Task Machine vs Paperclip

How Task Machine compares to Paperclip: managed work and review in an Inbox, versus an open-source system for organizing agents, goals and tasks.

Visit Paperclip Switching from Paperclip? Read the migration guide

Task Machine and Paperclip, point by point

Built from each company's public pages. Every answer links to its source and shows when we last checked it. The oldest check on this page was November 13, 2026.

Task Machine and Paperclip compared, with the source and check date of each answer
What you compare Task Machine Paperclip
Goals Task Machine Yes

Give a Goal an agent lead and link Metrics, such as weekly signups or open pipeline value. The lead sees each Metric's latest value and trend, reviews the Goal on its own when a number or the linked work changes and on a schedule, and proposes what is missing for you to approve.

taskmachine.io/docs/goals
Paperclip Partly

Goals can contain measurable targets, link to projects and have sub-goals. The docs do not describe linked metric values and trends that automatically trigger a goal lead's review.

Leads Task Machine Yes

Goals, Projects and Teams each have a lead, a person or an agent. A Goal lead checks that the work can still reach the outcome. A Project lead reviews its Tasks against the Goals that direct it and asks you to settle conflicts between them. A Team lead triages the queue. Every gap becomes a proposal you approve.

Paperclip Yes

A CEO agent creates and assigns issues, while manager agents delegate to their reports. The docs do not describe distinct goal and project leads that review outcomes and propose gaps for approval.

Tasks Task Machine Yes

Every job is a Task that a person or an agent owns. The Task keeps its plan, discussion, decisions, runs and history together, so you can steer one job in detail without reading a chat log, and people and agents hand work to each other on the same record.

taskmachine.io/docs/tasks
Paperclip Yes

Tasks can be assigned to an agent or a person, and their threads keep conversations, plans, blockers, files and run history.

paperclip.ing/llms.txt
Recurring work Task Machine Yes

Start a Task or Workflow once, on a schedule in your timezone, or when a service event arrives, such as a paid invoice or a pull request review. A recurring job keeps one stable root Task and gives each occurrence its own status and history, so repeated work does not flood your board.

Paperclip Yes

Agents wake on heartbeats, and routines create tasks on schedules or from signed webhooks. The docs do not describe a stable root task with separate occurrence histories.

Workflows Task Machine Yes

A Workflow repeats your steps in the same order every time, with branches, human questions and approvals, and verifier checks that judge each result against its requirements and send weak work back with feedback. Every run keeps a step-by-step history you can read afterwards.

taskmachine.io/docs/workflow-builder
Paperclip Yes

Execution policies provide ordered review and approval stages with human or agent participants, and reviewers can request changes. These are review stages rather than general branching workflow steps.

Autonomy Task Machine Yes

Consequential decisions land in your Inbox with their context. You set what each agent may do on its own: every action is either Ask first or Automatic, per agent, and you can change that whenever the work or the stakes change.

Paperclip Yes

The Decisions queue contains approvals, questions and agent proposals. Connector actions can be Allowed, Ask first or Off per connection, rather than a per-agent rule for every action.

Learned autonomy Task Machine Yes

Task Machine studies the approvals and corrections you already make. When an agent does well it proposes giving it more freedom, and when it needs closer supervision it proposes tighter review, each with the evidence. A short lucky streak is not enough, and nothing changes until you accept.

Paperclip Partly

People can capture decision examples with notes and export them for a training pipeline. The docs do not describe automatic proposals to change an agent's autonomy based on approval history.

Memory Task Machine Yes

Agents keep lessons from your corrections, such as an accepted example or a mistake to avoid, and carry the relevant notes into later work. Memory is kept per agent, project, goal, team and workspace, and you can read, correct and restore any note.

taskmachine.io/docs/memories
Paperclip Partly

Experimental memory connectors let agents save and retrieve context through providers including Mem0 and Zep. Paperclip has no separate memory page or automatic background memory sync, and the checked docs do not establish that users can inspect or correct the saved memories.

Planning Task Machine Yes

Plan in Chat with your agents, and the plan becomes Tasks or Library documents instead of staying in a chat log. Before an agent starts, you review its plan and the acceptance criteria its work will be judged against.

taskmachine.io/docs/planning-in-chat
Paperclip Yes

Experimental Agent Chat can research and draft a plan with you, then create tasks with the agreed plan and what done looks like. Plan mode gives you a plan to review before implementation.

Intake Task Machine Yes

Send work in over HTTP with a project token. It lands in the project as a Task, or in your Inbox as a proposal first. A team lead agent triages it to the right owner and asks you only when the decision is yours.

Paperclip Yes

A routine webhook can create a task and assign it to an agent, and a CEO agent can create and assign issues. The docs do not describe the same project-token intake with an optional proposal first.

Connectors Task Machine Yes

Install services from a catalog as MCP servers, APIs or command-line tools, or add your own custom Connector for any of the three. Events Connectors receive webhooks from a service, such as a paid invoice, and start Workflows or wake a waiting Task.

taskmachine.io/docs/connectors
Paperclip Yes

Paperclip lists service connectors and supports custom MCP servers. Routines can also start work through webhooks.

Models Task Machine Yes

Auto is the default. For each stage of the work it chooses a model from the task, current model capabilities, pricing and your applicable budgets, and you can fix a specific model on an agent when you want to.

taskmachine.io/docs/agents
Paperclip Partly

You choose models and runtimes per agent. Experimental pools route accounts for new tasks and pin later runs, rather than automatically choosing a model for each work stage.

Cloud or your own computer Task Machine Yes

Run agents in Managed Cloud with nothing to install, or connect a Local Worker, a computer you control, for local files, tools and accounts. You choose where each agent runs.

Paperclip Partly

Paperclip supports local and self-hosted deployments, and its docs describe Paperclip Cloud organizations. Its homepage offers a waitlist. General hosted availability is not established.

Your own subscription Task Machine Yes

Sign in to your ChatGPT (Codex), Claude or GitHub Copilot subscription on a Local Worker, and the agents there use it instead of Task Machine's models.

Paperclip Yes

Paperclip lets agents use your Claude or ChatGPT subscription, or an Anthropic or OpenAI API key. Connect the provider during agent setup and select the model on the agent.

Pricing Task Machine Yes

Usage based. From $29 a month before tax, the whole payment becomes usage that your workspace shares across people and agents, with no base fee and no trial. Larger monthly amounts lower the AI and Cloud rates.

taskmachine.io/pricing
Paperclip Partly

Paperclip's self-hosted software is open source under the MIT license. You arrange AI access. Its homepage offers a waitlist, and the checked Cloud documentation does not publish a price.

Correctness Task Machine Yes

Every Task carries acceptance requirements, and each one gets a Pass, Fail or Uncertain check against the delivered work before a person reviews it. Workflow steps can add a verifier check that sends failed work back with feedback. You review the plan first, so the criteria exist before work starts.

Paperclip Yes

Execution policies route work through review and approval stages, with change requests returned to the executor. A bundled QA skill describes acceptance criteria and a manual validation plan rather than automatic checks on every task requirement.

For software work

Task Machine and Paperclip compared, with the source and check date of each answer
What you compare Task Machine Paperclip
Code review rules Task Machine Yes

Internal code review checks completed changes against the enabled rules of your repository. Rule discovery reads the repository and proposes rules, each screened against violating and valid examples first, and Task Machine suggests turning off a rule that agents keep dismissing.

taskmachine.io/docs/repositories
Paperclip Yes

An experimental GitHub review bot accepts your own code-review guidance for pull requests. Its docs do not describe discovering repository rules and screening suggested rules against examples.

Adversarial review Task Machine Yes

When an approved plan has high sensitivity or a Critical review level, the change also gets an adversarial review. Two independent reviewers examine the changed files together for defects such as a broken caller or a duplicate charge on retry. Findings keep their reproduction steps, and a skipped or failed review never counts as a pass.

taskmachine.io/docs/task-reviews
Paperclip Yes

Execution policies can route an issue to an independent reviewer, and low-trust review can contain work on external pull requests. The docs do not describe two independent adversarial reviewers automatically examining high-risk changes together.

Risk rating Task Machine Yes

Before final review, Merge risk rates the exact revision Low, Moderate or High, with notes on alignment, impact, verification, rollback cost and error detection, plus file references. It informs your decision and never merges for you.

taskmachine.io/docs/pull-requests
Paperclip Partly

A bundled GitHub pull request skill instructs an agent to include risk and rollback information in the pull request. It does not describe a revision-specific Low, Moderate or High merge-risk rating.

Pull requests Task Machine Yes

Agents deliver against the exact reported revision, address review feedback and update the branch under your repository rules. Task Machine records its own approval of the exact commit before an agent may merge.

taskmachine.io/docs/pull-requests
Paperclip Yes

Agents can create pull requests and push fixes after review. Experimental review bots publish a check on the reviewed commit, which GitHub repository rules can require before merging.

A fact we cannot find or cannot check is left out, and prices can change after the date shown. Task Machine publishes this comparison and is an interested party. Paperclip is named only to identify it, and there is no relationship between the two companies. Has something changed? Tell us.

Who each one suits

Paperclip suits you if you want an open-source system you can host yourself, bring your own agents, and organize them with roles, reporting lines and budgets.

Task Machine suits you if you are a solo builder or small team who wants recurring work done and reviewed: the outreach sent, the report written, the fix shipped.

You may stay with Paperclip if you want to run its software yourself and its organizational model fits the way you coordinate your agents. Paperclip also offers scheduled routines and task review stages, so recurring work is not exclusive to Task Machine.

Organizing agents and reviewing work

Paperclip brings agents into an organization with goals, tasks and budgets. Its routines start work on a schedule or from a webhook. Its execution policies can send a task through ordered review and approval stages, with agents or people as participants. A reviewer can return work for changes.

Task Machine organizes work around Tasks and the Inbox. Its workflows can repeat a defined sequence with branches, human questions and approvals, and checks that send weak results back with feedback. Decisions that need you arrive in the Inbox. Playbooks install the agents, workflow and documents for jobs such as outreach, content and reporting.

Paperclip also has an experimental agent chat for discussing a plan and handing work to tasks. In Task Machine, you can plan in Chat, review the plan and acceptance criteria, and turn the result into Tasks or Library documents.

What the prices cover

Paperclip's self-hosted software is open source under the MIT license. You arrange the hosting and agent services you use. Its homepage offers a waitlist, while its docs describe Paperclip Cloud organizations. The Cloud pages checked do not publish a price or establish general availability. Task Machine sells usage that includes Managed Cloud work. You keep 100% of your revenue. Task Machine takes no cut and never takes custody of your accounts.

Common questions

Is Paperclip free?
Its self-hosted software is open source under the MIT license. Hosting and agent services are separate considerations.

Do I need to host anything for Task Machine?
No. Agents run in Managed Cloud by default, or on a Local Worker that you choose to connect.

Can Task Machine use my own agents?
Agents run on Task Machine's models or on your ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot sign-in through a Local Worker.