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How to Connect Paperless-ngx to Cursor — via MCP

Paperless-ngx document management: full-text search over scanned documents, correspondents, document types, tags, storage paths and the OCR'd content of any document. REST API on your own instance, token auth.

HCBy HelpCode teamUpdated 3 min read Open-source on GitHub
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Paperless-ngx

Paperless-ngx

Paperless-ngx document management: full-text search over scanned documents, correspondents, document types, tags, storage paths and the OCR'd content of any document. REST API on your own instance, token auth.

tools

9

Region

DE

Category

Document Management

Authentication

API Key

Required env vars

PAPERLESS_URLPAPERLESS_API_TOKEN
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  • 7-day free trial
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  • GDPR & SOC 2 ready
    EU data residency, audit logs
  • Open-source on GitHub
    Open source · AGPL-3.0
  • Works with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
    Any MCP-compatible client

Skip the install. Get this working in under 2 minutes.

Start a free trial on cloud.anythingmcp.com, add the Paperless-ngx in one click, then point your AI client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or Cursor) at the generated MCP endpoint. No Docker, no git clone, zero engineering experience required.

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Summary

Paperless-ngx document management: full-text search over scanned documents, correspondents, document types, tags, storage paths and the OCR'd content of any document. REST API on your own instance, token auth.

Try asking

Example prompts for Paperless-ngx

Click any prompt to copy it. Paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot or OpenClaw to run it against this connector.

Paperless-ngx · live via MCP
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Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Paperless-ngx, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

Paperless-ngx + Cursor

Paperless-ngx document management: full-text search over scanned documents, correspondents, document types, tags, storage paths and the OCR'd content of any document. REST API on your own instance, token auth.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

PAPERLESS_URL, PAPERLESS_API_TOKEN

Step 1 — Get credentials

Getting a token

  1. Sign in to Paperless-ngx, open the user menu → My Profile, and copy the API Auth Token (create one if the field is empty).
  2. Put it in PAPERLESS_API_TOKEN and your instance's base URL in PAPERLESS_URL — no trailing slash and no /api, e.g. https://paperless.example.com.

The Authorization header is Token …, Django REST Framework's scheme — not Bearer. The adapter sends it correctly.

…(continued in the in-app connector instructions)

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Cursor

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Cursor reads MCP servers from ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Add this entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmcp": {
      "url": "https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}
  1. Get your MCP API key from AnythingMCP → MCP Servers → your server → API keys.
  2. Save the file and restart Cursor.
  3. Open Cursor → Settings → MCP to verify Paperless-ngx is listed and "Connected".
  4. Start chatting — all Paperless-ngx tools are now invokable.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
paperless_ngx_search_documentsFull-text search across the OCR'd content of every document
paperless_ngx_list_documentsList documents filtered by correspondent, document type, tag or creation date — the structured alternative to full-text search when you alre
paperless_ngx_get_documentRead one document's metadata: title, correspondent, type, tags, created and added dates, archive serial number and the full OCR'd content
paperless_ngx_get_document_metadataRead the technical metadata of one document: original filename, media type, checksum, page count and any embedded PDF metadata
paperless_ngx_list_correspondentsList correspondents — the senders documents are filed under — with their document count and matching rules
paperless_ngx_list_document_typesList the document types configured in the instance (invoice, contract, payslip …) with their document counts
paperless_ngx_list_tagsList tags with their colour, inbox flag and document count
paperless_ngx_list_storage_pathsList the storage paths documents are filed into, with their path template and document count
paperless_ngx_get_statisticsRead instance-wide statistics: total documents, documents in the inbox, character count and the breakdown by file type

FAQ

Does Cursor support custom MCP servers on the free tier? Yes — MCP is available on Hobby, Pro and Business plans.

Next steps

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