The Five Approval Patterns

The Five Approval Patterns and When to Use Each

Approvals in Paperclip are not a formality — they are the primary mechanism by which you exercise governance over an autonomous company. How you handle them shapes what kind of operator you are: one who is genuinely in control, or one who has delegated everything and is just watching things happen.

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The four built-in approval types

Paperclip generates four categories of approval requests. Each maps to a distinct governance moment.

Strategy — The CEO has proposed a plan: a set of goals, a prioritisation, a direction for the company to move in. The approval is your chance to read the reasoning, push back on the framing, request a revision, or accept the direction and let the company move.

hireagent — The CEO or a manager has proposed adding a new agent to the company: a specific role, a suggested configuration, a set of initial responsibilities. You approve the hire, approve it with modifications, or reject it. Once approved, Paperclip creates the agent and the manager can configure and activate it.

budgetoverride — An agent has hit its monthly spending cap and is requesting permission to continue. The agent cannot act on its own — it pauses and submits a request explaining why it needs more budget. You decide whether the continued spend is justified.

custom — Any board-level request that does not fit the other three categories. An agent can generate a custom approval for anything that it determines requires human sign-off before proceeding: a major vendor decision, a content publication, a configuration change with broad implications.

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