paperclipai/paperclip · error · Error

Current company is not available. Pass --company-id, set PAP

Error message

Current company is not available. Pass --company-id, set PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID, set a context profile companyId, or authenticate with an agent API key.

What it means

Thrown in resolveCurrentCompanyId() when GET /api/agents/me returns 401 or 403. This is the first of two identical-message throws: this one fires specifically on an authentication/authorization failure hitting the agent-me endpoint, meaning the caller has no usable credentials to discover their scoped company.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/client/company.ts:2041

    if (isBoardAccessRequiredError(error) || isInstanceAdminRequiredError(error)) {
      throw new Error(
        "Creating companies requires board/instance-admin authentication. Agent API keys are scoped to one company; use `paperclipai company list --json` or `paperclipai company current --json` to select the scoped company, or rerun create with a board token/login.",
      );
    }
    throw error;
  }
}

async function resolveCurrentCompanyId(ctx: { companyId?: string; api: { get<T>(path: string): Promise<T | null> } }): Promise<string> {
  const fromContext = ctx.companyId?.trim();
  if (fromContext) return fromContext;

  let agent: AgentMeResponse | null = null;
  try {
    agent = await ctx.api.get<AgentMeResponse>("/api/agents/me");
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof ApiRequestError && (error.status === 401 || error.status === 403)) {
      throw new Error(
        "Current company is not available. Pass --company-id, set PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID, set a context profile companyId, or authenticate with an agent API key.",
      );
    }
    throw error;
  }

  const fromAgent = agent?.companyId?.trim();
  if (fromAgent) return fromAgent;
  throw new Error(
    "Current company is not available. Pass --company-id, set PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID, set a context profile companyId, or authenticate with an agent API key.",
  );
}

function isBoardAccessRequiredError(error: unknown): error is ApiRequestError {
  return error instanceof ApiRequestError && error.status === 403 && error.message.toLowerCase().includes("board access required");
}

function isInstanceAdminRequiredError(error: unknown): error is ApiRequestError {

View on GitHub (pinned to 67001ec6eb)

Solutions

1. Provide the company explicitly: `--company-id <id>`, or set PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID.
2. Authenticate: run `paperclipai connect` or set a valid PAPERCLIP_API_KEY in the referenced env var.
3. Run `paperclipai context current` to confirm the active profile and its API key env var.

Example fix

# before
paperclipai company list
# after
export PAPERCLIP_API_KEY=$(cat ~/.paperclip/board-key)
# or pin the company id
paperclipai company list --company-id 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

// Ensure a company id is resolvable without hitting /api/agents/me when auth may be missing.
function ensureCompanyId(ctx: { companyId?: string }): string {
  const id = ctx.companyId?.trim();
  if (!id) {
    throw new Error("No company context: pass --company-id, set PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID, or authenticate first.");
  }
  return id;
}

import { ApiRequestError } from "../../client/http.js";

function isAuth401or403(err: unknown): boolean {
  return err instanceof ApiRequestError && (err.status === 401 || err.status === 403);
}

try {
  agent = await ctx.api.get<AgentMeResponse>("/api/agents/me");
} catch (err) {
  if (isAuth401or403(err)) {
    throw new Error("Authentication failed; set PAPERCLIP_API_KEY or pass --company-id.");
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: No API key configured and no --company-id/PAPERCLIP_COMPANY_ID/context companyId set, so the CLI tries /api/agents/me which 401s; an expired or revoked agent token; a malformed Authorization header.

Common situations: Fresh CLI install with no connect/context; token revoked server-side; PAPERCLIP_API_KEY pointing at a deleted key; api-base pointing at a server that does not recognize the token.

Understand the failure class

• Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

Related errors

• Target existing company requires --company-id (or context de
• Failed to create board token
• Company ID is required.
• Company ID is required. Pass --company-id or set PAPERCLIP_C
• Request failed: ${response.status}

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@67001ec6eb (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e51fe52aa86328af. Report an issue: GitHub.