Paperless

# 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 `--json`** for AI/automation — it's the most parseable format - **Date formats:** `YYYY-MM-DD` or full ISO 8601 - **IDs are numeric** — use `list --json` commands to find them - **Filters are repeatable:** `--tag 1 --tag 2` or `--tag 1,2` both work - **Pagination:** Use `--page` and `--page-size` for large result sets

## Links

- [ppls on GitHub](https://github.com/NickChristensen/ppls) - [Paperless-NGX Docs](https://docs.paperless-ngx.com/)