings page.
- Put the E2B API key on the sandbox environment itself.
- When you save an environment, Paperclip stores pasted API keys as company secrets.
E2B_API_KEYremains an optional host-level fallback when an environment omits the key.
Local development
cd packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/e2b
pnpm install --ignore-workspace --no-lockfile
pnpm build
pnpm test
pnpm typecheck
These commands assume the repo root has already been installed once so the local @paperclipai/plugin-sdk workspace package is available to the compiler during development.
Package layout
src/manifest.tsdeclares the sandbox-provider driver metadatasrc/plugin.tsimplements the environment lifecycle hookspaperclipPlugin.manifestandpaperclipPlugin.workerpoint the host at the built plugin entrypoints indist/