homelab-blueprint/docker-compose-files/paperless-ngx

Paperless-ngx

Document management system that scans, indexes, and archives paper documents with full-text OCR search. Runs with the bundled SQLite database and a Redis task broker.

Persistent Data

All document state lives on the UNAS paperless_data share (see nfs-mounts), NFS-mounted on the Proxmox host and bind-mounted into the LXC at PAPERLESS_DATA_ROOT:

• data/ — database, search index, classification model.
• media/ — original and archived documents.
• consume/ — watched for new documents; safe to empty once ingested.
• export/ — target for document_exporter backups.
• trash/ — deleted documents until emptied.

The compose binds use create_host_path: false, so the stack refuses to start if the share is not mounted. Only the Redis broker state is in a Docker named volume (paperless_redis_data).

Installation

1. Create .env if it does not exist:

   cp -n .env.sample .env
   

2. Set the required values in .env:

   TZ=Africa/Johannesburg
   PAPERLESS_URL=https://paperless-ngx.home.example.com
   PAPERLESS_SECRET_KEY=<random-secret>   # openssl rand -base64 48
   PAPERLESS_DATA_ROOT=/mnt/unas/paperless_data
   PUID=1000
   PGID=1000
   
   DOCKERLOGGING_MAXFILE=3
   DOCKERLOGGING_MAXSIZE=10m
   

   PAPERLESS_URL must match the URL used in the browser, otherwise CSRF checks fail behind the reverse proxy.

3. Ensure the share is bind-mounted into the LXC and owned by the container user (host-side UID for an unprivileged LXC is LXC_IDMAP_BASE + PUID):

   # On the Proxmox host
   pct set <vmid> -mp0 /mnt/unas/paperless_data,mp=/mnt/unas/paperless_data
   mkdir -p /mnt/unas/paperless_data/{data,media,consume,export,trash}
   chown -R 101000:101000 /mnt/unas/paperless_data
   

4. Deploy with make:

   make deploy-paperless
   

   Manual equivalent:

   ./substitute_env.sh docker-compose-files/paperless-ngx/template.yaml docker-compose.paperless.yml .env
   docker compose -f docker-compose.paperless.yml config --quiet
   docker compose -f docker-compose.paperless.yml up -d
   

5. Create the first user, unless PAPERLESS_ADMIN_USER is set in .env:

   docker exec -it paperless createsuperuser
   

6. Verify the containers and open http://<host-ip>:8000:

   docker compose -f docker-compose.paperless.yml ps
   docker compose -f docker-compose.paperless.yml logs --tail=100 paperless
   

Reverse Proxy

The Caddyfile proxies paperless-ngx.<domain> to this host on port 8000 with header_up Host {host} so CSRF origin checks pass. After changing the port, update docker-compose-files/caddy/Caddyfile_template and run make reload-caddy.

Backup

Run the built-in exporter, then back up PAPERLESS_DATA_ROOT/export (it contains documents plus a manifest that restores tags, correspondents, and metadata):

docker exec paperless document_exporter /usr/src/paperless/export --zip

Useful Commands

# Tail logs
docker compose -f docker-compose.paperless.yml logs -f paperless

# Retrain the document classifier
docker exec paperless document_create_classifier

# Re-run OCR on a document
docker exec paperless document_archiver --overwrite --document <id>