diff --git a/config/config.yaml b/config/config.yaml
index 4b0984af..5e0ca265 100644
--- a/config/config.yaml
+++ b/config/config.yaml
@@ -209,6 +209,23 @@ api_auth:
     - "/assistant"
     - "/vaults"
 
+# Security-related settings
+security:
+  # Allow-list for the /api/documents/upload endpoint. Any file path passed
+  # to this endpoint must resolve to a location under one of these roots,
+  # otherwise the upload is rejected. This prevents the endpoint from being
+  # abused to read arbitrary files (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa) and ship their
+  # contents to the configured VLM/embedding provider.
+  #
+  # Paths under capture.folder_monitor.watch_folder_paths are implicitly
+  # allowed and do not need to be repeated here.
+  #
+  # If both this list and watch_folder_paths are empty, the upload endpoint
+  # falls back to ~/Documents, ~/Downloads and ~/Desktop (when they exist).
+  document_upload_allowed_paths: []
+    # - "${CONTEXT_PATH:.}/uploads"
+    # - "~/Documents/MineContext"
+
 # Prompts configuration
 prompts:
   language: "zh"
diff --git a/opencontext/server/context_operations.py b/opencontext/server/context_operations.py
index ca9bd53b..8d7e09ad 100644
--- a/opencontext/server/context_operations.py
+++ b/opencontext/server/context_operations.py
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@
 
 import datetime
 import os
-from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
 
 from opencontext.models.context import ProcessedContext, RawContextProperties, Vectorize
 from opencontext.models.enums import (
@@ -26,6 +27,135 @@
 logger = get_logger(__name__)
 
 
+# Path components / locations that must never be ingested by /api/documents/upload,
+# regardless of the configured allow-list. These hold credentials, keys, or system
+# state whose contents would be sent to the configured (potentially remote)
+# VLM/embedding provider for processing.
+_SENSITIVE_PATH_COMPONENTS = frozenset(
+    {
+        ".ssh",
+        ".aws",
+        ".gnupg",
+        ".azure",
+        ".gcloud",
+        ".kube",
+        ".docker",
+        ".password-store",
+        "Keychains",
+    }
+)
+
+_SENSITIVE_FILENAMES = frozenset(
+    {
+        ".env",
+        "id_rsa",
+        "id_ed25519",
+        "id_ecdsa",
+        "id_dsa",
+        "shadow",
+    }
+)
+
+_SENSITIVE_PATH_PREFIXES = (
+    "/etc",
+    "/proc",
+    "/sys",
+    "/dev",
+    "/root",
+    "/var/log",
+    "/var/db",
+    "/private/etc",
+    "/private/var/log",
+    "/private/var/db",
+)
+
+
+def _is_sensitive_path(path: Path) -> Tuple[bool, str]:
+    """Defense-in-depth deny check for clearly sensitive locations."""
+    for part in path.parts:
+        if part in _SENSITIVE_PATH_COMPONENTS:
+            return True, f"path contains sensitive directory '{part}'"
+    if path.name in _SENSITIVE_FILENAMES:
+        return True, f"file '{path.name}' is on sensitive-filename deny list"
+    path_str = str(path)
+    for prefix in _SENSITIVE_PATH_PREFIXES:
+        if path_str == prefix or path_str.startswith(prefix + os.sep):
+            return True, f"path is under sensitive system directory '{prefix}'"
+    return False, ""
+
+
+def _resolve_paths_from_config(values: Any) -> List[Path]:
+    """Coerce a config value (string, list of strings, or None) into a list of
+    resolved absolute Paths. Silently skips entries that fail to resolve."""
+    if values is None:
+        return []
+    if isinstance(values, str):
+        values = [values]
+    if not isinstance(values, list):
+        return []
+    out: List[Path] = []
+    for raw in values:
+        if not isinstance(raw, str) or not raw:
+            continue
+        try:
+            out.append(Path(raw).expanduser().resolve())
+        except Exception:
+            continue
+    return out
+
+
+def _resolve_allowed_upload_roots(config: Optional[Dict[str, Any]]) -> List[Path]:
+    """Compute the set of directories under which a path passed to
+    /api/documents/upload is permitted to live.
+
+    Sources, in order:
+      1. capture.folder_monitor.watch_folder_paths — directories the user has
+         already opted in to having watched/processed.
+      2. security.document_upload_allowed_paths — explicit allow-list extension
+         point for the upload endpoint.
+      3. Fallback if neither is set: ~/Documents, ~/Downloads, ~/Desktop.
+    """
+    cfg = config or {}
+    roots: List[Path] = []
+
+    capture_cfg = cfg.get("capture") or {}
+    folder_monitor_cfg = capture_cfg.get("folder_monitor") or {}
+    roots.extend(_resolve_paths_from_config(folder_monitor_cfg.get("watch_folder_paths")))
+
+    security_cfg = cfg.get("security") or {}
+    roots.extend(_resolve_paths_from_config(security_cfg.get("document_upload_allowed_paths")))
+
+    if not roots:
+        try:
+            home = Path.home().resolve()
+            for sub in ("Documents", "Downloads", "Desktop"):
+                candidate = home / sub
+                if candidate.exists():
+                    roots.append(candidate)
+        except Exception:
+            pass
+
+    # De-duplicate while preserving order.
+    seen = set()
+    unique: List[Path] = []
+    for r in roots:
+        key = str(r)
+        if key not in seen:
+            seen.add(key)
+            unique.append(r)
+    return unique
+
+
+def _is_path_under_any_root(path: Path, roots: List[Path]) -> bool:
+    for root in roots:
+        try:
+            path.relative_to(root)
+            return True
+        except ValueError:
+            continue
+    return False
+
+
 class ContextOperations:
     """Handles context CRUD and search operations."""
 
@@ -115,19 +245,54 @@ def add_screenshot(
     def add_document(self, file_path: str, context_processor_callback) -> Optional[str]:
         """Add a document to the system."""
         import uuid
-        from pathlib import Path
+
+        from opencontext.config.global_config import get_config
 
         # Validate inputs
         if not file_path:
             return "Document path cannot be empty"
 
-        path = Path(file_path).expanduser()
+        expanded = Path(file_path).expanduser()
+        if not expanded.is_absolute():
+            return "Document path must be absolute"
+
+        try:
+            path = expanded.resolve(strict=False)
+        except Exception as e:
+            return f"Cannot resolve document path: {e}"
+
         if not path.exists():
             return f"Document path {file_path} does not exist"
 
         if not path.is_file():
             return f"Path {file_path} is not a file"
 
+        # The contents of any file accepted here are forwarded to the configured
+        # VLM / embedding provider for processing, so this endpoint must not be
+        # usable as an arbitrary file-read primitive against the host.
+        sensitive, reason = _is_sensitive_path(path)
+        if sensitive:
+            logger.warning(
+                "Rejected document upload from sensitive path: %s (%s)", file_path, reason
+            )
+            return f"Document path is not allowed: {reason}"
+
+        allowed_roots = _resolve_allowed_upload_roots(get_config())
+        if not _is_path_under_any_root(path, allowed_roots):
+            roots_pretty = ", ".join(str(r) for r in allowed_roots) if allowed_roots else "<none>"
+            logger.warning(
+                "Rejected document upload from path outside allow-list: %s "
+                "(allowed roots: [%s])",
+                file_path,
+                roots_pretty,
+            )
+            return (
+                f"Document path is not within an allowed directory. "
+                f"Allowed roots: [{roots_pretty}]. "
+                f"To permit additional directories, set "
+                f"'security.document_upload_allowed_paths' in config.yaml."
+            )
+
         try:
             # Create RawContextProperties
             object_id = f"doc_{uuid.uuid4()}"