Paperless-ngx Document Management

Orchestrate Paperless-ngx through 16 MCP tools across 4 domains.

Tool Catalog

Documents (5 tools)

Tool	Operation	Key Params
search_documents	Full-text search	query, page, page_size
get_document	Full details	id
post_document	Upload file	file (base64), filename, metadata
download_document	Get file base64	id, original (bool)
bulk_edit_documents	Batch operations	documents (IDs), method, params

Tags (5 tools)

Tool	Operation
list_tags	All tags + colors + matching
create_tag	New tag, optional auto-match
update_tag	Modify name/color/matching
delete_tag	Remove permanently
bulk_edit_tags	Batch permissions/deletion

Correspondents (3 tools)

Tool	Operation
list_correspondents	All correspondents
create_correspondent	New, optional auto-match
bulk_edit_correspondents	Batch permissions/delete

Document Types (3 tools)

Tool	Operation
list_document_types	All document types
create_document_type	New, optional auto-match
bulk_edit_document_types	Batch permissions/delete

Decision Trees

Find a Document

What do you know?
├─ Keywords/content     → search_documents(query="term1 term2")
├─ Document ID          → get_document(id=N)
├─ By tag               → search_documents(query="tag:tagname")
├─ By type              → search_documents(query="type:typename")
├─ By correspondent     → search_documents(query="correspondent:name")
├─ By date              → search_documents(query="created:[2024 to 2025]")
└─ Combined             → search_documents(query="tag:X correspondent:Y created:[2024 to 2025]")

Organize Documents

What operation?
├─ Add tag         → bulk_edit_documents(method="add_tag", tag=ID)
├─ Remove tag      → bulk_edit_documents(method="remove_tag", tag=ID)
├─ Multi-tag       → bulk_edit_documents(method="modify_tags", add_tags=[...], remove_tags=[...])
├─ Set type        → bulk_edit_documents(method="set_document_type", document_type=ID)
├─ Set sender      → bulk_edit_documents(method="set_correspondent", correspondent=ID)
├─ Merge PDFs      → bulk_edit_documents(method="merge", metadata_document_id=ID)
├─ Rotate pages    → bulk_edit_documents(method="rotate", degrees=90|180|270)
├─ Delete pages    → bulk_edit_documents(method="delete_pages", pages="1,3,5-7")
├─ Reprocess OCR   → bulk_edit_documents(method="reprocess")
└─ Delete          → bulk_edit_documents(method="delete")  !! PERMANENT !!

Upload a Document

1. Resolve metadata IDs first:
   ├─ list_tags            → find or create_tag
   ├─ list_correspondents  → find or create_correspondent
   └─ list_document_types  → find or create_document_type
2. post_document(file=<base64>, filename="name.pdf", tags=[...], correspondent=ID, ...)

Manage Taxonomy (Tags/Correspondents/Types)

Need to change metadata objects?
├─ View all          → list_tags / list_correspondents / list_document_types
├─ Create new        → create_tag / create_correspondent / create_document_type
├─ Edit tag          → update_tag(id, name, color, match, matching_algorithm)
├─ Delete one tag    → delete_tag(id)
├─ Batch delete/perm → bulk_edit_tags / bulk_edit_correspondents / bulk_edit_document_types

Critical Notes

• search_documents strips content to save tokens. Use get_document for full OCR text.
• post_document requires base64 file content, not file paths.
• matching_algorithm is integer 0-6 across all endpoints (tags, correspondents, document types): 0=none, 1=any, 2=all, 3=exact, 4=regex, 5=fuzzy, 6=auto. See tools.md.
• Bulk delete is permanent and irreversible.
• download_document returns base64 blob + filename from content-disposition.

References

Task	File
Tool parameters & types	tools.md
Search query syntax	query-syntax.md
Multi-step workflows	workflows.md