Docs and wikis, checked 2026-10-17
Stirling PDF: Docker configuration reference
Self-hosted PDF toolkit covering conversion, merging, OCR, signing and over 60 other page and document operations.
At a glance
- Image:
docker.stirlingpdf.com/stirlingtools/stirling-pdf - Tags:
latest,latest-fat,latest-ultra-lite,3.2.0,3.2.0-fat - Licence: MIT, with proprietary code in some directories under separate licences
- Source: https://github.com/Stirling-Tools/Stirling-PDF
- Docs: https://docs.stirlingpdf.com/
Ports
| Port | What listens | Source |
|---|---|---|
8080 | HTTP listener for the web UI and API. Route the reverse proxy here. | source for port 8080 |
Environment variables
| Variable | Required | What it does | Example | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
SECURITY_ENABLELOGIN | No | Defaults to true, which enables authentication and creates a default admin/stirling account. Set false to opt out of login entirely. | false | source for SECURITY_ENABLELOGIN |
SYSTEM_DEFAULTLOCALE | No | Language for users who have not picked one, such as de-DE. Empty uses the browser language, then en-US. | en-GB | source for SYSTEM_DEFAULTLOCALE |
SYSTEM_FILEUPLOADLIMIT | No | Largest upload per request: a number from 0 to 999 plus KB, MB or GB. Empty means 2000 MB. | 500MB | source for SYSTEM_FILEUPLOADLIMIT |
SECURITY_INITIALLOGIN_USERNAME | No | Sets the initial admin username created on first boot when login is enabled, instead of the default admin/stirling pair. | admin | source for SECURITY_INITIALLOGIN_USERNAME |
Volumes that must persist
| Path | What is in it | Source |
|---|---|---|
/configs | Settings files, the built-in database and its backups, and generated keys. Always mount this. | source for /configs |
/usr/share/tessdata | Extra OCR language files for Tesseract. | source for /usr/share/tessdata |
/storage | Files users save on the server. File storage is on by default, so always mount this. | source for /storage |
/logs | Application logs, useful to persist for diagnostics across restarts. | source for /logs |
Behind a reverse proxy
- Route the proxy to container port 8080, the port mapped in the official compose file. source for this reverse-proxy note
- If large PDFs are rejected, raise both SYSTEM_FILEUPLOADLIMIT and the proxy's own request body size limit; the app-level limit does not change the proxy's. source for this reverse-proxy note
Release timeline
| Version | Date | Breaking | What changed | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
v3.2.0 | 2026-10-15 | No | Replaces the multi-tool with a redesigned Page Editor, opens password-protected PDFs without removing the password, and adds redirectBaseUrl for OAuth2 and SAML. | source for release v3.2.0 |
v3.1.0 | 2026-10-05 | No | Group signing (Stirling Sign) enabled by default for new users, a beta Office Convert tool, and text editor support for tables and OCRed image PDFs. | source for release v3.1.0 |
v3.0.2 | 2026-10-01 | No | Bug fixes and improvements: selective page cropping, tool recommendations based on usage, and fixes for missing translations and the Processor loading. | source for release v3.0.2 |
v3.0.1 | 2026-09-26 | No | Hotfix for the double title bar on Windows desktop and growth of temporary log files. | source for release v3.0.1 |
v3.0.0 | 2026-09-24 | No | Major release adding the Processor automation system, free OAuth SSO, a new text editor and optional AI. Automation includes 1,000 PDFs per month free. | source for release v3.0.0 |
v2.14.3 | 2026-08-06 | No | Hotfix for merge, split and other tools failing on Debian 12 and Fedora 44, concurrent merge issues and large 2GB PDF handling. | source for release v2.14.3 |
v2.14.2 | 2026-07-08 | No | Server-only hotfix for certain Postgres connections failing to load user data. | source for release v2.14.2 |
v2.14.1 | 2026-07-07 | No | Fixes certificate signing failing on certain installations and a rearrange pages bug causing the tool to fail. | source for release v2.14.1 |
v2.14.0 | 2026-06-30 | No | Adds desktop hardware token signing (PKCS#11) and reintroduces shared signing and file sharing controls in the main navigation. | source for release v2.14.0 |
v2.13.2 | 2026-06-24 | No | Security fixes and removal of unused dependencies from the Docker image, plus a desktop UI performance fix. | source for release v2.13.2 |
If it is not coming up
- FATAL ERROR: Reached heap limit Allocation failed - JavaScript heap out of memory / Build script returned non-zero exit code: 137 (OOMKilled)
- Coolify volume data lost after redeploy / a new empty volume is created every deploy
Read from the upstream documentation, repository and container registry by Keita Emsden on 2026-10-17. Every row links the page it came from. Upstream changes without telling anyone, so check the source link before you rely on a value.