Paperless-NGX CLI
Search and manage documents in Paperless-NGX using ppls.
Setup
bash
npm install -g @nickchristensen/ppls ppls config set hostname http://your-paperless-host ppls config set token your-api-token
Searching Documents
bash
# By name ppls documents list --name-contains "invoice" --json # By date range ppls documents list --created-after 2024-01-01 --created-before 2024-12-31 --json # By tag (OR — any of these tags) ppls documents list --tag 5 --tag 12 --json # By tag (AND — must have all) ppls documents list --tag-all 5,12 --json # Exclude tags ppls documents list --tag-not 3 --json # By correspondent ppls documents list --correspondent 7 --json # By document type ppls documents list --document-type 2 --json # Documents missing metadata ppls documents list --no-correspondent --json ppls documents list --no-tag --json # Recently added/modified ppls documents list --added-after 2024-06-01 --json ppls documents list --modified-after 2024-06-01 --json # Combine filters ppls documents list --correspondent 7 --created-after 2024-01-01 --tag 5 --json
Viewing & Downloading
bash
# Get full document details (includes OCR content) ppls documents show 1234 --json # Download single document ppls documents download 1234 --output ~/Downloads/doc.pdf # Download multiple documents ppls documents download 1234 5678 --output-dir ~/Downloads # Download original (pre-processed) version ppls documents download 1234 --original
Uploading Documents
bash
# Simple upload (Paperless auto-processes) ppls documents add scan.pdf # With metadata ppls documents add receipt.pdf \ --title "Store Receipt" \ --correspondent 5 \ --document-type 2 \ --tag 10
Managing Metadata
bash
# List tags/correspondents/document-types ppls tags list --json ppls correspondents list --json ppls document-types list --json # Create new ppls tags add "Tax 2024" --color "#ff0000" ppls correspondents add "New Vendor" ppls document-types add "Contract" # Update document metadata ppls documents update 1234 --title "New Title" --correspondent 5 --tag 10
Tips
- •Always use
--jsonfor AI/automation — it's the most parseable format - •Date formats:
YYYY-MM-DDor full ISO 8601 - •IDs are numeric — use
list --jsoncommands to find them - •Filters are repeatable:
--tag 1 --tag 2or--tag 1,2both work - •Pagination: Use
--pageand--page-sizefor large result sets