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Self-host Papra with Docker Compose

Archivio documenti autoospitato per archiviare le pratiche e ritrovarle.

papra

papra-app-data-init

busybox

papra-tmp-init

busybox

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

  1. Docker compose setup and file
    save the generated compose and env files.
  2. Secret generation
    create the random passwords Papra needs.
  3. Start Papra with Docker Compose
    bring the stack up and check it's healthy.

Requirements

You'll need these installed on the machine you're deploying to:

Docker

Packages Papra and everything it depends on into an isolated container, so it runs the same way on your machine as it does everywhere else.

Install guide

Docker Compose

Reads docker-compose.ymland starts everything in it together. Ships with Docker Desktop. On Linux servers it's usually a separate install.

Install guide

1. Docker compose setup and file

Create a folder for Papra and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — Papraitself and any supporting services, such as its database — along with the ports, volumes and environment variables each one uses. You'll also need an empty .env file in the same folder; Docker Compose reads it automatically and uses it to fill in the ${VARIABLE}references you'll see in the file below.

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  papra:
    image: ghcr.io/papra-hq/papra:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 1221:1221
    environment:
      APP_BASE_URL: http://papra.localhost:1221
      AUTH_SECRET: ${RANDOM_AUTH_SECRET}
    volumes:
      - app-data:/app/app-data
      - tmp:/tmp
    depends_on:
      papra-app-data-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      papra-tmp-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
  papra-app-data-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - app-data:/app/app-data
    command:
      - chown
      - 999:999
      - /app/app-data
  papra-tmp-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - tmp:/tmp
    command:
      - chown
      - 999:999
      - /tmp
volumes:
  app-data: null
  tmp: null

Volumes

Papra stores its data in named Docker volumes, so it survives container restarts and updates:

  • app-data mounted at /app/app-data: Papra's SQLite database and the original file of every uploaded document.
  • tmp mounted at /tmp: Scratch space the migration runner uses for its own control socket before Papra starts serving.

2. Secret generation

Papra needs a few randomly generated secrets — for example, database passwords or an internal session key — before it can start. These are referenced from docker-compose.ymlabove but don't live in it, so they need to end up in your .env file. Pick one of the two options below.

Generating secrets…

3. Start Papra with Docker Compose

From the folder with docker-compose.yml and .env, run:

Terminal

Start Papra and all its supporting services in the background.

docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the stack in the background so it keeps running after you close the terminal. Docker will pull the images the first time, which can take a minute or two.

To check on it afterwards: docker compose ps shows whether containers are healthy, and docker compose logs -f follows their logs if something looks wrong. Once it's running, open http://localhost:1221 in your browser.