How to set up BookStack
· Updated 31 July 2026 · SparkBox team
Self-hosted wiki & docs. This guide covers how to access it, log in for the first time, configure the basics, and where its data lives so you can back it up.
1. What is BookStack?
A simple, self-hosted, easy-to-use platform for organizing and storing information. Perfect for personal knowledge bases, team wikis, and project documentation.
2. Before you start
SparkBox generates a unique admin password for BookStack on first start — the shared factory login every BookStack in the world ships with (admin@admin.com / password) is retired automatically.
3. How to access it
Once it's enabled, BookStack runs on your SparkBox at:
http://<your-NAS-IP>:6875Log in as admin@admin.com with the password from Settings → Service Passwords in your SparkBox dashboard.
4. First login
Log in as admin@admin.com — SparkBox auto-generated the password for you. Find it under Settings → Service Passwords (there's a Reset button on the same row if you ever lose it), or by clicking the app's launcher tile. If you'd already changed BookStack's password yourself on an older install, your own password keeps working and SparkBox leaves it alone.
If it instead asks for a password you didn't set, check Settings → Passwords in your SparkBox dashboard — every auto-generated credential is listed there.
5. Settings you can change
You can set these when you enable the module, or later from Apps → BookStack in the dashboard:
- Database Password — Password for the internal BookStack database
- App Encryption Key — Must be a 32-character random string prefixed with base64: (e.g. base64:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX)
6. Where your data lives
BookStack's config and persistent data are stored on the SparkBox host under:
/opt/sparkbox/modules/bookstack/config/Backups via the SparkBox dashboard's Backup tile include this directory by default, so a single restore brings BookStack back to its current state on a fresh install.
Next steps
That's BookStack live on SparkBox.
If something doesn't match what you see, post in d/sparkbox or hit us up on YouTube. Every SparkBox bug gets patched; every UX-stumble in this guide gets rewritten.
Questions, or did this not match your box?
Every guide here came from a real problem someone hit. If yours behaves differently, say so — that is how these get corrected, and how the fix gets prioritised.
We answer there rather than in a comment box, because that is where the people who have already solved it are.