Self-Hosting Paperclip AI on Debian: My Journey Running a JARVIS-style AI Company from Honolulu

I just finished setting up Paperclip AI — an open-source multi-agent orchestration platform — on my Debian machine in Honolulu.

Paperclip lets me run a virtual “company” of AI agents that can collaborate autonomously on tasks. Think of it as building my own JARVIS system, where a CEO agent coordinates specialized agents for research, coding, content creation, cybersecurity tasks, and AWS/cloud work.

What I Built

  • Deployed Paperclip as a systemd service so it runs 24/7 in the background, even when I reboot or shut down my laptop.
  • Created my first company: NY2HONOLULU AI
  • Set up the first agent: NY2HONOLULU CEO (powered by Claude)
  • Goal: Combine JARVIS-style intelligence with my real-world focus on AWS development, CSI Linux, cybersecurity, digital forensics, and learning in public.

Why I Chose Paperclip

  • Fully self-hosted and open-source (no vendor lock-in)
  • Strong governance and budgeting tools to prevent agents from running wild
  • Perfect for someone who wants to experiment with autonomous AI teams while keeping everything on their own hardware

The setup had a few hurdles (mostly around Claude Code CLI path and environment variables), but it’s now running reliably as a background service.

Next steps on the blog:

  • Full write-up of the installation process
  • Custom CEO system prompt I’m using
  • First real tasks I’ll give the agent team
  • How it integrates with my AWS and CSI Linux workflow

This is another step toward my vision of building practical, locally-controlled intelligent systems from paradise.