paperclipai/paperclip · error

Agent can only invoke itself

Error message

Agent can only invoke itself

What it means

Self-invocation guard in the wakeup route helper: the caller authenticated as an agent but addressed a different agent's id. Agents may only trigger their own heartbeats/wakeups, so the cross-agent invocation is refused with 403.

Source

Thrown at server/src/routes/agents.ts:4802

      },
    });

    res.json(result.bundle);
  });

  router.patch("/agents/:id", validate(updateAgentSchema), async (req, res) => {
    const id = req.params.id as string;
    const existing = await getAccessibleResource(req, res, svc.getById(id), "Agent not found");
    if (!existing) return;

    if (hasOwn(req.body as object, "permissions")) {
      res.status(422).json({ error: "Use /api/agents/:id/permissions for permission changes" });
      return;
    }

    const patchData = { ...(req.body as Record<string, unknown>) };
    const replaceAdapterConfig = patchData.replaceAdapterConfig === true;
    delete patchData.replaceAdapterConfig;
    // The apply-existing flag is not an agent column. The server binds the fixed
    // reference to the owner stored value with no login round trip. Remove it
    // from the patch so it never reaches the update values.
    const applyStoredClaudeLogin = patchData.applyStoredClaudeLogin === true;
    delete patchData.applyStoredClaudeLogin;
    if (hasOwn(patchData, "adapterConfig")) {
      const adapterConfig = asRecord(patchData.adapterConfig);
      if (!adapterConfig) {
        res.status(422).json({ error: "adapterConfig must be an object" });
        return;
      }
      assertNoAgentAdapterConfigMutation(req, adapterConfig);
      const changingInstructionsConfig = adapterConfigTouchesInstructionsConfig(adapterConfig);
      if (changingInstructionsConfig) {
        await assertCanManageInstructionsPath(req, existing);
      }
      patchData.adapterConfig = adapterConfig;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 01ad858492)

Solutions

1. Invoke the agent using its own API key; agents cannot invoke other agents via this route.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at server/src/routes/agents.ts:4257 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@01ad858492 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/918e934ffdc36072. Report an issue: GitHub.