# BookStack — Simple Self-Hosted Documentation & Wiki Platform

> BookStack is a simple, self-hosted documentation platform organized by Shelves, Books, Chapters, and Pages. WYSIWYG/Markdown editor, LDAP, and powerful search.

## Install

Save in your project root:

## Quick Use

```bash
docker run -d --name bookstack -p 6875:80 
  -e APP_URL=http://localhost:6875 
  -e DB_HOST=bookstack-db 
  -e DB_DATABASE=bookstack 
  -e DB_USERNAME=bookstack 
  -e DB_PASSWORD=bookstack 
  --link bookstack-db 
  lscr.io/linuxserver/bookstack:latest
```

Open `http://localhost:6875` — login with admin@admin.com / password.

## Intro

**BookStack** is a simple, self-hosted platform for organizing and storing information. It uses an intuitive book-like hierarchy — Shelves contain Books, Books contain Chapters, Chapters contain Pages — making it natural to organize large amounts of documentation.

With 18.6K+ GitHub stars and MIT license, BookStack is popular among teams, organizations, and individuals who need a straightforward, no-nonsense documentation platform without the complexity of enterprise wikis.

## 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

```yaml
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

```bash
# 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

| Format | Scope |
|--------|-------|
| PDF | Page, Chapter, Book |
| HTML | Page, Chapter, Book |
| Markdown | Page |
| Plain Text | Page |

## BookStack vs Alternatives

| Feature | BookStack | Wiki.js | Outline | Confluence |
|---------|-----------|---------|---------|------------|
| Open Source | Yes (MIT) | Yes (AGPL) | BSL | No |
| Organization | Book hierarchy | Flat pages | Collections | Spaces |
| Editor | WYSIWYG + MD | MD + WYSIWYG + HTML | Slash commands | WYSIWYG |
| Auth | LDAP/SAML/OIDC | 20+ providers | SSO required | LDAP/SSO |
| Diagrams | Built-in (draw.io) | Mermaid + PlantUML | Mermaid | Draw.io |
| API | Full REST | GraphQL | Full REST | REST |
| Stack | PHP/Laravel | Node.js | Node.js | Java |
| Learning curve | Very low | Low | Low | Medium |

## 常见问题

**Q: BookStack 和 Wiki.js 怎么选？**
A: BookStack 的书籍层级结构更适合有组织的技术文档（如产品手册、运维手册）。Wiki.js 更灵活，适合扁平化的知识库。BookStack 的 WYSIWYG 编辑器对非技术人员更友好，Wiki.js 的 Markdown 体验对开发者更好。

**Q: 支持中文搜索吗？**
A: 支持。BookStack 使用 MySQL/MariaDB 的全文搜索，中文搜索可以正常工作。如果需要更好的中文分词，可以配置 MySQL 的中文全文索引插件。

**Q: 可以公开分享文档吗？**
A: 可以。BookStack 支持设置公开访客角色，允许未登录用户查看指定内容。也可以通过共享链接公开特定页面。

## 来源与致谢

- GitHub: [BookStackApp/BookStack](https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack) — 18.6K+ ⭐ | MIT
- 官网: [bookstackapp.com](https://bookstackapp.com)

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Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/590e1c8e-34e1-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source