Paperless-NGX MCP server for AI agents

The Paperless-NGX MCP server provides a convenient interface for interacting with your Paperless-NGX document management system through AI assistants. It allows you to search, manage, and organize your documents using natural language commands.

Installation

Quick Installation

You can install the Paperless-NGX MCP server using npm:

npx -y @baruchiro/paperless-mcp@latest

Installation Methods

Via Smithery

For Claude Desktop, install automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @baruchiro/paperless-mcp --client claude

Manual Installation

Add one of these configurations to your MCP config file:

For STDIO mode (recommended for local or CLI use):

"paperless": {
  "command": "npx",
  "args": [
    "-y",
    "@baruchiro/paperless-mcp@latest"
  ],
  "env": {
    "PAPERLESS_URL": "http://your-paperless-instance:8000",
    "PAPERLESS_API_KEY": "your-api-token"
  }
}

For HTTP mode (recommended for Docker or remote use):

"paperless": {
  "command": "docker",
  "args": [
    "run",
    "-i",
    "--rm",
    "ghcr.io/baruchiro/paperless-mcp:latest"
  ],
  "env": {
    "PAPERLESS_URL": "http://your-paperless-instance:8000",
    "PAPERLESS_API_KEY": "your-api-token"
  }
}

Getting Your API Token

Log into your Paperless-NGX instance
Click your username in the top right
Select "My Profile"
Click the circular arrow button to generate a new token

Replace the placeholders in your MCP config with your actual Paperless-NGX URL and API token.

Usage Examples

Here are some tasks you can ask Claude to perform:

"Show me all documents tagged as 'Invoice'"
"Search for documents containing 'tax return'"
"Create a new tag called 'Receipts' with color #FF0000"
"Download document #123"
"List all correspondents"
"Create a new document type called 'Bank Statement'"

Available Tools

Document Operations

List Documents

Get a paginated list of all documents:

list_documents({
  page: 1,
  page_size: 25
})

Get Document

Retrieve a specific document by ID:

get_document({
  id: 123
})

Search Documents

Perform full-text search across documents:

search_documents({
  query: "invoice 2024"
})

Download Document

Download a document file by ID:

download_document({
  id: 123,
  original: false
})

Bulk Edit Documents

Perform operations on multiple documents at once:

// Add a tag to multiple documents
bulk_edit_documents({
  documents: [1, 2, 3],
  method: "add_tag",
  tag: 5
})

// Set correspondent for documents
bulk_edit_documents({
  documents: [4, 5],
  method: "set_correspondent",
  correspondent: 2
})

// Merge documents
bulk_edit_documents({
  documents: [6, 7, 8],
  method: "merge",
  metadata_document_id: 6,
  delete_originals: true
})

Upload Document

Upload a new document to Paperless-NGX:

post_document({
  file: "base64_encoded_content",
  filename: "invoice.pdf",
  title: "January Invoice",
  created: "2024-01-19",
  correspondent: 1,
  document_type: 2,
  tags: [1, 3],
  archive_serial_number: "2024-001"
})

Tag Operations

List Tags

Get all tags:

list_tags()

Create Tag

Create a new tag:

create_tag({
  name: "Invoice",
  color: "#ff0000",
  match: "invoice",
  matching_algorithm: "fuzzy"
})

Correspondent Operations

List Correspondents

Get all correspondents:

list_correspondents()

Create Correspondent

Create a new correspondent:

create_correspondent({
  name: "ACME Corp",
  match: "ACME",
  matching_algorithm: "fuzzy"
})

Document Type Operations

List Document Types

Get all document types:

list_document_types()

Create Document Type

Create a new document type:

create_document_type({
  name: "Invoice",
  match: "invoice total amount due",
  matching_algorithm: "any"
})

Error Handling

The server will display clear error messages if:

The Paperless-NGX URL or API token is incorrect
The Paperless-NGX server is unreachable
The requested operation fails
The provided parameters are invalid

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "paperless" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","@baruchiro/paperless-mcp@latest"],"env":{"PAPERLESS_URL":"http://your-paperless-instance:8000","PAPERLESS_API_KEY":"your-api-token"}}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "paperless": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@baruchiro/paperless-mcp@latest"
            ],
            "env": {
                "PAPERLESS_URL": "http://your-paperless-instance:8000",
                "PAPERLESS_API_KEY": "your-api-token"
            }
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "paperless": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@baruchiro/paperless-mcp@latest"
            ],
            "env": {
                "PAPERLESS_URL": "http://your-paperless-instance:8000",
                "PAPERLESS_API_KEY": "your-api-token"
            }
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect