Devin Foley
93291df5c8
## Thinking Path > - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for work > - Sandbox-provider plugins (cloudflare, daytona, e2b, exe-dev, kubernetes, modal, novita) and `plugin-workspace-diff` are published as standalone npm packages, but during local dev they need the in-repo `@paperclipai/plugin-sdk` symlinked in > - Each of these plugins shipped a `postinstall` lifecycle script that traversed *out* of its own package directory (`node ../../../../scripts/link-plugin-dev-sdk.mjs`) to do that linking > - The publishable manifest is built by a `prepack` whitelist that drops the `scripts` field, so npm consumers don't see the postinstall today — but that safety property depends entirely on `prepack` running on every publish. A publish that skips lifecycle scripts would ship a tarball whose postinstall escapes its package directory at consumer install time > - This pull request removes the escape-the-package-dir lifecycle script from every plugin source manifest and moves the dev linking to a single root-level postinstall that iterates the excluded plugin directories itself > - The benefit is that plugin tarballs can no longer carry an install-time script that reaches outside their own directory, regardless of whether `prepack` runs ## Linked Issues or Issue Description This is a follow-up hardening change flagged during review of the Novita sandbox provider PR (#7595). **Problem (security):** Excluded plugin packages each carried `"postinstall": "node ../../../../scripts/link-plugin-dev-sdk.mjs"`. The relative path traverses outside the package root. Today the published manifest is sanitized by a `prepack` whitelist that drops `scripts`, so consumers are unaffected in the normal publish path. The risk is that this is a defense-in-depth gap: if a publish ever skips lifecycle scripts (e.g. `npm publish --ignore-scripts` is *not* used, or a tool publishes the raw manifest), the tarball would ship a postinstall that runs out-of-tree code at the consumer's install time. ## What Changed - Added a single root `package.json` `postinstall`: `node scripts/link-plugin-dev-sdk.mjs`. - Rewrote `scripts/link-plugin-dev-sdk.mjs` to iterate the excluded plugin directories itself (`packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/*` + the orchestration smoke example) instead of relying on each plugin to invoke it from its own cwd. Preserves both prior behaviors: leave a real installed SDK dir alone, and skip when already correctly symlinked (idempotent). - Removed `scripts.postinstall` from all 7 sandbox-provider plugins (cloudflare, daytona, e2b, exe-dev, kubernetes, modal, novita). - Removed `scripts.postinstall` from `plugin-workspace-diff` (a pnpm workspace member — pnpm already links the SDK, so the script was a no-op there). ## Verification - `node scripts/link-plugin-dev-sdk.mjs` from repo root: links the SDK into the excluded plugins and reports skipped (already-linked) dirs; re-running is idempotent. - `grep -r "link-plugin-dev-sdk" packages/plugins/*/package.json packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/*/package.json` returns no matches — no plugin source manifest references the linker any longer. - All affected `package.json` files re-validated as parseable JSON. ## Risks Low risk. Dev-only tooling: the linker only runs at the repo root during local install and only touches `node_modules/@paperclipai/plugin-sdk` symlinks inside excluded plugin dirs. No change to published plugin behavior or runtime code. Worst case if the root postinstall failed to run, local dev of an excluded plugin would not find the SDK symlink — easily re-run manually. ## Model Used Claude Opus (claude-opus-4-8), extended reasoning, with tool use / code execution in an agentic coding harness. ## Checklist - [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context to this change - [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability details) - [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate planned core work - [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked them above - [x] I have either (a) linked existing issues OR (b) described the issue in-PR following the relevant issue template - [x] I have run tests locally and they pass - [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable (added `scripts/link-plugin-dev-sdk.test.js`, wired into `test:release-registry`) - [ ] If this change affects the UI, I have included before/after screenshots (N/A — no UI change) - [ ] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes (N/A) - [x] I have considered and documented any risks above - [x] All Paperclip CI gates are green - [x] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups - [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before requesting merge Co-authored-by: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
@paperclipai/plugin-novita-sandbox
Published Novita Agent Sandbox provider plugin for Paperclip.
This package lives in the Paperclip monorepo, but it is intentionally excluded from the root pnpm workspace and shaped to publish and install like a standalone npm package. That means operators can install it from the Plugins page by package name, and the host will fetch its transitive dependencies at install time without adding lockfile churn to the Paperclip repo.
Install
From a Paperclip instance, install:
@paperclipai/plugin-novita-sandbox
The host plugin installer runs npm install into the managed plugin directory, so package dependencies such as novita-sandbox are pulled in during installation.
Configuration
Configure Novita from Company Settings -> Environments, not from the plugin's instance settings page.
- Put the Novita API key on the sandbox environment itself.
- When you save an environment, Paperclip stores pasted API keys as company secrets.
NOVITA_API_KEYremains an optional host-level fallback when an environment omits the key.
Local development
cd packages/plugins/sandbox-providers/novita
pnpm install --ignore-workspace --no-lockfile
pnpm build
pnpm test
pnpm typecheck
These commands assume the repo root has already been installed once so the local @paperclipai/plugin-sdk workspace package is available to the compiler during development.
Package layout
src/manifest.tsdeclares the sandbox-provider driver metadatasrc/plugin.tsimplements the environment lifecycle hookssrc/worker.tsboots the plugin under the host worker runtimepaperclipPlugin.manifestandpaperclipPlugin.workerpoint the host at the built plugin entrypoints indist/