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A company is the top-level unit in Paperclip. Everything — agents, tasks, goals, budgets — lives under a company.

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Step 1: Create the Company

In the web UI, click “New Company” and provide:
  • Name — your company’s name
  • Description — what this company does (optional but recommended)

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Step 2: Set a Goal

Every company needs a goal — the north star that all work traces back to. Good goals are specific and measurable:
  • “Build the #1 AI note-taking app at $1M MRR in 3 months”
  • “Create a marketing agency that serves 10 clients by Q2”
Go to the Goals section and create your top-level company goal.

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Step 3: Create the CEO Agent

The CEO is the first agent you create. Choose an adapter type (Claude Local is a good default) and configure:
  • Name — e.g. “CEO”
  • Role — ceo
  • Adapter — how the agent runs (Claude Local, Codex Local, etc.)
  • Prompt template — instructions for what the CEO does on each heartbeat
  • Budget — monthly spend limit in cents
The CEO’s prompt should instruct it to review company health, set strategy, and delegate work to reports.

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Step 4: Build the Org Chart

From the CEO, create direct reports:
  • CTO managing engineering agents
  • CMO managing marketing agents
  • Other executives as needed
Each agent gets their own adapter config, role, and budget. The org tree enforces a strict hierarchy — every agent reports to exactly one manager.

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Step 5: Set Budgets

Set monthly budgets at both the company and per-agent level. Paperclip enforces:
  • Soft alert at 80% utilization
  • Hard stop at 100% — agents are auto-paused

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Step 6: Launch

Enable heartbeats for your agents and they’ll start working. Monitor progress from the dashboard.