Importing & Exporting Companies

Paperclip companies can be exported to portable markdown packages and imported from local directories or GitHub repositories. This lets you share company configurations, duplicate setups, and version-control your agent teams.

Package Format

Exported packages follow the Agent Companies specification and use a markdown-first structure:

my-company/
├── COMPANY.md          # Company metadata
├── agents/
│   ├── ceo/AGENT.md    # Agent instructions + frontmatter
│   └── cto/AGENT.md
├── projects/
│   └── main/PROJECT.md
├── skills/
│   └── review/SKILL.md
├── tasks/
│   └── onboarding/TASK.md
└── .paperclip.yaml     # Adapter config, env inputs, routines

• COMPANY.md defines company name, description, and metadata.
• AGENT.md files contain agent identity, role, and instructions.
• SKILL.md files are compatible with the Agent Skills ecosystem.
• .paperclip.yaml holds Paperclip-specific config (adapter types, env inputs, budgets) as an optional sidecar.

Exporting a Company

Export a company into a portable folder:

paperclipai company export <company-id> --out ./my-export

Options

Option	Description	Default
--out <path>	Output directory (required)	—
--include <values>	Comma-separated set: company, agents, projects, issues, tasks, skills	company,agents
--skills <values>	Export only specific skill slugs	all
--projects <values>	Export only specific project shortnames or IDs	all
--issues <values>	Export specific issue identifiers or IDs	none
--project-issues <values>	Export issues belonging to specific projects	none
--expand-referenced-skills	Vendor skill file contents instead of keeping upstream references	false

Examples

# Export company with agents and projects
paperclipai company export abc123 --out ./backup --include company,agents,projects

# Export everything including tasks and skills
paperclipai company export abc123 --out ./full-export --include company,agents,projects,tasks,skills

# Export only specific skills
paperclipai company export abc123 --out ./skills-only --include skills --skills review,deploy

What Gets Exported

• Company name, description, and metadata
• Agent names, roles, reporting structure, and instructions
• Project definitions and workspace config
• Task/issue descriptions (when included)
• Skill packages (as references or vendored content)
• Adapter type and env input declarations in .paperclip.yaml

Secret values, machine-local paths, and database IDs are never exported.

Importing a Company

Import from a local directory, GitHub URL, or GitHub shorthand:

# From a local folder
paperclipai company import ./my-export

# From a GitHub URL
paperclipai company import https://github.com/org/repo

# From a GitHub subfolder
paperclipai company import https://github.com/org/repo/tree/main/companies/acme

# From GitHub shorthand
paperclipai company import org/repo
paperclipai company import org/repo/companies/acme

Options

Option	Description	Default
--target <mode>	new (create a new company) or existing (merge into existing)	inferred from context
--company-id <id>	Target company ID for --target existing	current context
--new-company-name <name>	Override company name for --target new	from package
--include <values>	Comma-separated set: company, agents, projects, issues, tasks, skills	auto-detected
--agents <list>	Comma-separated agent slugs to import, or all	all
--collision <mode>	How to handle name conflicts: rename, skip, or replace	rename
--ref <value>	Git ref for GitHub imports (branch, tag, or commit)	default branch
--dry-run	Preview what would be imported without applying	false
--yes	Skip the interactive confirmation prompt	false
--json	Output result as JSON	false

Target Modes

• new — Creates a fresh company from the package. Good for duplicating a company template.
• existing — Merges the package into an existing company. Use --company-id to specify the target.

If --target is not specified, Paperclip infers it: if a --company-id is provided (or one exists in context), it defaults to existing; otherwise new.

Collision Strategies

When importing into an existing company, agent or project names may conflict with existing ones:

• rename (default) — Appends a suffix to avoid conflicts (e.g., ceo becomes ceo-2).
• skip — Skips entities that already exist.
• replace — Overwrites existing entities. Only available for non-safe imports (not available through the CEO API).

Interactive Selection

When running interactively (no --yes or --json flags), the import command shows a selection picker before applying. You can choose exactly which agents, projects, skills, and tasks to import using a checkbox interface.

Preview Before Applying

Always preview first with --dry-run:

paperclipai company import org/repo --target existing --company-id abc123 --dry-run

The preview shows:

• Package contents — How many agents, projects, tasks, and skills are in the source
• Import plan — What will be created, renamed, skipped, or replaced
• Env inputs — Environment variables that may need values after import
• Warnings — Potential issues like missing skills or unresolved references

Imported agents always land with timer heartbeats disabled. Assignment/on-demand wake behavior from the package is preserved, but scheduled runs stay off until a board operator re-enables them.

Common Workflows

Clone a company template from GitHub:

paperclipai company import org/company-templates/engineering-team \
  --target new \
  --new-company-name "My Engineering Team"

Add agents from a package into your existing company:

paperclipai company import ./shared-agents \
  --target existing \
  --company-id abc123 \
  --include agents \
  --collision rename

Import a specific branch or tag:

paperclipai company import org/repo --ref v2.0.0 --dry-run

Non-interactive import (CI/scripts):

paperclipai company import ./package \
  --target new \
  --yes \
  --json

API Endpoints

The CLI commands use these API endpoints under the hood:

Action	Endpoint
Export company	POST /api/companies/{companyId}/export
Preview import (existing company)	POST /api/companies/{companyId}/imports/preview
Apply import (existing company)	POST /api/companies/{companyId}/imports/apply
Preview import (new company)	POST /api/companies/import/preview
Apply import (new company)	POST /api/companies/import

CEO agents can also use the safe import routes (/imports/preview and /imports/apply) which enforce non-destructive rules: replace is rejected, collisions resolve with rename or skip, and issues are always created as new.

GitHub Sources

Paperclip supports several GitHub URL formats:

• Full URL: https://github.com/org/repo
• Subfolder URL: https://github.com/org/repo/tree/main/path/to/company
• Shorthand: org/repo
• Shorthand with path: org/repo/path/to/company

Use --ref to pin to a specific branch, tag, or commit hash when importing from GitHub.