Paperless MCP

Paperless-NGX over MCP: search, read, upload and tag documents; manage correspondents and types.

Documentation | Config wizard | PyPI | Docker

Features

• File transfer links: Download document files and full OCR Markdown over HTTP. Upload files, including Markdown, through the same transfer route. Set PAPERLESS_MCP_BASE_URL to enable the tools. File bytes stay outside model context. See file transfer links.
• Document search & retrieval: full-text and filtered list queries against Paperless-NGX, plus access to extracted OCR text, metadata, and thumbnails.
• Tag, correspondent, document-type, custom-field management: full CRUD and bulk-edit for every classification dimension Paperless exposes.
• Document lifecycle supports uploads, field changes, notes, audit history, and AI-suggested tags/correspondents/types.
• Operational introspection covers saved views, storage paths, share links, background tasks (with wait_for_task), statistics, and an upstream release check for Paperless-NGX.
• MCP tools: 49 LLM-visible tools with Lucide icons; see src/paperless_mcp/tools/.
• MCP resources: 16 URIs exposing bounded document previews and domain collections; see src/paperless_mcp/resources/.

What you can do with it

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 reads bounded previews with get_document_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.

Every tool and resource is listed in the documentation site: Tools and Resources. The Paperless variables the server reads are in Configuration.

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:

• pip install pvliesdonk-paperless-mcp[docs]: installs mkdocs-material and mkdocstrings[python] for building the documentation site locally (uv run mkdocs serve).

From source

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

Docker

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

To run the newest merged code instead of the newest release, use the rolling edge tag. It is rebuilt on every merge to main and carries no version identity. See Image tags for the full tag list.

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

A compose.yml ships at the repo root and runs as-is: copy .env.example to .env, then docker compose up -d. It publishes port 8000 on the host and assumes no reverse proxy; Docker Compose covers the configuration split, the domain sentinel blocks, and a Traefik overlay.

To attach a remote Python debugger (development only; the protocol is unauthenticated), see Remote debugging.

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, with no manual JSON editing needed.

For manual Claude Desktop configuration and setup options, see Claude Desktop deployment.

Release channels

Artifacts ship on three channels. Each row lists exactly what that channel publishes.

Pre-releases reach PyPI so that a candidate's .mcpb bundle installs: the bundle points at PyPI rather than carrying the code. Ordinary installers never see them, because a PEP 440 resolver skips pre-releases unless the requirement pins one or you pass --pre. Ask for a candidate by name with pip install pvliesdonk-paperless-mcp==X.Y.ZrcN. PyPI spells it in the PEP 440 canonical form, while tags use SemVer. Rolling pointers are ordering-aware, so a patch release cut from an old release/X.Y branch never moves latest-style tags back to older content, and a candidate for an already-released version never moves rc. See Release process for the full model.

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 the project's domain modules under src/paperless_mcp/ for entry points.

Server info

The server registers a built-in get_server_info tool (via fastmcp_pvl_core.register_server_info_tool) so operators can confirm the deployed version with a single MCP call. The default response carries server_name, server_version, and core_version. Servers that talk to a remote upstream wire upstream version reporting inside the DOMAIN-UPSTREAM-START / DOMAIN-UPSTREAM-END sentinel in src/paperless_mcp/server.py; see tool-registration for the wiring pattern.

Health

The server serves /health (liveness, a static 200) and /health/ready (readiness, 503 when a backing store or a domain check fails) outside the MCP mount and outside auth, via fastmcp_pvl_core.register_health_routes. compose.yml probes the first. Domain readiness checks go in the health_checks dict in src/paperless_mcp/server.py; see Docker deployment for the routes, the mount-path rule, and PAPERLESS_MCP_HEALTH_DETAIL.

Configuration

The most common environment variables, shared across all fastmcp-pvl-core-based services:

This table and the one under Domain configuration are curated subsets. The complete generated reference, with every variable the server reads, is the configuration reference; .env.example lists the same surface in copy-paste form.

Authentication

Callers authenticate via a bearer token or OIDC (mutually exclusive). See the Authentication guide for setup, mapped multi-subject tokens, OIDC, and troubleshooting.

Post-scaffold checklist

After copier copy and gh repo create --push:

1. Fill in the DOMAIN blocks (every section marked with a DOMAIN sentinel comment) in this README and in AGENTS.md. The GENERATED-ENV-TABLE-* regions are not DOMAIN blocks; the config generator owns them and rewrites them on every run.
2. Configure GitHub secrets (see below).
3. Install dev + docs tooling: uv sync --all-extras --all-groups.
4. Install pre-commit hooks: uv run pre-commit install.
5. Run the gate locally: uv run pytest -x -q && uv run ruff check --fix . && uv run ruff format . && uv run mypy src/ tests/.
6. Push the first commit. CI should be green.

GitHub secrets

CI workflows reference two required repository secrets and one optional Claude token. Configure them via Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions or with gh secret set:

gh secret set RELEASE_TOKEN
gh secret set SONAR_TOKEN
# Optional: enables @claude and opted-in automatic review.
gh secret set CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN

Dependency updates are handled by Renovate (renovate.yml), which reuses RELEASE_TOKEN. It maintains uv.lock and auto-merges patch/minor bumps once the CI Success check is green; bootstrap.yml enables auto-merge, applies the repository rulesets (.github/rulesets/), turns on private vulnerability reporting and Dependabot alerts, and fills the repository's About block (description, website, topics) from pyproject.toml on first push. See Repository Protection for the per-branch posture, bypass model, and security settings. GitHub Actions are updated in the copier template and arrive via copier update, not per-repo.

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 AGENTS.md for the full Hard PR Acceptance Gates.

CI requires tests to pass on Python 3.11 through 3.14. Python 3.14 also collects branch coverage and enforces the 80% total and patch coverage thresholds. To reproduce that test command, run uv run --python 3.14 pytest --cov --cov-report=xml --durations=20.

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 --all-groups

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 (such as a new extra added to pyproject.toml.jinja), the CI install step runs uv sync --locked, which fails against a stale lockfile. Run uv lock locally and commit the refreshed uv.lock alongside accepting the copier-update PR.

CI installs with --locked (and the review workflow with --frozen) so no job ever rewrites uv.lock in its own workspace: a job that re-locks hides the drift it just repaired, and a dirty workspace breaks any later git checkout in the same job. Lockfile drift then shows up as a red install step with a clear message, not as a silent mutation.

Contributing

CONTRIBUTING.md holds the rules for issues and pull requests, and where a fix belongs: fastmcp-pvl-core for library code, the template for template-owned files, this repository for anything inside its DOMAIN-* / CONFIG-* / PROJECT-* blocks. AGENTS.md carries the conventions and gates; the skills under .agents/skills/ carry the task procedures, among them self-reviewing (local self-review before a pull request), writing-release-notes (release notes), applying-template-updates (the weekly template update pull request) and authoring-issues-prs (filing). The release procedure is in docs/deployment/release-process.md; the template update procedure in docs/deployment/template-updates.md. SECURITY.md says how to report a vulnerability privately, and what to expect after.

Links

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

Domain configuration

The variables this project features as its entry points (domain variables use the PAPERLESS_MCP_ prefix):

This is a curated subset: a field appears here when its tags metadata includes readme. Every domain variable is documented in the configuration reference, grouped the same way the config wizard presents them.

Domain-config 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, and field invariants go in __post_init__ between the CONFIG-VALIDATE-START / CONFIG-VALIDATE-END sentinels. Each field's metadata help, tags, and wizard group generate the reference tables directly, so keep them accurate and complete.

Key design decisions

• Read-only deployments use tool visibility, not a domain switch. Set PAPERLESS_MCP_TOOLS_DENY (or PAPERLESS_MCP_TOOLS_ALLOW) to hide the mutating tools, including create_upload_link when transfers are enabled. The template applies visibility last in make_server, so hidden tools leave tools/list and are rejected on tools/call. Clients cannot invoke a write that will be refused, and the rule lives in one place for every server built on this template.
• 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.
• Paperless API compatibility: requests prefer payload version 10, with automatic version 9 fallback for Paperless 2.x after an explicit version rejection. Tasks include structured results and timing data while retaining the legacy fields. Saved-view visibility flags can now be null; Python consumers must handle that value. See task tools.
• Models accept unknown upstream fields. Pydantic models use lenient validation for list-endpoint responses so newer Paperless-NGX versions do not 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.