[AIT] paperless-ngx 3.0.0 (github.com)
from tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 22 Jul 21:19
https://lemmy.nocturnal.garden/post/814241

Paperless-ngx is an extensive document management system. 3.0.0 has just been released.

It seems from a user/admin perspective that a lot of obsolete stuff under the hood got removed and they did some performance stuff, but it’s also full of AI features. There’s too many changes to read them all though, I wonder if there’s a blogpost or something somewhere summarizing the main changes.

Personally I’ll stay with 2.X for some days at least to see what people say about the new version. I’m not interested to have AI parse my documents, the alrogirthmic auto tagging etc works quite well.

#selfhosted

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Tealk@rollenspiel.forum on 22 Jul 21:40 next collapse

Just installed via Ansible and it’s running without any issues so far. As far as I could tell visually, it’s running much faster.

EarMaster@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 09:03 collapse

That’s good to hear. The performance of the UI was always an issue for me.

TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub on 22 Jul 21:42 next collapse

Goddamnit. I hope someone forks 2.20.

something183786@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 02:37 collapse

Why? The new LLM features are opt-in. Just don’t turn it on if you don’t want them. Or is there something else you don’t like?

TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub on 23 Jul 16:48 collapse

If they weren’t using LLMs to code, I’d mostly agree with that. But projects that put effort into integrating LLMs likely use them as well (as is the case here).

irmadlad@lemmy.world on 22 Jul 21:51 next collapse

I wonder if there’s a blogpost or something somewhere summarizing the main changes.

I bet you could use AI summarize all the changes. LOL

spoiler

Breaking changes The biggest upgrade risks are removal of API v1 compatibility, dropping support for API version 9, dropping Python 3.10, removing support for document and thumbnail encryption, removing pybzar as a barcode reader, and changing the pre/post consume scripts so they no longer accept positional arguments. There’s also a change that decouples OCR control from archive file control, plus a refactor of advanced database settings to allow more user configuration. Search and indexing A major headline item is replacing the Whoosh search backend with Tantivy, along with unifying text search around Tantivy. The release also adds a number of search-related improvements, including better fuzzy matching, highlighting in title/content searches, better handling of special characters and CJK text, and fixes for date/query compatibility during the migration. AI and document intelligence Paperless-ngx v3 adds a larger AI feature set: Paperless AI, remote OCR with Azure AI, support for Ollama embeddings, direct LLM language selection, LLM timeout and context settings, and a revamped AI vector store approach. It also includes fixes and safety improvements around AI indexing, chat, embeddings, and permissions, suggesting this area was a big focus of the release. Documents and workflow The release introduces document file versions, sharelink bundles, a document parser plugin framework, and several workflow enhancements like more actions and trigger filters. There are also new or improved document-management behaviors such as moving to trash, password removal actions, better merge dialogs, live document updates, saved view sharing, and more detailed document attributes. UI and tasks The task system was redesigned, with a new Tasks UI, task summaries in system status, and better monitoring access. On the frontend side, the release updates Angular to v22, moves toward zoneless reactive behavior, improves mobile search behavior, refines thumbnails and image loading, and generally modernizes the UI. Performance and storage Performance work is a major theme: there are database indexes for common query patterns, SQLite tuning, faster imports/exports, memory reductions in document importing, and indexing optimizations. The release also standardizes checksums on SHA256, improves bulk operations, and adds a variety of backend and file-response fixes that should help reliability and speed. Practical impact For a fresh install, v3.0.0 mainly means newer architecture, better search, and more AI/document features. For an existing install, the main things to watch are the breaking changes around API compatibility, Python version, encryption support, and the search/index migration from Whoosh to Tantivy.

iamthetot@piefed.ca on 22 Jul 22:10 next collapse

I may be mistaken, but I had looked into Paperless before and saw they had AI features before this. Is it just more, or more in your face? I was under the impression they were optional, at least when I looked into it.

Willdrick@lemmy.world on 22 Jul 22:31 next collapse

Paperless always had some sort of primitive AI for document classification and auto tagging. I haven’t yet read the changes on 3.x but I’ve been using it for years and it’s like a dumb AI that needs a lot of guidance and manual tagging at first, but as time goes on, it “figures out” every document you throw in the ingest. I’ve been sending it emails, or uploading straight from the mobile app and its amazing, can’t go back to a folder filled with “Download(739).pdf” or “IMG_4926.jpg” files of random recipts and invoices

vext01@feddit.uk on 22 Jul 23:14 collapse

I agree. The AI features were very lightweight before. Just for auto tagging etc.

Hope this isn’t a shitshow.

BartyDeCanter@piefed.social on 22 Jul 23:12 next collapse

Honestly, this is one of those things where you need to define what AI means. Paperless 2.x used a machine learning-backed OCR library called Tesseract that has been in development since 1985.

The current version of Tesseract does use a LSTM neural network, since 2018. Is that an AI? Fuck if I know because AI is a basically meaningless term.

It’s not an LLM or a diffusion model, which is what backs a lot of the things people are calling AI nowadays.

WaterWaiver@aussie.zone on 23 Jul 11:27 collapse

As long as it’s not gambling or a scam. (Points are most “technology” companies and their products)

vividspecter@aussie.zone on 23 Jul 02:33 next collapse

I had a quick look and the AI features that are added:

  • LLM driven tagging suggestions
  • Remote OCR (Azure AI)

They do look to be optional at least. I’d probably be a bit more concerned if the code was largely written with LLMs, given the large number of commits in what looks to be only a few months.

cr8urown@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 03:29 collapse

I upgraded and havent enabled the AI stuff and I literally cant tell it’s there, not sure why people are freaking out. Seems like theres a lot more in it as well.

lambisio@feddit.cl on 22 Jul 23:19 next collapse

FUCK IT THEY GOT PAPERLESS-NGX TOOO???

Fedis, what’s the best alternative?

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works on 23 Jul 10:49 next collapse

what’s the best alternative?

You’re asking for suggestions for an automatic document categorization tool that doesn’t use any automatic document categorization?

TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub on 23 Jul 16:47 next collapse

How about one that doesn’t use LLMs to code?

boonhet@sopuli.xyz on 24 Jul 15:33 collapse

Just fork it from before 2025 when Claude Code was released?

lambisio@feddit.cl on 23 Jul 21:48 collapse

You don’t need a knife to make a knife, and things like OCR are different from AI (or from “AI”).

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works on 24 Jul 11:25 collapse

Paperless and Papermerge have always done a lot more than just OCR. If that’s all they were, most people can do that already on the software that comes with their scanner. The core selling point of these applications is automatic categorization, sorting and tagging, and those have always relied on machine learning tools. Literally the first thing you do after setting Paperless up is start training the AI.

tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden on 24 Jul 14:37 collapse

Yes, though that used to be discriminative AI, where now generative AI is used if I’m not mistaken.

curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 16:40 collapse

I’m going to go ahead and try to use this comment as a teachable moment.

For one, this comment barely skirts the line to me as acceptable. If you aren’t interested in AI topics, thats what the [AIT] and [AIP] tags are for - for you, as a user, to choose what you are interested in and what you are not.

The first part of your comment, by itself, I would have simply removed. You asked for alternatives, and are being rightfully replied to pointing out that this is all under the subject of automation, which (to me) barely puts this above low effort.

If you don’t want to see AI discussions in the future, use the tags to filter. If I see more comments like this that are barely, and entirely subjectively just above low-effort, the bar is going to raise just a hair and they will be removed, as they will come across like trying to skirt the rules.

mbirth@lemmy.ml on 22 Jul 23:20 next collapse

v3 Migration Guide

[!NOTE] Upgrading to Paperless-ngx v3 can only be performed from version 2.20.15. If you are running an older version, please upgrade to v2.20.15 before proceeding with the v3 upgrade.

sp0ker@nord.pub on 23 Jul 02:10 next collapse

I created an issue to tell the developers they made crap :

https://github.com/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/issues/13209

ohshit604@lemmy.halstead.host on 23 Jul 02:58 next collapse

Guess you won’t be making issues there for a while eh

cr8urown@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 03:26 next collapse

You should be embarrassed by this.

Alvaro@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 23 Jul 03:53 next collapse

Lol, you suck

_Nemo_@lemmy.ml on 23 Jul 04:56 next collapse

I do understand and share people’s hatred of corporate-owned, centralised cloud AI.

I understand (though share to a lesser degree) people’s ethical concerns about how these models were trained (copyright has been broken for a while now, this just exacerbates it).

But this level of outrage about using local models on an opt-in basis strikes me as hysterical.

Feel free to change my mind.

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works on 23 Jul 10:33 collapse

It reads as especially hysterical in this context, because Paperless is an automatic document categorization system, and I’m really sure what they think the automatic part of that is if it’s not “AI” of some broad description. Paperless, Papermerge et al are basically wrappers for machine learning tools and have been for as long as they’ve existed. LLMs are a natural and obvious fit for the kind of work these applications exist to do.

This just feels like someone reading “Improved AI pathfinding” in the patch notes for a video game and screaming “OH MY GOD IS NOWHERE SAFE?!”

_Nemo_@lemmy.ml on 23 Jul 12:01 collapse

True, although we must concede there is a difference between the simple machine learning already present in paperless and LLMs where, depending on quantization, CPU-based inference doesn’t get you very far.

SomeDudeFromSpace@lemmy.ml on 23 Jul 10:17 collapse

The saddest part is that you clearly generated that message using an LLM. Or are you going to tell me that em-dashes are part of your everyday writing?

Wispy2891@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 11:26 next collapse

I have a dedicated button for em dashes on my keyboard /s

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus on 23 Jul 12:53 collapse

… I do, on my custom macro pad.

lambisio@feddit.cl on 23 Jul 21:52 collapse

2026

complaining about em-dashes

You are completely ignorant about where do AIs even get their data from, yes?

A free knowledge cookie for you:

The em-dash is the language standard sign in Español for dialogue tags. Literally.

zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 23 Jul 05:45 next collapse

FYI: they use Claude Code.

Just in case anyone has an issue with that.

mbirth@lemmy.ml on 23 Jul 10:45 collapse

Pro-tip: Block the user “claude” on GitHub and it’ll show you a warning for every repository where they forgot to remove the Co-Author tags:

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/bd090772-7a50-4dd1-a9e7-7db53879e7ee.png">

dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works on 23 Jul 19:06 next collapse

Where they forgot to remove there are co-author tags.

There are plenty of people who are interested in using tools that are available and also recognize that it is underhanded to hide that fact for people who feel strongly about it.

sunbeam60@feddit.uk on 24 Jul 14:24 collapse

Lots of people leave the tag in for transparency. The world must feel like such a conspiracy for you.

lemmyvore@feddit.nl on 23 Jul 09:23 next collapse

Last time I looked at Paperless-NGX it insisted on taking the source files and moving/renaming them so it could manage them itself. In fact IIRC the only way to add files was to give them to the app (or upload via web UI) so it could take them over.

Does it still do that?

I don’t like tools that demand to take over the original files. I’d prefer it if it could watch a read-only folder for new files. Immich for example or Jellyfin can do that.

tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden on 23 Jul 10:30 next collapse

Yeah it maintains it’s own folder structure and I’m not aware of a way past that (not that I looked).

There’s several more options to get the documents into it though. Ingest folder, via email, certainly more.

SomethingBurger@jlai.lu on 23 Jul 19:16 collapse

You can define the folder structure used by the app, so if needed, you can backup your documents as raw files (of course, you’ll lose metadata from Paperless).

MIXEDUNIVERS@discuss.tchncs.de on 23 Jul 09:49 next collapse

yes i have waited to start with my paperless journy because of the extra features und breaking changes.

Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz on 23 Jul 10:40 next collapse

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
Git Popular version control system, primarily for code
NAS Network-Attached Storage
Plex Brand of media server package
RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage
RPi Raspberry Pi brand of SBC
SBC Single-Board Computer
SSD Solid State Drive mass storage
VPN Virtual Private Network

[Thread #60 for this comm, first seen 23rd Jul 2026, 10:40] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus on 23 Jul 12:55 collapse

@two9a@lemmy.world your bot is breaking again pulling in words not used in the discussions.

shamoon@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 17:39 next collapse

At the risk of getting internet-assaulted I am one of the primary devs, feel free to ask me about it. To address some of the issues already raised:

  • All the new “AI” (LLM) features are opt-in, meaning if you dont enable them you wont see them, literally. At all.
  • All of them can also be run local-only, of course.
  • There are a ton of other features as well.
  • One of our devs has made use of Claude especially around database schema improvements, which is a particularly tricky thing to work on. I dont like AI, I wish I could go back to the world before it, but I cant. So at this point it is almost absurd to not use LLM tools to some degree in programming. AI slop or vibe-coding is to do so indiscriminately, and I hate that too. Believe me we get tons of PRs from people with basically no dev experience or abilities slinging up a Claude PR they dont understand… and we dont accept them. We expect the same from ourselves. We use it sparingly and very specifically, interrogate it aggressively and stand behind it after it’s merged. To somehow object to any / all use of it at this point either implies a) you dont do programming or b) you dont understand the nuances of how tools can be used in programming. Used properly, it’s no more offensive than using an IDE instead of a bare text editor, is that something you care about?
    • Also, leaving Claude as a co-author I would argue seems more transparent, not doing so or not disclosing it in the PR seems like the shadier choice.
  • The ethical concerns about LLMs, compute use etc are real, but I dont think one OSS project somehow needs to bear the entire weight of this societal problem.

Again, Im happy to discuss more, as long is its not the guy who opened the raving “issue” in our project.

Mister_Hangman@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 17:49 next collapse

Respect for the nuance of the argument. Congrats on the major version.

shamoon@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 19:00 collapse

Hey, dont believe me, Im just a random, but this guy seems like worth a listen: arstechnica.com/…/linus-torvalds-to-critics-of-ai…

Mister_Hangman@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 21:51 collapse

No I’m saying I respect the fact you have more nuance than most towards the argument and didn’t leave it in such a reductive form that doesn’t help anyone.

Willdrick@lemmy.world on 24 Jul 04:50 collapse

WHAT IS THIS?!?!1? NUANCE IN A DISCUSSION?!? NOT ALLOWED IN 2026

/s

flinging upvotes to y’all, really makes my day seeing civil discourse and not “Discourse” on here. Keep it up, really this is what makes Lemmy such a great place

tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden on 23 Jul 18:31 next collapse

Thanks for chiming in! I don’t fully agree with your reasoning re the usage of AI but I can accept your stance and am glad that you implemented it opt in with no intention of annoying me into using it. I also know many people have been asking for those features for a while though.

The person creating the issue has been downvoted here as well, even though this is a largely anti-ai place in my perception.

By now I also found the upgrade guide which lists the main features - I usually read the release notes, but this time it was a whole lot and hard to take it all in.

Knossos@lemmy.world on 23 Jul 21:33 next collapse

Thank you for the amazing work. This is, along side immich, my most used self hosted project. I’ll definitely give this a look over this weekend!

mbirth@lemmy.ml on 24 Jul 09:08 next collapse

database schema improvements, which is a particularly tricky thing to work on

Not, if you know what you’re doing.

I dont like AI, I wish I could go back to the world before it, but I cant.

You do know that you can use LLMs to get inspiration and suggestions but then still implement those things by hand? Which is also a great way to make sure it doesn’t change something else in the background. Also, if you use Claude like you’ve used StackOverflow and Google before, you don’t even have to mention it as a Co-Author.

bmcgonag@lemmy.world on 24 Jul 12:30 collapse

I disagree with your broad statement that SQL in general isn’t tricky to make more performant if you know what you’re doing. Worked with DBAs who have decades of experience who have gotten great help in streamlining queries and schemas from AI tools in the last couple of years.

Devconsole@sh.itjust.works on 24 Jul 15:41 collapse

I run paperless at my house and it’s given me back some sanity and some privacy. That’s a rare combo in 2026. From one techie to another: thank you very much. My actual family thanks you haha.

ddd@feddit.org on 23 Jul 22:23 collapse

I accidentally upgraded by blindly using the latest Docker tag, and the frontend of the new version is so much faster than before. Love to see it!