# Paperless-ngx Document management system that scans, indexes and archives paper documents. - Replaces: [Docparser](https://openlogs.fyi/alternatives/docparser), [Evernote](https://openlogs.fyi/alternatives/evernote) - Summary: Paid document management services, such as Evernote and Docparser. - Stack: Python (language), Valkey (database), PostgreSQL (database) - Deployment: docker_compose - License: GPL-3.0 (osi) [source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/LICENSE) - Business model: unknown. The README at the pinned commit does not state a business model, so it stays unknown. ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/README.md), read 2026-10-22) - Difficulty: hard. 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. - Requirements: not stated - Repository: [paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx) ## Install 1. Docker with the Compose plugin ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md)) ```text A host with Docker and the Docker Compose plugin. This entry runs from a compose file. ``` 2. Save the compose file as docker-compose.yml ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml)) ```yaml # Docker Compose file for running paperless from the Docker Hub. # This file contains everything paperless needs to run. # Paperless supports amd64, arm and arm64 hardware. # # All compose files of paperless configure paperless in the following way: # # - Paperless is (re)started on system boot, if it was running before shutdown. # - Docker volumes for storing data are managed by Docker. # - Folders for importing and exporting files are created in the same directory # as this file and mounted to the correct folders inside the container. # - Paperless listens on port 8000. # # In addition to that, this Docker Compose file adds the following optional # configurations: # # - Instead of SQLite (default), PostgreSQL is used as the database server. # # To install and update paperless with this file, do the following: # # - Copy this file as 'docker-compose.yml' and the files 'docker-compose.env' # and '.env' into a folder. # - Run 'docker compose pull'. # - Run 'docker compose up -d'. # # For more extensive installation and update instructions, refer to the # documentation. services: broker: image: docker.io/valkey/valkey:9-alpine restart: unless-stopped volumes: - redisdata:/data db: image: docker.io/library/postgres:18 restart: unless-stopped volumes: - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql environment: POSTGRES_DB: paperless POSTGRES_USER: paperless POSTGRES_PASSWORD: paperless webserver: image: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest restart: unless-stopped depends_on: - db - broker ports: - "8000:8000" volumes: - data:/usr/src/paperless/data - media:/usr/src/paperless/media - ./export:/usr/src/paperless/export - ./consume:/usr/src/paperless/consume env_file: docker-compose.env environment: PAPERLESS_REDIS: redis://broker:6379 PAPERLESS_DBHOST: db PAPERLESS_DBENGINE: postgresql volumes: data: media: pgdata: redisdata: ``` 3. Save as docker-compose.env next to the compose file ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.env)) ```dotenv ############################################################################### # Paperless-ngx settings # ############################################################################### # See http://docs.paperless-ngx.com/configuration/ for all available options. # The UID and GID of the user used to run paperless in the container. Set this # to your UID and GID on the host so that you have write access to the # consumption directory. #USERMAP_UID=1000 #USERMAP_GID=1000 # See the documentation linked above for all options. A few commonly adjusted settings # are provided below. # This is required if you will be exposing Paperless-ngx on a public domain # (if doing so please consider security measures such as reverse proxy) #PAPERLESS_URL=https://paperless.example.com # Required. A unique secret key for session tokens and signing. # Generate with: python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(64))" PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY=change-me # Use this variable to set a timezone for the Paperless Docker containers. Defaults to UTC. #PAPERLESS_TIME_ZONE=America/Los_Angeles # The default language to use for OCR. Set this to the language most of your # documents are written in. #PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE=eng # Additional languages to install for text recognition, separated by a whitespace. # Note that this is different from PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGE (default=eng), which defines # the language used for OCR. # The container installs English, German, Italian, Spanish and French by default. # See https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=tesseract-ocr-&searchon=names # for available languages. #PAPERLESS_OCR_LANGUAGES=tur ces ``` 4. Save as .env next to the compose file ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/.env)) ```dotenv COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME=paperless ``` 5. What the compose file check ran with ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md)) ```text 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. ``` 6. Start it ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md)) ```bash docker compose up -d ``` 7. Open the app ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml)) ```text 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. ``` Compose file check: config_ok on 2026-10-22. ## Gotchas and maintenance ### Gotchas - Some images use the latest tag or no tag: Images without a pinned version: webserver: ghcr.io/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx:latest. A later pull can get a different version. ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml), checked 2026-10-22) - The compose file publishes host ports: Host ports: 8000 (webserver). A port without a host address listens on all host network interfaces. ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml), checked 2026-10-22) - The compose file mounts host folders: Host paths mounted into containers: ./export at /usr/src/paperless/export (webserver), ./consume at /usr/src/paperless/consume (webserver). ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml), checked 2026-10-22) - The example env file docker-compose.env has placeholder values: The example env file sets placeholder text for: PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY. Replace them before you rely on the install. ([source](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.env), checked 2026-10-22) ### Signals Computed from a GitHub snapshot taken 2026-10-22. - Open issues and pull requests: 11 - Stars: 46986, forks: 3263 - Last push: 2026-10-22 (0 days ago) - Latest release: v3.3.3 on 2026-10-19 (3 days ago) ## Sources - [Repository: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx) - [License: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/LICENSE](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/LICENSE) - [Business model: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/README.md](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/README.md) - [Compose file: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.postgres.yml) - [Install step: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docs/setup.md) - [Install step: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.env](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/docker-compose.env) - [Install step: https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/.env](https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/blob/232f9c8dcc55da70aa6ee61bda3ca3dc8a91fe13/docker/compose/.env) --- Canonical: https://openlogs.fyi/tools/paperless-ngx Last updated: 2026-10-22