{ "schema_version": 1, "generated_at": "2026-10-23T00:00:00.000Z", "canonical_url": "https://openlogs.fyi/tools/paperless-ngx", "slug": "paperless-ngx", "name": "Paperless-ngx", "tagline": "Document management system that scans, indexes and archives paper documents.", "replaces": { "summary": "Paid document management services, such as Evernote and Docparser.", "products": [ { "slug": "docparser", "name": "Docparser", "vendor": "Docparser", "url": "https://openlogs.fyi/alternatives/docparser" }, { "slug": "evernote", "name": "Evernote", "vendor": "Bending Spoons", "url": "https://openlogs.fyi/alternatives/evernote" } ] }, "stack": [ { "kind": "language", "name": "Python" }, { "kind": "database", "name": "Valkey" }, { "kind": "database", "name": "PostgreSQL" } ], "deployment_methods": [ "docker_compose" ], "requirements": { "min_ram_mb": null, "min_cpu_cores": null, "source_url": null }, "license": { "spdx": "GPL-3.0", "class": "osi", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/LICENSE" }, "business_model": { "value": "unknown", "notes": "The README at the pinned commit does not state a business model, so it stays unknown.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/README.md", "checked_at": "2026-10-22" }, "difficulty": { "value": "hard", "reason": "3 services (2 database or broker: valkey, postgres), 6 volume mounts, 1 env value to set, no elevated host access. Heuristic score 6 of 11: hard." }, "repository": { "owner": "paperless-ngx", "name": "paperless-ngx", "url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx" }, "compose_check": { "status": "config_ok", "validated_at": "2026-10-22", "summary": "config_ok on 2026-10-22" }, "recipe": { "version": 1, "source_path": "docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml", "source_repo": "paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx", "source_commit_sha": "232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13", "source_kind": "app_repo", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml" }, "install_steps": [ { "order": 1, "kind": "prerequisite", "language": "text", "label": "Docker with the Compose plugin", "body": "A host with Docker and the Docker Compose plugin. This entry runs from a compose file.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md", "validation_status": "unvalidated" }, { "order": 2, "kind": "compose", "language": "yaml", "label": "Save the compose file as docker-compose.yml", "body": "# Docker Compose file for running paperless from the Docker Hub.\n# This file contains everything paperless needs to run.\n# Paperless supports amd64, arm and arm64 hardware.\n#\n# All compose files of paperless configure paperless in the following way:\n#\n# - Paperless is (re)started on system boot, if it was running before shutdown.\n# - Docker volumes for storing data are managed by Docker.\n# - Folders for importing and exporting files are created in the same directory\n# as this file and mounted to the correct folders inside the container.\n# - Paperless listens on port 8000.\n#\n# In addition to that, this Docker Compose file adds the following optional\n# configurations:\n#\n# - Instead of SQLite (default), PostgreSQL is used as the database server.\n#\n# To install and update paperless with this file, do the following:\n#\n# - Copy this file as 'docker-compose.yml' and the files 'docker-compose.env'\n# and '.env' into a folder.\n# - Run 'docker compose pull'.\n# - Run 'docker compose up -d'.\n#\n# For more extensive installation and update instructions, refer to the\n# documentation.\nservices:\n broker:\n image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:9-alpine\n restart: unless-stopped\n volumes:\n - redisdata:/data\n db:\n image: docker.io/library/postgres:18\n restart: unless-stopped\n volumes:\n - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql\n environment:\n POSTGRES_DB: paperless\n POSTGRES_USER: paperless\n POSTGRES_PASSWORD: paperless\n webserver:\n image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest\n restart: unless-stopped\n depends_on:\n - db\n - broker\n ports:\n - \"8000:8000\"\n volumes:\n - data:/usr/src/paperless/data\n - media:/usr/src/paperless/media\n - ./export:/usr/src/paperless/export\n - ./consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume\n env_file: docker-compose.env\n environment:\n PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379\n PAPERLESS_DBHOST: db\n PAPERLESS_DBENGINE: postgresql\nvolumes:\n data:\n media:\n pgdata:\n redisdata:\n", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml", "validation_status": "config_ok" }, { "order": 3, "kind": "env", "language": "dotenv", "label": "Save as docker-compose.env next to the compose file", "body": "###############################################################################\n# Paperless-ngx settings #\n###############################################################################\n\n# See http://docs.paperless-ngx.com/configuration/ for all available options.\n\n# The UID and GID of the user used to run paperless in the container. Set this\n# to your UID and GID on the host so that you have write access to the\n# consumption directory.\n#USERMAP_UID=1000\n#USERMAP_GID=1000\n\n# See the documentation linked above for all options. A few commonly adjusted settings\n# are provided below.\n\n# This is required if you will be exposing Paperless-ngx on a public domain\n# (if doing so please consider security measures such as reverse proxy)\n#PAPERLESS_URL=https://paperless.example.com\n\n# Required. A unique secret key for session tokens and signing.\n# Generate with: python3 -c \"import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(64))\"\nPAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY=change-me\n\n# Use this variable to set a timezone for the Paperless Docker containers. Defaults to UTC.\n#PAPERLESS_TIME_ZONE=America/Los_Angeles\n\n# The default language to use for OCR. Set this to the language most of your\n# documents are written in.\n#PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE=eng\n\n# Additional languages to install for text recognition, separated by a whitespace.\n# Note that this is different from PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE (default=eng), which defines\n# the language used for OCR.\n# The container installs English, German, Italian, Spanish and French by default.\n# See https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=tesseract-ocr-&searchon=names\n# for available languages.\n#PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGES=tur ces\n", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.env", "validation_status": "unvalidated" }, { "order": 4, "kind": "env", "language": "dotenv", "label": "Save as .env next to the compose file", "body": "COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=paperless\n", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/.env", "validation_status": "unvalidated" }, { "order": 5, "kind": "note", "language": "text", "label": "What the compose file check ran with", "body": "The compose file check ran together with docker-compose.env (saved as docker-compose.env) and .env (saved as .env) from the same commit. The folder held only these files. The setup guide tells the reader to download one docker-compose file for the chosen database, save it as docker-compose.yml, download docker-compose.env and .env into the same folder and run docker compose up -d.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md", "validation_status": "unvalidated" }, { "order": 6, "kind": "shell", "language": "bash", "label": "Start it", "body": "docker compose up -d", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md", "validation_status": "unvalidated" }, { "order": 7, "kind": "verify", "language": "text", "label": "Open the app", "body": "Open http://localhost:8000. The compose file publishes host port 8000 for the webserver service. The docs say Paperless-ngx should be available at http://127.0.0.1:8000.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml", "validation_status": "unvalidated" } ], "notes": [ { "kind": "gotcha", "title": "Some images use the latest tag or no tag", "body": "Images without a pinned version: webserver: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest. A later pull can get a different version.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml", "checked_at": "2026-10-22" }, { "kind": "gotcha", "title": "The compose file publishes host ports", "body": "Host ports: 8000 (webserver). A port without a host address listens on all host network interfaces.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml", "checked_at": "2026-10-22" }, { "kind": "gotcha", "title": "The compose file mounts host folders", "body": "Host paths mounted into containers: ./export at /usr/src/paperless/export (webserver), ./consume at /usr/src/paperless/consume (webserver).", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml", "checked_at": "2026-10-22" }, { "kind": "gotcha", "title": "The example env file docker-compose.env has placeholder values", "body": "The example env file sets placeholder text for: PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY. Replace them before you rely on the install.", "source_url": "https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.env", "checked_at": "2026-10-22" } ], "signals": { "captured_at": "2026-10-22", "stars": 46986, "forks": 3263, "open_issues": 11, "last_push": "2026-10-22", "days_since_push": 0, "latest_release": "v3.3.3", "latest_release_date": "2026-10-19", "days_since_release": 3 }, "links": { "html": "https://openlogs.fyi/tools/paperless-ngx", "markdown": "https://openlogs.fyi/tools/paperless-ngx.md", "json": "https://openlogs.fyi/tools/paperless-ngx.json" }, "updated_at": "2026-10-22" }