paperclipai/paperclip · error

Only pending approval agents can be approved

Error message

Only pending approval agents can be approved

What it means

State-machine guard on POST /agents/:id/approve: approval links only apply to agents in 'pending_approval' status, but this agent is in another lifecycle state (already active, paused, etc.), so the approve action is rejected with 409.

Source

Thrown at server/src/routes/agents.ts:4555

      agentId: actor.agentId,
      runId: actor.runId,
      agentApiKeyId: actor.agentApiKeyId,
      action: "agent.permissions_updated",
      entityType: "agent",
      entityId: agent.id,
      details: {
        canCreateAgents: agent.permissions?.canCreateAgents ?? false,
        canCreateSkills: agent.permissions?.canCreateSkills ?? true,
        canAssignTasks: effectiveCanAssignTasks,
        trustPreset: agent.permissions?.trustPreset ?? "standard",
      },
    });

    res.json(await buildAgentDetail(agent));
  });

  router.patch("/agents/:id/instructions-path", validate(updateAgentInstructionsPathSchema), async (req, res) => {
    if (req.actor.type !== "board") {
      throw forbidden("Only board-authenticated callers can manage instructions path or bundle configuration");
    }

    const id = req.params.id as string;
    const existing = await getAccessibleResource(req, res, svc.getById(id), "Agent not found");
    if (!existing) return;

    await assertCanManageInstructionsPath(req, existing);
    assertExternalInstructionsAdmin(req, existing);

    const existingAdapterConfig = asRecord(existing.adapterConfig) ?? {};
    const explicitKey = asNonEmptyString(req.body.adapterConfigKey);
    const defaultKey = resolveInstructionsPathKey(existing.adapterType);
    const adapterConfigKey = explicitKey ?? defaultKey;
    if (!adapterConfigKey) {
      res.status(422).json({
        error: `No default instructions path key for adapter type '${existing.adapterType}'. Provide adapterConfigKey.`,
      });

View on GitHub (pinned to 01ad858492)

Solutions

1. Only approve agents whose status is pending approval; check the agent's current status first.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at server/src/routes/agents.ts:4018 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/d7b41abcb80ab6b2. Report an issue: GitHub.