Paperless MCP

Paperless-NGX document management over MCP: search, tag, upload, and read documents; manage tags, correspondents, document types, and custom fields.

Documentation | PyPI | Docker

Features

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• Document search & retrieval — full-text and filtered list queries against Paperless-NGX, plus access to extracted OCR text, metadata, thumbnails, and original-file downloads via short-lived signed URLs.
• Tag, correspondent, document-type, custom-field management — full CRUD and bulk-edit for every classification dimension Paperless exposes.
• Document lifecycle — upload new documents, update fields, attach notes, and inspect audit history and AI-suggested tags/correspondents/types.
• Operational introspection — saved views, storage paths, share links, background tasks (with wait_for_task), statistics, and remote Paperless-NGX version.
• MCP tools — 50 LLM-visible tools with Lucide icons and read-only gating; see src/paperless_mcp/tools/.
• MCP resources — 20 URIs exposing documents and domain collections; see src/paperless_mcp/resources/.
• Read-only mode — flip PAPERLESS_MCP_READ_ONLY=true to disable every mutating tool at startup. <!-- DOMAIN-END -->

What you can do with it

<!-- DOMAIN-START --> With this server mounted in an MCP client (Claude, etc.), you can:

• "Find last quarter's invoices from ACME." Composes search_documents with a correspondent filter, then streams matches via paperless://documents/{id}/content.
• "Tag these three documents as 'reviewed' and move them to the Accounting correspondent." Uses bulk_edit_documents in a single call.
• "Upload this PDF and wait until OCR finishes." Composes upload_document + wait_for_task so the assistant only reports back once the document is indexed.
• "What changed on document 4213 in the last week?" Reads paperless://documents/4213/history and summarises the audit trail.
• "Give me a time-limited link to the original file for document 982." Calls create_download_link — the URL is valid for PAPERLESS_MCP_DOWNLOAD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS and does not expose the API token. <!-- DOMAIN-END -->

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Installation

From PyPI

pip install pvliesdonk-paperless-mcp

If you add optional extras via the PROJECT-EXTRAS-START / PROJECT-EXTRAS-END sentinels in pyproject.toml, document them below:

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• pip install pvliesdonk-paperless-mcp[docs] — pulls in mkdocs-material and mkdocstrings[python] for building the documentation site locally (uv run mkdocs serve). <!-- DOMAIN-END -->

From source

git clone https://github.com/pvliesdonk/paperless-mcp.git
cd paperless-mcp
uv sync --all-extras --dev

Docker

docker pull ghcr.io/pvliesdonk/paperless-mcp:latest

A compose.yml ships at the repo root as a starting point — copy .env.example to .env, edit, and docker compose up -d.

Linux packages (.deb / .rpm)

Download .deb or .rpm packages from the GitHub Releases page. Both install a hardened systemd unit; env configuration is sourced from /etc/paperless-mcp/env (copy from the shipped /etc/paperless-mcp/env.example).

Claude Desktop (.mcpb bundle)

Download the .mcpb bundle from the GitHub Releases page and double-click to install, or run:

mcpb install paperless-mcp-<version>.mcpb

Claude Desktop prompts for required env vars via a GUI wizard — no manual JSON editing needed.

Quick start

paperless-mcp serve                                # stdio transport
paperless-mcp serve --transport http --port 8000   # streamable HTTP

For library usage (embedding the domain logic without the MCP transport), import from the paperless_mcp package directly — see src/paperless_mcp/domain.py for the entry point scaffold.

Configuration

All settings come from environment variables with the PAPERLESS_MCP_ prefix.

Required

Variable	Description
PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_URL	Base URL of the Paperless-NGX REST API (no trailing slash).
PAPERLESS_MCP_API_TOKEN	Paperless service-account token.

Optional (with defaults)

Variable	Default	Description
PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_PUBLIC_URL	(same as PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_URL)	Public-facing Paperless UI URL used to construct user-visible links (e.g. web_url, share_url). Defaults to the API URL when unset.
PAPERLESS_MCP_HTTP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	30	Per-request HTTP timeout (seconds).
PAPERLESS_MCP_HTTP_RETRIES	2	Retries (not counting the initial attempt) on 5xx/network errors.
PAPERLESS_MCP_DOWNLOAD_LINK_TTL_SECONDS	300	TTL of URLs issued by create_download_link. Clamped [30, 3600].
PAPERLESS_MCP_DEFAULT_PAGE_SIZE	25	Default page_size for list tools. Clamped [1, 100].
PAPERLESS_MCP_READ_ONLY	false	When true, disables every writable tool.
PAPERLESS_MCP_INSTRUCTIONS	(built-in)	Operator-supplied description appended to MCP instructions.

See the Transport & Auth section below for the inherited transport, auth, and logging variables.

Transport & Auth

The following variables are inherited unchanged from fastmcp-server-template:

Variable	Description
PAPERLESS_MCP_TRANSPORT	Server transport: stdio (default), http, or sse.
PAPERLESS_MCP_HOST	Bind host for HTTP/SSE transport (default 127.0.0.1).
PAPERLESS_MCP_PORT	Bind port for HTTP/SSE transport (default 8000).
PAPERLESS_MCP_HTTP_PATH	URL path prefix for HTTP transport (default /mcp).
PAPERLESS_MCP_BASE_URL	Public base URL for artifact download links.
PAPERLESS_MCP_OIDC_*	OIDC provider settings when OIDC auth is enabled.
PAPERLESS_MCP_BEARER_TOKEN	Static bearer token for simple token auth.
PAPERLESS_MCP_LOG_LEVEL	Log level: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR.
PAPERLESS_MCP_LOG_FORMAT	Log format: rich (default) or json.

Tools

Documents

Tool	Description
list_documents	List documents with optional filtering; OCR content stripped by default (include_content=True for full text). notes[].note and custom_fields[].value are always stripped on listings — use single-document endpoints to fetch them.
search_documents	Full-text search across documents; OCR content stripped by default (include_content=True for full text). notes[].note and custom_fields[].value are always stripped on search hits.
get_document	Retrieve a document by ID; OCR content stripped by default (include_content=True for full text)
get_document_content	Get the extracted text content of a document
get_document_thumbnail	Get the thumbnail image of a document
get_document_metadata	Get metadata (original filename, checksums, etc.)
get_document_notes	List notes attached to a document
get_document_history	Get the audit history of a document
get_document_suggestions	Get AI-generated tag/correspondent/type suggestions
update_document	Update document fields (title, tags, correspondent, etc.); response OCR content stripped by default (include_content=True to retain)
delete_document	Delete a document
upload_document	Upload a new document for processing
bulk_edit_documents	Apply a bulk operation to multiple documents
add_document_note	Add a note to a document
delete_document_note	Delete a note from a document

get_document, list_documents, search_documents, and update_document include a web_url field pointing to the document in the Paperless UI (e.g. https://paperless.example.com/documents/42/). Set PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_PUBLIC_URL if the public URL differs from the API URL; otherwise the API URL is used.

Paginated tools return next/previous as bare page=N markers (never full URLs) — callers pass page=N explicitly when walking pages. None means no further page.

Tags

Tool	Description
list_tags	List all tags
get_tag	Get a tag by ID
create_tag	Create a new tag
update_tag	Update a tag
delete_tag	Delete a tag
bulk_edit_tags	Bulk edit tags

Correspondents

Tool	Description
list_correspondents	List all correspondents
get_correspondent	Get a correspondent by ID
create_correspondent	Create a new correspondent
update_correspondent	Update a correspondent
delete_correspondent	Delete a correspondent
bulk_edit_correspondents	Bulk edit correspondents

Document Types

Tool	Description
list_document_types	List all document types
get_document_type	Get a document type by ID
create_document_type	Create a new document type
update_document_type	Update a document type
delete_document_type	Delete a document type
bulk_edit_document_types	Bulk edit document types

Custom Fields

Tool	Description
list_custom_fields	List all custom fields
get_custom_field	Get a custom field by ID
create_custom_field	Create a new custom field
update_custom_field	Update a custom field
delete_custom_field	Delete a custom field

Observability

Tool	Description
list_storage_paths	List storage paths
get_storage_path	Get a storage path by ID
list_saved_views	List saved views
get_saved_view	Get a saved view by ID
list_share_links	List share links (includes share_url; uses PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_PUBLIC_URL if set, otherwise PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_URL)
get_share_link	Get a share link by ID (includes share_url; uses PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_PUBLIC_URL if set, otherwise PAPERLESS_MCP_PAPERLESS_URL)
list_tasks	List background tasks. Paginates (page, page_size up to 100). By default returns only unacknowledged tasks — pass include_acknowledged=True to include acknowledged tasks, or acknowledged=True to return only acknowledged ones.
get_task	Get a task by ID
wait_for_task	Wait until a task completes
get_statistics	Get server statistics
get_remote_version	Get the Paperless-NGX version

Downloads

Tool	Description
create_download_link	Create a time-limited download URL for a document

Resources

URI	Description
config://paperless	Server configuration snapshot
stats://paperless	Document statistics
remote-version://paperless	Paperless-NGX version
tags://paperless	All tags
correspondents://paperless	All correspondents
document-types://paperless	All document types
custom-fields://paperless	All custom fields
storage-paths://paperless	All storage paths
saved-views://paperless	All saved views
tasks://paperless	All background tasks
paperless://documents/{document_id}	Document by ID
paperless://documents/{document_id}/content	Extracted text content
paperless://documents/{document_id}/metadata	File metadata
paperless://documents/{document_id}/notes	Document notes
paperless://documents/{document_id}/history	Audit history
paperless://documents/{document_id}/thumbnail	Thumbnail image
paperless://documents/{document_id}/preview	PDF preview
paperless://documents/{document_id}/download	Original file download

Shared framework variables

Inherited from fastmcp-pvl-core across all services built on the template:

Variable	Default	Description
FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Log level for FastMCP internals and app loggers (DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR). The -v CLI flag overrides to DEBUG.
FASTMCP_ENABLE_RICH_LOGGING	true	Set to false for plain / structured JSON log output.
PAPERLESS_MCP_EVENT_STORE_URL	memory://	Event store backend for HTTP session persistence — memory:// (dev), file:///path (survives restarts).

GitHub secrets

CI workflows reference three repository secrets. Configure them via Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions or with gh secret set:

Secret	Used by	How to generate
RELEASE_TOKEN	release.yml, copier-update.yml	Fine-grained PAT at https://github.com/settings/personal-access-tokens/new with contents: write and pull_requests: write (the copier-update cron opens PRs). Scoped to this repo.
CODECOV_TOKEN	ci.yml	https://codecov.io — sign in with GitHub, add the repo, copy the upload token from the repo settings page.
CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN	claude.yml, claude-code-review.yml	Run claude setup-token locally and paste the result.

gh secret set RELEASE_TOKEN
gh secret set CODECOV_TOKEN
gh secret set CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN

GITHUB_TOKEN is auto-provided — no action needed.

Local development

The PR gate (matches CI):

uv run pytest -x -q                                  # tests
uv run ruff check --fix . && uv run ruff format .    # lint + format
uv run mypy src/ tests/                              # type-check

Pre-commit runs a subset of the gate on each commit; see .pre-commit-config.yaml for details, or CLAUDE.md for the full Hard PR Acceptance Gates.

Troubleshooting

Moving a scaffolded project

uv sync creates .venv/bin/* scripts with absolute shebangs pointing at the venv Python. If you move the repo after scaffolding (mv /old/path /new/path), uv run pytest fails with ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'fastmcp' because the stale shebang resolves to a different interpreter than the venv's site-packages.

Fix:

rm -rf .venv
uv sync --all-extras --dev

uv run python -m pytest also works as a one-shot workaround (bypasses the stale entry-script shim).

uv.lock refresh after copier update

When copier update introduces new dependencies (e.g. a new extra added to pyproject.toml.jinja), CI runs uv sync --frozen which fails against a stale lockfile. Run uv lock locally and commit the refreshed uv.lock alongside accepting the copier-update PR.

Links

• Documentation
• llms.txt
• FastMCP
• fastmcp-pvl-core

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Domain configuration

<!-- DOMAIN-START --> The full domain env-var surface is documented under Configuration above (Required / Optional tables). Those PAPERLESS_MCP_* fields are composed inside src/paperless_mcp/config.py between the CONFIG-FIELDS-START / CONFIG-FIELDS-END sentinels; env reads go through fastmcp_pvl_core.env(_ENV_PREFIX, "SUFFIX", default) so naming stays consistent. <!-- DOMAIN-END -->

Key design decisions

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• Read-only gating at startup, not per-call. PAPERLESS_MCP_READ_ONLY=true skips registration of every mutating tool so they simply aren't part of the advertised tool surface — clients can't invoke a write that will be refused.
• Download links are signed and time-limited. create_download_link mints a short-lived URL (default 300 s, clamped to [30, 3600]) that proxies through the MCP server, so the Paperless API token never leaves the host.
• HTTP layer retries idempotent reads only. PAPERLESS_MCP_HTTP_RETRIES applies to GETs on 5xx/network errors; writes never retry automatically, to avoid double-applying bulk edits or uploads.
• Tool icons come from Lucide. Every tool carries a Lucide icon hint so MCP clients that render icons (Claude Desktop) get a coherent visual surface — see src/paperless_mcp/tools/_icons.py.
• Models accept unknown upstream fields. Pydantic models use lenient validation for list-endpoint responses so newer Paperless-NGX versions don't break the client (the Document.some_future_paperless_field test pins this behaviour).
• No prompts ship in v1. prompts.py is intentionally empty; prompts land as concrete user-workflow patterns emerge in practice. <!-- DOMAIN-END -->