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BBookStack

BookStack

Simple, self-hosted, and easy-to-use platform for organizing and storing documentation.

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LicenseMIT
GitHub stars19.0k
Last commit1 months ago
Tags0 topics
Overview

Why consider BookStack?

BookStack is an open-source documentation and knowledge management platform organized into Shelves, Books, Chapters, and Pages with Markdown and WYSIWYG editors.

Guided learning

Learn BookStack by building

Practical setup notes, real use cases, and copy-ready examples in one focused guide.

3 min read 10 sections
In this guide10 sections

What is BookStack?

BookStack is an open-source, opinionated knowledge management and documentation platform built with PHP (Laravel), Vue.js, and MySQL. It operates as a structured, user-friendly alternative to enterprise documentation suites like Atlassian Confluence, Notion, and GitBook.

BookStack organizes content using an intuitive real-world library hierarchy: Shelves -> Books -> Chapters -> Pages. This structured approach prevents documentation from becoming disorganized over time, making it effortless for both technical and non-technical team members to create, edit, search, and maintain company knowledge.

Who Is It For?

  • Enterprise IT & Operations Teams: Creating standard operating procedures (SOPs), server documentation, and IT playbooks.
  • Customer Support Teams: Maintaining internal troubleshooting manuals and product documentation.
  • Small Businesses & Non-Profits: Centralizing organizational policies, employee handbooks, and onboarding guides in a clean web portal.

Key Features

  • Structured book hierarchy: Shelves, Books, Chapters, and Pages for intuitive information architecture.
  • Dual editor choices: Full-featured WYSIWYG rich text editor or native Markdown editor with live preview.
  • Powerful full-text search: Search across page contents, titles, tags, and book attachments with instant highlighting.
  • Granular role-based permissions: Restrict reading, editing, and publishing permissions per shelf, book, or individual page.
  • Enterprise authentication: Native support for LDAP, Active Directory, SAML 2.0, and OpenID Connect (OIDC).

Deploying BookStack with Docker Compose

yaml
1version: '3.5'
2
3services:
4 bookstack:
5 image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
6 container_name: bookstack
7 restart: unless-stopped
8 environment:
9 - PUID=1000
10 - PGID=1000
11 - TZ=UTC
12 - APP_URL=http://localhost:6875
13 - DB_HOST=bookstack_db
14 - DB_PORT=3306
15 - DB_USER=bookstack
16 - DB_PASS=secure_bookstack_pass
17 - DB_DATABASE=bookstackapp
18 volumes:
19 - ./config:/config
20 ports:
21 - "6875:80"
22 depends_on:
23 - bookstack_db
24
25 bookstack_db:
26 image: lscr.io/linuxserver/mariadb:latest
27 container_name: bookstack_db
28 restart: unless-stopped
29 environment:
30 - PUID=1000
31 - PGID=1000
32 - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=root_secure_pass
33 - MYSQL_DATABASE=bookstackapp
34 - MYSQL_USER=bookstack
35 - MYSQL_PASSWORD=secure_bookstack_pass
36 volumes:
37 - ./db_data:/config

Start the instance:

bash
1docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:6875 in your browser and log in with default credentials admin@admin.com / password.

Practical Use Cases

1. Internal Engineering Runbooks & Architecture Docs

An engineering team creates a "DevOps Runbooks" Book, dividing chapters into "Kubernetes", "Database Backups", and "Incident Response".

2. Employee Onboarding & Company Policy Manual

An HR team publishes a "Company Handbook" on a public shelf, organizing chapters on company benefits, remote work guidelines, and security policies.

3. Multi-Department Restricted Documentation

An IT manager grants the Sales department read/write access to "Sales Playbooks" while restricting "Infrastructure Secrets" strictly to Systems Architects.

Troubleshooting and Limitations

  • APP_URL Setting: The APP_URL environment variable must match your exact external browser URL to ensure image uploads and PDF exports render with valid URLs.
  • PDF Export Engine: BookStack includes built-in DOMPDF export; for advanced CSS formatting in exported PDFs, configure WKHTMLTOPDF in config.php.

Official Resources

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BookStack FAQs

BookStack is listed as a tool on TiloBox. Review the overview, features, and official documentation on this page to decide whether it solves your specific workflow.

Start with the project's GitHub repository and official website for supported installation and deployment instructions. Test the setup with representative data or a small project before rolling it out more widely.

BookStack is listed under the MIT license. Read the complete license text and the project's notices before using, modifying, or distributing the software.

Production readiness depends on your requirements. Review maintenance activity, security practices, documentation, backup and upgrade procedures, and compatibility with your stack; then validate it in a non-production environment.

Compare BookStack's workflow, hosting model, integrations, documentation, license, and maintenance activity with the related tools shown on this page.