Deploy and Host Paperclip with Agent Computer on Railway

Paperclip is an open-source control plane for running a company staffed by AI agents. You define goals, an org chart and monthly budgets, then hire agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini, Kimi and more) that pick up tasks on a heartbeat, report to managers and ask you for approval when they need it.

About Hosting Paperclip with Agent Computer

This template runs the official ghcr.io/paperclipai/paperclip image (release 2026.1023.0, no wrapper repo) next to a Railway Postgres 17 database, plus an agent computer: a real Chrome for every agent that stays logged in between runs, which you watch live and take over from inside Paperclip when an agent needs a login, a 2FA code or a step it does not know. Both services keep their data on volumes: Postgres holds companies, agents, tasks and users; the /paperclip volume holds agent workspaces, uploaded files, the local secrets key and hourly database backups.

It boots in authenticated mode with private exposure, so every page needs a login, and the first admin is claimed straight from the browser. No CLI and no setup tokens.

Common Use Cases

Run a small team of coding agents against your repos with budgets and approvals
Give a solo founder an always-on "company" of agents that works through a backlog
Try Paperclip on a real URL before committing to your own server
Let agents work in web apps that have no API (CRMs, dashboards, supplier portals), with a person stepping in for logins

Dependencies for Paperclip Hosting

A Railway account. The computer runs a Chrome per agent in use (up to 8 at once, idle ones close after 30 minutes), so plan on 2 to 3 GB of RAM for it on top of Paperclip's
An API key or subscription login for at least one agent runtime (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and so on)

Deployment Dependencies

Paperclip: https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip
Docs: https://docs.paperclip.ing/
Postgres image: ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:17
Agent computer plugin: https://github.com/hmseeb/paperclip-plugin-agent-computer (MIT, built on CopilotKit's OpenBot agent computer)

Implementation Details

Claiming your instance (do this first)

When the deploy goes green, open the Paperclip service's public URL.
Create an account and sign in.
On the setup screen choose Claim this instance. You are now the instance admin and can create your first company.

Claim it right away. Until someone claims it, the first signed-in user on the URL becomes the admin. Once it is claimed, later sign-ups are ordinary accounts with no access to your companies.

Connecting agents (no terminal needed)

Paperclip's subscription sign-in normally asks you to run a command on the server. This template adds a small page at https://your-app.up.railway.app/connect (instance admin only) that does it for you:

Claude subscription: run claude setup-token on your own computer, paste the sk-ant-oat... token on /connect and save. Then in Paperclip choose Claude, Subscription, and click Connect. The token stays on your volume. Usage bars are not shown for setup-token connections.
Codex (ChatGPT subscription): in Paperclip choose Codex, Subscription. Within a few seconds /connect shows a link and a one-time code. Open the link, enter the code, approve, and Paperclip connects on its own.
API keys: in Paperclip's Connect step, click Use API key instead under the provider tile and paste the key. No /connect needed.

The Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Gemini and Kimi CLIs are already installed in the image.

Newest Claude models: on every boot the template installs the latest Claude Code onto your volume and points Paperclip's agents at it, so new Claude models work as soon as Anthropic ships them. If a new model is not in Paperclip's model list yet, type its full ID (for example claude-opus-5-5) in the Model box, choose Use manual model, and save.

Turning on the agent computer

In Paperclip open Plugins, install paperclip-plugin-agent-computer from npm, and enable it.
In Secrets, add a secret holding the COMPUTER_TOKEN variable of the agent-computer service (Railway, agent-computer, Variables).
Open the plugin's settings for your company: Computer URL http://agent-computer.railway.internal:4100, Computer token the secret from step 2. Save. Saving gives every agent the "Agent computer" skill; save again after hiring agents.

Computers then appears in the sidebar with every agent's screen live. An agent that needs you asks from a small live card in the corner of Paperclip: take over, do the login, hand it back, and it carries on. What you do while holding a computer becomes a how-to the agent follows next time (never what you typed). The live screen is served on Paperclip's own address, so there is no second domain to set up. The computer's browsers cannot reach Railway's private network, only the public web.

Variables you might change

Variable	Default	Notes
`PAPERCLIP_PUBLIC_URL`	`https://` + your Railway domain	Set it to your custom domain after adding one
`PAPERCLIP_AUTH_DISABLE_SIGN_UP`	unset	Set to `true` to close open sign-ups once your team has joined
`HEARTBEAT_SCHEDULER_ENABLED`	`true`	Set to `false` to pause every agent heartbeat at once
`SCREENCAST_QUALITY` (agent-computer)	`40`	Higher is sharper and slower on the live screen

Secrets (COMPUTER_TOKEN, BETTER_AUTH_SECRET, PAPERCLIP_AGENT_JWT_SECRET, PAPERCLIP_TOOL_ACTION_SIGNING_SECRET, the Postgres password) are generated per deploy. Do not change BETTER_AUTH_SECRET after users exist; it signs every session.

Upgrading

Change the Paperclip service image tag to a newer release from https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip/releases and redeploy. Database migrations apply automatically on boot (PAPERCLIP_MIGRATION_AUTO_APPLY=true).

The agent-computer and agent-computer-gateway images move with the plugin: when you update the plugin, set both image tags to its version (for example ghcr.io/hmseeb/agent-computer:0.7.1).

Troubleshooting

"Someone else has already claimed this instance": another account claimed it first. If that was not you, delete the project and deploy again, then claim immediately.
No claim option on the setup screen: the instance is already claimed (/api/health shows "bootstrapStatus":"ready"). Sign in with the admin account.
Health shows a database_backup_missing warning right after deploy: normal. The first automatic backup runs within the hour.
Agents fail to start: the agent has no model connection. Connect one from the agent's settings, using /connect for subscriptions.
/connect shows no Codex code: click the Codex tile in Paperclip first; the code appears once Paperclip starts the sign-in. If it says failed or expired, click the tile again.
/connect says Anthropic rejected the token: create a fresh one with claude setup-token and paste it again.
Computers page says the computer is unreachable: check the Computer URL in the plugin settings and that the token secret matches COMPUTER_TOKEN on the agent-computer service.

Why Deploy Paperclip with Agent Computer on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Paperclip with Agent Computer on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.