BookStack — Simple Self-Hosted Documentation & Wiki Platform

What BookStack Does

• Book-Like Organization: Shelves → Books → Chapters → Pages hierarchy
• WYSIWYG Editor: Rich text editor with drag-and-drop images and formatting
• Markdown Editor: Full Markdown support as an alternative editor
• Full-Text Search: Search across all content with highlighted results
• Diagrams: Built-in drawing tool (diagrams.net) for creating diagrams inline
• LDAP/SAML/OIDC: Enterprise authentication support
• Roles & Permissions: Granular role-based access at shelf, book, chapter, and page level
• Comments: Page-level comments for discussions
• Revision History: Full page history with diff view and restore
• API: Complete REST API for integration and automation
• Multi-Language: Interface available in 30+ languages
• Export: PDF, HTML, and Markdown export per page, chapter, or book

Content Hierarchy

📚 Shelf: Engineering Documentation
├── 📕 Book: Backend Services
│   ├── 📑 Chapter: API Design
│   │   ├── 📄 Page: REST Conventions
│   │   ├── 📄 Page: Authentication
│   │   └── 📄 Page: Error Handling
│   ├── 📑 Chapter: Database
│   │   ├── 📄 Page: Schema Design
│   │   └── 📄 Page: Migration Guide
│   └── 📄 Page: Architecture Overview (direct page)
│
├── 📗 Book: Frontend Guide
│   ├── 📑 Chapter: Components
│   └── 📑 Chapter: State Management
│
└── 📘 Book: DevOps Runbooks
    ├── 📑 Chapter: Deployment
    └── 📑 Chapter: Incident Response

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose

services:
  bookstack:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
    ports:
      - "6875:80"
    environment:
      APP_URL: http://localhost:6875
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_PORT: 3306
      DB_DATABASE: bookstack
      DB_USERNAME: bookstack
      DB_PASSWORD: bookstack
      PUID: 1000
      PGID: 1000
      TZ: Asia/Shanghai
    volumes:
      - bookstack-config:/config
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
      MYSQL_DATABASE: bookstack
      MYSQL_USER: bookstack
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: bookstack
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  bookstack-config:
  db-data:

Key Features

WYSIWYG Editor

Rich text editor with:

• Text formatting (bold, italic, strikethrough, headings)
• Tables with merge and resize
• Code blocks with syntax highlighting (50+ languages)
• Image upload with drag-and-drop
• File attachments
• Callout blocks (info, warning, danger)
• Drawing tool (diagrams.net integration)
• Include tags (embed content from other pages)

Permissions System

Roles:
├── Admin — Full access to everything
├── Editor — Create, edit, delete content
├── Viewer — Read-only access
└── Custom — Per-entity permissions

Per-entity permissions (override role defaults):
├── Shelf: Engineering Docs → Only Engineering team
├── Book: HR Policies → Only HR + Management
└── Page: Salary Bands → Only HR Admin

API

# List all books
curl http://localhost:6875/api/books 
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN_ID:YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET"

# Create a page
curl -X POST http://localhost:6875/api/pages 
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN_ID:YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET" 
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
  -d '{"book_id": 1, "name": "New Page", "html": "<p>Page content</p>"}'

# Search
curl "http://localhost:6875/api/search?query=deployment+guide" 
  -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_TOKEN_ID:YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET"

Export Options

BookStack vs Alternatives

FAQ

Q: Should I pick BookStack or Wiki.js? A: BookStack's book-oriented hierarchy suits structured technical documentation (product manuals, ops handbooks). Wiki.js is more flexible and works better for flat knowledge bases. BookStack's WYSIWYG editor is friendlier for non-technical users; Wiki.js's Markdown experience is better for developers.

Q: Does it support Chinese search? A: Yes. BookStack uses MySQL/MariaDB full-text search, which works with Chinese. For better Chinese word segmentation, you can configure MySQL's Chinese full-text index plugin.

Q: Can I share documents publicly? A: Yes. BookStack supports a public guest role that lets unauthenticated users view specified content. You can also share individual pages via share links.

Sources & Credits

• GitHub: BookStackApp/BookStack — 18.6K+ ⭐ | MIT
• Website: bookstackapp.com