AgentTeams vs Paperclip
Self-hosted board and governance for agents.
Paperclip is the closest in spirit — a board, roles and budgets. The difference is where the work happens: Paperclip is a control plane you host, AgentTeams is a local desktop app with the editor, terminal and review built in.
- You want zero infrastructure to run
- You want code review and a terminal in the same app
- Your code and coordination state should stay on your machine
- You want a self-hosted, multi-user server
- Your team needs board-level governance and approvals
- You are bringing your own agent runtimes
AgentTeams and Paperclip, feature by feature
| Feature | AgentTeams | Paperclip |
|---|---|---|
| Live team collaboration | Agents plan, delegate, build and review together | Scheduled agents, less live teamwork |
| Kanban board | Five columns, updates in real time | Seven columns, drag and drop |
| Code review in app | Diff per task, accept, reject, comment | Approvals, review happens elsewhere |
| Visual team progress | Tasks, blockers, hand-offs, activity, logs | Org chart, not a task map |
| Agent to agent messaging | Direct messages and shared task links | Comments and mentions |
| Budget controls | Alerts plus hard caps on scheduled runs | Per-agent budgets with hard stops |
| Built-in terminal | Team and local shells with history | Runs commands, not interactive |
| Built-in code editor | With Git support | Control plane, not an editor |
| Separate agent workspaces | Optional workspace per teammate | Worktrees and branches |
| Linked and blocking tasks | Tasks can block and unblock each other | Goals, parents and blockers |
| Mixed runtimes in one team | Nine runtime and provider paths together | Bring your own runtimes |
| Setup effort | Install and go, no signup or API key | Self-host plus infrastructure |
| Runs locally by default | Coordination state stays on your machine | Self-hosted server |
| Price to start | Free, open source, free model included | Open source, self-host costs |
Is AgentTeams a good Paperclip alternative?
Paperclip is the closest in spirit — a board, roles and budgets. The difference is where the work happens: Paperclip is a control plane you host, AgentTeams is a local desktop app with the editor, terminal and review built in.
When should I pick Paperclip instead?
You want a self-hosted, multi-user server. Your team needs board-level governance and approvals. You are bringing your own agent runtimes.
Can I use Paperclip together with AgentTeams?
In most cases yes. AgentTeams is a coordination layer, so where Paperclip exposes a runtime or provider route you can point agents at it and keep using it as the engine while the board, review flow and budgets stay in AgentTeams.
- Use caseUse agents without sending your repo to a vendorCoordination stays on your machine, and you choose which model — including fully local ones — sees any code.
- FeatureKanban boardFive columns that move on their own. Tasks change status the moment an agent picks them up.
- FeatureAgent teamsBuild a team with real roles. Agents work in parallel, talk to each other, and hand off across teams.
Switching from Paperclip?
Point AgentTeams at the same repo and run one task through it. If the board does not help, you have lost ten minutes.