# Clawboo vs Paperclip

> Clawboo scores 61.4 (C) to Paperclip's 59 (C) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-paperclip
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-paperclip.md (~5,800 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-01

Clawboo scores 61.4 (C) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 59 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Clawboo: grade C, 61.4/100, rank #555 of 1251. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clawboo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clawboo.json
- Paperclip: grade C, 59/100, rank #666 of 1251. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paperclip.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paperclip.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 955 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Clawboo (C)

Good for: One person on one computer who wants several coding and general agents on one board, with shared memory and a lead agent that routes work.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 70
- Security & auth, 70 against 64

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: Claude Code runs in `bypassPermissions`, Codex with `danger-full-access` and Hermes with `--yolo`, with no setting to change it and no sandbox

### Paperclip (C)

Good for: Someone running several coding or operations agents who wants one place for tasks, budgets, approvals and history across harnesses.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 66 against 52
- Maintenance & community, 78 against 51
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 58

Watch for: `claude_local` defaults `dangerouslySkipPermissions` to true and `codex_local` defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, with agents running on the host


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Paperclip +27

- Clawboo (51): 0.5.0 was published to npm on 21 October 2026 (30). Two releases in the 90 days to 1 November 2026, 0.4.0 on 28 September and 0.5.0, below the three the line asks for (0). github.com was unreachable, so replies to issues, pull requests and Discussions are unchecked. The CI file cites issue #140 as fixed (3). One public npm package, current, with no entry in the official MCP registry for its four servers (10). CI, CodeQL, weekly Dependabot and SLSA provenance on 0.4.0 and 0.5.0, with `@composio/client` pinned to an alpha (8).
- Paperclip (78): Version 2026.1005.0, dated 5 October 2026 in its notes and published on GitHub and npm on 6 October (30). Eleven stable releases since 20 July 2026 (20). 650 pull requests merged in the last 30 days, but 2,849 issues and 3,338 pull requests are open, 1,396 open issues have no comment, and 309 of the 472 still-open issues from the last two weeks have none (8). `paperclipai` and `@paperclipai/mcp-server` are both at 2026.1005.0 on npm. We did not check the MCP registry (12). CI on master, a lockfile refresh workflow and signed image attestations (8).

### Reliability: Paperclip +14

- Clawboo (52): Read as local software. The official npm package `clawboo` states Node.js 22.12 or newer, and the README says macOS, Linux and Windows are supported (20). `ci.yml` runs lint, typecheck, Vitest and a real-concurrency suite on Linux and platform suites on Windows and macOS, and `publish.yml` reruns build, lint, typecheck, tests and a clean-install boot before it publishes. 0.5.0 carries provenance from that workflow on main, so its checks passed at that commit, but run results on main couldn't be read (15). github.com was unreachable, so open crash and regression issues are unchecked. A known-issues page lists 25 entries with a status each, three of them fixed on main (5). Changesets write a changelog entry per release, and removals and the 0.2.0 database reset are called out, though breaking changes arrive in minor versions before 1.0 (12). Version 0.5.0, and SECURITY.md says pre-1.0 (0).
- Paperclip (66): Read as local software. Official npm package `paperclipai` (Node.js 24.11 or newer) and a Docker image on GHCR (20). 2,429 test files and 20 workflows. The Actions page for master on 8 October 2026 showed recent runs passing, with two failed Runner Full-Stack E2E runs (681 and 682) before two that passed (22). 2,849 open issues, 125 labelled bug, 1,599 opened before 8 July, and 78 closed in the last 30 days against 686 opened (6). Calendar versions in semver syntax, with a Breaking Changes section and an upgrade guide in release notes, but breaking changes arrive in ordinary releases and 2026.916.0 carried five (10). No 1.0. The npm `latest` tag is called the stable channel and follows a beta soak of at least three days, while the roadmap says the product is still moving quickly, so half credit (8).

### Transparency & trust: Paperclip +8

- Clawboo (58): MIT, Copyright 2026 Sanreds, with a third-party notices file (30). The docs list every file Clawboo writes, which copies of keys are encrypted and which are plain text, retention for stored tool results (7 days) and pending approvals (24 hours), and that prompts go only to connected providers. There is no privacy statement, and the website wasn't read (22). The 0.1.x line is deprecated on npm with a note in the changelog, and removals are dated in release notes, with no written deprecation policy or notice period (10). No telemetry, with the server's own outbound requests disclosed, though the npm update check has no setting (18).
- Paperclip (66): MIT (30). The privacy policy of 23 July 2026 separates self-hosted use from the hosted services and names Paperclip Labs, Inc., but keeps data as long as reasonably necessary, lists no subprocessors, and the 90-day telemetry retention appears only in source. The terms grant a broad licence over content sent to the services and allow model training on opt-in detailed telemetry (16). Release notes carry dated Breaking Changes sections and upgrade guides, with no written deprecation policy or notice period (10). The README discloses telemetry, what it excludes and four opt-outs, and the event contract is public in the repository, but it is on by default (17).

### Security & auth: Clawboo +6

- Clawboo (70): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The docs say Clawboo sends no telemetry and list the GitHub catalogue fetch, the npm version check, OpenRouter's public model list, Google Fonts and the GitHub star count, of which only the catalogue address can be changed (27). Clawboo Native shell commands are off by default and asked one at a time, and connector grants are per agent with approval on writes. Claude Code, Codex and Hermes run with their prompts and sandboxes off and no setting to change it, they can read Clawboo's database and key vault, and with no access token by default any local program can answer approval cards (8). Images in agent text don't load on their own, peer posts are marked as evidence, and a run that has read private data and untrusted content asks before any outbound connector call (11). An audit log of budget, breaker, approval, verification, tool-call and install events, with secrets masked (13). SECURITY.md with private reporting, CodeQL, Dependabot and npm provenance. No security.txt or bug bounty, OSV lists no advisory for `clawboo`, and the proxy advisory is on the docs with a workaround while its fix is unreleased (11).
- Paperclip (64): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as used for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Anonymous usage telemetry is on by default and goes to telemetry.paperclip.ing. The README lists what is excluded and four opt-outs, and Sentry and OpenTelemetry stay off until configured. We found no first-run notice in the CLI source (18). Board approvals for hires and strategy, execution policies and per-action connection permissions, but `claude_local` defaults `dangerouslySkipPermissions` to true, `codex_local` defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, local agents run on the host, sandbox providers are optional plugins and the default `local_trusted` mode has no login (10). A documented `low_trust_review` preset contains agents that read untrusted pull requests or tickets. It is opt-in (10). An activity log of mutating actions, run logs, cost events and audited board API keys (14). SECURITY.md with GitHub private reporting and twelve advisories published, two with CVEs. No security.txt, bug bounty or SOC 2 report found (12).

### Agent ergonomics: Clawboo +5

- Clawboo (75): Harness reading, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. Four MCP servers keep tool lists small (12 Tasks tools, 4 Memory tools, 2 or 3 TeamChat tools, and Tools with four demonstration builtins plus granted connectors), Clawboo Native gets a read-only Tasks subset, and Tools results over 16 KiB are trimmed with a handle to read the rest (22). Circuit breakers stop task-runner runs after more than 30 tool calls or 200,000 tokens a minute, and team chat caps hand-offs at 8 a turn and three levels. Budgets warn only unless set to a hard cap, and a hard cap stops most runs only between runs (14). REST errors use one `{error}` shape, refused MCP calls return `denied:` with a reason prefix, and 429s carry `Retry-After` (16). `claim_task` and `assign_task` are atomic, illegal status changes are refused by name, the board survives restarts and routines resume after failure. No MCP tool annotations are documented (14). One `npx` command and a provider key or a local Ollama, but Claude Code teammates need a global install with the Agent SDK, and there is no client SDK (9).
- Paperclip (70): Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. The MCP server lists 44 tools with no toolsets or read-only subset found, offset by compact reads such as `paperclipInboxLite` and the heartbeat context (12). Budgets by company, agent and project with an automatic pause at 100 per cent, though the README says enforcement uses recorded spend and can lag work in flight (16). `onboard --yes`, CLI commands with `--json`, the REST API and routines started by cron, webhook or API (16). Atomic task checkout with a documented 409, `Idempotency-Key` on routine triggers, saved sessions and bounded recovery (17). One command starts a server with embedded PostgreSQL, but it needs Node.js 24.11 and each harness CLI installed and signed in on the host, and we found no client SDK beyond the TypeScript plugin SDK (9).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Clawboo | Paperclip | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 52 | 66 | Paperclip +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 81 | Clawboo +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 70 | Clawboo +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 64 | Clawboo +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 78 | Paperclip +27 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 66 | Paperclip +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -10 | |
| **Total** | | **61.4 · C** | **59 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Clawboo | Paperclip |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Sanreds | Paperclip Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-21 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-07-23 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-07-23 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | 100 npm/wk | 99k stars, 60k npm/wk |

## How the scores have moved

### Clawboo

No score change since it was listed.

### Paperclip

- no change on 27 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Clawboo.** Tasks, memory, team chat and connectors are shared across five runtimes through four MCP servers, with documentation that states each default and limit. Claude Code, Codex and Hermes run with their sandboxes and approval prompts off and no setting to change it, and a reverse-proxy exposure of the MCP servers is fixed only on the unreleased main branch.

**Paperclip.** Board approvals, budgets with a hard stop and an activity log sit above whichever harnesses do the work, and eleven stable versions shipped in 90 days. The Claude Code and Codex adapters skip permission prompts and the sandbox by default, and twelve security advisories, five of them critical, have been published since April 2026.

## Before you call either

### Clawboo

1. Run `npx clawboo@latest`, not a bare `npx clawboo`, which can reuse an older cached build. Node.js 22.12 or newer is required
2. On 0.5.0 behind nginx, Caddy or a Cloudflare Tunnel, deny `/api/mcp/` at the proxy and set `STUDIO_ACCESS_TOKEN` from `openssl rand -hex 24`
3. Give Claude Code, Codex and Hermes teammates only work you would let run unattended, or run Clawboo under a separate user account or VM
4. Create a hard-cap budget in Settings > Insights > Governance before long runs. A fresh install has no budget and new budgets only warn
5. Install `@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdk` globally beside Clawboo for Claude Code teammates. A one-off `npx` run cannot load it

### Paperclip

1. Set `PAPERCLIP_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first start. Telemetry is on by default
2. Set `dangerouslySkipPermissions` and `dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox` to false on agents that read untrusted input, or run them in a sandbox provider
3. Install with Node.js 24.11 or newer, and install and sign in to each harness CLI on the host first. Paperclip assumes they are there
4. Use `--bind lan` or `--bind tailnet` at onboarding for anything beyond one machine. The default `local_trusted` mode treats every request as the board admin
5. Treat 409 on task checkout as owned by another agent and pick different work. The API docs say not to retry

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Clawboo or Paperclip?

Clawboo scores 61.4 (C) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 59 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Are Clawboo and Paperclip open source?

Yes. Clawboo is open source (MIT). Paperclip is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-paperclip.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-paperclip.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "clawboo", "b": "paperclip"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare clawboo paperclip`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/clawboo.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paperclip.json

## Other comparisons with Clawboo or Paperclip

- [Amp vs Clawboo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-clawboo.md)
- [Amp vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-paperclip.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Clawboo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-clawboo.md)
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- [Claude Code vs Clawboo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-clawboo.md)
- [Claude Code vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-paperclip.md)
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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp