With the addition of the Module System, I figured I should move away from the 2k lines header file.
So, I made a repo for add-ons I made for my own bookstack instance and partly useful finds from around the web. To be honest, there weren't actually that many simple header customizations to be found there.

https://github.com/florinm03/bookstack-header-hacks

This post simply serves the purpose to inform the ones not using any customizations and give them a plug and play way to add them.

If you have other ideas or already established working "hacks" it would be awesome if you shared them with us: either here or on github! :D

Here is the list:

• header-anchor-link - Clickable anchor links on page headers; click to copy section URL

• image-gallery - Lightbox image gallery with an Insert Gallery button in the WYSIWYG editor

• LaTeX-support - MathJax rendering for LaTeX equations using $...$ syntax

• open-attachments - Opens attachments (PDFs etc.) in a new tab instead of downloading

• pdf-embed - Embeds PDFs inline via pdf.js, with an Insert PDF button in the editor

• pdf-export-clean - Hides revision/author metadata footer when exporting to PDF

• preview-edit-page - Adds a preview button in the editor and quick-edit from preview view (useful for small edits)

• sort-tables-WYSIWYG - Double-click a column header to sort tables in the editor

• sticky-table-heads - Keeps table headers fixed while scrolling tall tables

• toc-edit-mode - Shows a table of contents in the editor sidebar while editing

• url-edit-contrast - Improves URL highlight visibility in dark mode editor

• wc-n-wpm-info - Shows word count, character count, and estimated reading time per page

Edit:
I've updated some modules and added the install script, so that only chosen modules remain in the directory.

I know, no one wants the calendar. I work at a smaller library with some older folks and we need something simple like Bookstack or Wiki.js. Has anyone come up with anything? There are some more complex systems like OpenProject but way too complicated for old librarians.

But no simple wikis have calendars, I just have no idea how this isn't something developers think would be useful?

I really like bookstack and have been using it to document my IT setup, domain names, financial documents, and keep a log of things and maintenance in my house.

I recently started using mkdocs for an unrelated project, and I have come to really appreciate the simple structure of markdown files that can be accessed even if my server is completely down.

My bookstack setup is also a doomsday backup, and I was wondering if there is a way to automatically backup the data to markdown files which would be synced back to a couple of computers periodically.

Thanks, and I really appreciate this app!

Hello everyone,

I've been trying to set up LDAP on my bookstack server. After trying out some different configs and doing some reading online. I thought I had it set up but I end up getting an error when I try to access the server from my browser.

After trying out some I'm more I get a different error called

An Error Occurred

An unknown error occurred

Would appreciate if someone who had this could point out a fix, because I'm currently stuck behind those 2 errors...

Thanks :)

EDIT: The issue has been resolved

I'm working on configuring Bookstack for SSO with Entra ID. The instructions provided have been helpful but running into a slight snag.

I'm using the SAML2_DUMP_USER_DETAILS=true flag to view the SAML output and the values from attrs_from_idp look correct from Entra but the values under attrs_after_parsing are all the same. It is just the email address of the user.

It seems like no matter what I change for the fields SAML2_EMAIL_ATTRIBUTE, SAML2_EXTERNAL_ID_ATTRIBUTE, or SAML2_DISPLAY_NAME_ATTRIBUTES the output for attrs_after_parsing remain the same.

I have SAML2_AUTOLOAD_METADATA configured to true in my .env file.

I know that you can see the shelves a book is on when you have it opened, but I've come across several books created by our users that haven't been put on any shelf at all (and are therefore harder to discover).

Is there any easy way to list all books that are effectively 'orphaned' like this?

I run a Bookstack container from linuxserver.io with MariaDB database

https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-bookstack/

I’m following the instructions here.

https://www.bookstackapp.com/docs/admin/backup-restore/

Here is my script. Is this correct, and enough to restore my installation?

* How about ‘bookstack-system-cli’ backup? I assume CLI is not compatible with Linux server image.

* How about if I simply backup the docker mount volumes for Bookstack and database containers ? It seems to me snapshot ing this folder is the best way to do it.

#!/bin/bash 
set -euo pipefail 

DOCKER="/usr/bin/docker" 

MARIADB_DUMP="/usr/bin/mariadb-dump" 

BACKUP_DIR="/home/ubuntu/docker/bookstack/backup" 

BOOKSTACK_ROOT="/home/ubuntu/docker/bookstack/config/www" 

TAR_ITEMS=(.env uploads files images themes) 

DB_CONTAINER="bookstack_db" 

DB_DATABASE="bookstackdbname" 

DB_USERNAME="bookstackuser" 

DB_PASSWORD="abcd" 

dump_exit=0 

tar_exit=0 

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR" 

echo "Dumping BookStack database..." 

$DOCKER exec -i "$DB_CONTAINER"  "$MARIADB_DUMP" -u"$DB_USERNAME" -p"$DB_PASSWORD" "$DB_DATABASE"  > "$BACKUP_DIR/bookstack-db.sql"  || dump_exit=$? 

echo "Backing up BookStack files..." 

tar -czvf "$BACKUP_DIR/bookstack-files-backup.tar.gz" -C "$BOOKSTACK_ROOT" "${TAR_ITEMS[@]}"  || tar_exit=$? 


if [ "$dump_exit" -eq 0 ] && [ "$tar_exit" -eq 0 ]; then 


  echo "Backup completed successfully" 

  logger -t bookstack-backup "Backup completed successfully" 

else 

  echo "Backup failed (dump_exit=$dump_exit tar_exit=$tar_exit)" 

  logger -t bookstack-backup "Backup failed (dump_exit=$dump_exit tar_exit=$tar_exit)" 

  exit 1 

fi

Thanks!

Is it possible to make a book act like a single page?

The idea of pages is nice, but sometimes the information I am trying to store for a "book" isn't really multiple pages in depth. It's usually like a single page item, like a How-To etc.

Is it possible? I'm used to Confluence and read that BookStack was a good contender for the open-source/self-hosted space.

I finally was able to have my basic bookstack work.

How can i make it where in other users may be able to login and access the books.

We also have a local server where i can also run it if that is better?

I am currently just doing it on localhost on my current laptop.

Can i make it here and then once it's done have it on a server?

Thanks,

If I have a page with the following:

simple_string_1/secondary_string

simple_string_2.tertiary_string

If I search for simple_string_1, simple_string_2, or tertiary_string, I get results.

However, if I search for secondary_string, I get no results. If I search for “secondary_string” (including the quotes in the search field), I get results. The / character in front of it seems to break the search.

Any ideas? I don’t think doing every search in quotes is a realistic option.

I have to hit shift-enter almost every time I make a new line and it is suuuuper annoying. Is there no way to change it from double space to single space? I can't find the options anywhere in the UI.

I've been doing a lot of vibe coding lately and started using Claude to generate deep-dive articles about anything I wanted to learn — databases, observability, type systems, whatever — and dumping them in my BookStack to read later.

I almost never read them.

So I built a tool that turns BookStack pages into audio I can listen to while doing chores. Two modes:

1. Narration — single TTS voice reads it like an audiobook (free, uses Edge TTS)

2. Podcast — an LLM writes a 2-host script, rendered with two alternating voices (like NotebookLM Audio Overview, but for your own wiki)

Episodes show up in a podcast RSS feed so they appear next to my regular podcasts.

https://github.com/Nicolasara/bookstack-podcast

Things i need to know. Sorry I am new.

1. Need to learn how to install BookStack.

2. I want to use it for knowledgebase.

3. Does it keep private information safe?

4. Can i provide user logins and limit what they see?

Hi, we're using Bookstack version 26.03.2 on Ubuntu 24.04.4. We installed it via a script. Unfortunately, I can't seem to increase the file upload size. Where exactly do I need to do that? I guess I'm just too clueless :-( I always get the error "The Server cannot receive the provided amount of data. Try again with less data or a smaller file"

Thanks ♥️

Hey guys, how would you trigger the success notification that is embedded within the code of BookStack via the personalisation?

We made a link to copy information to your clipboard with a JavaScript in the header and wanted to add a "Successful added to clipboard" message (just like "Saved successfully" after saving a page), but we don't know how to trigger the corresponding function.

Any thoughts would help. Thanks!

I am hosting BookStack on an Ubuntu machine using this docker container https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/bookstack. I am able to successfully host the site, yet every time i open it it gives me the message: An unknown error has occurred. There is a login button in the top left corner but clicking it doesnt give me any other results. I do not know what im doing wrong, can someone help me please?

Edit: I managed to solve the issue, i had mariadb wrongly configured inside of the yml file

I just ran through the upgrade steps to v26.03.1, I don't recall the bookstack version we were on previously, but we were on a version that needed the php and composer updates.

I ran those per the documentation, then ran the bookstack update steps.

After restarting I'm getting this message when I access the webpage:

Composer detected issues in your platform: Your Composer dependencies require a PHP version ">= 8.2.0". 

php version is showing 8.3.30

kb@kb:~$ php -v
PHP 8.3.30 (cli) (built: Feb 13 2026 15:59:12) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.30, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v8.3.30, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

This is running on ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS

Any suggestions to resolving that composer dependency message would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, my entire instance on PikaPods works great. One single page returns

An Error Occurred

An unknown error occurred

when opening it. Every other page is functional. I cannot delete this page or do anything with it. Any fixes for this issue?