API documentation

Build PDFs from stored templates

Sign up, create a template in your dashboard, generate an API key, and start rendering PDFs with one authenticated request.

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Authentication

Every public API request must include your DocForge key in the X-API-Key header. Generate keys from the dashboard after signing up. Keys are only shown in full once, so store them securely in your secrets manager.

X-API-Key: df_live_your_generated_key

Rate Limits

All /api/v1/* requests enforce a per-key burst limit over a 10 second window. Unauthenticated traffic is also capped at 30 requests per second per IP address before key validation to reduce brute-force guessing and abuse.

Tier	Requests / second	Burst allowance
Free	10 requests / second	100 requests / 10 second window
Pro	50 requests / second	500 requests / 10 second window
Business	200 requests / second	2000 requests / 10 second window

Responses include the following headers so clients can pace requests proactively:

X-RateLimit-Limit — total requests allowed in the current 10 second window
X-RateLimit-Remaining — remaining requests before throttling
X-RateLimit-Reset — Unix timestamp when the current window resets
Retry-After — included on 429 responses with the wait time in seconds

HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests
Content-Type: application/json
Retry-After: 3
X-RateLimit-Limit: 500
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 0
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1712100000

{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "retryAfter": 3
}

Endpoints

All routes below are available under the same base URL as your DocForge app.

Create a new stored template for the authenticated API key owner.

POST/api/v1/templates

Headers

Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: df_live_...

Request

interface CreateTemplateRequest {
  name: string;
  description?: string;
  content: string;
}

Response

{
  "id": "clx123",
  "name": "Invoice",
  "description": "Monthly invoice template",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-02T10:00:00.000Z"
}

cURL

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/templates   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -H "X-API-Key: df_live_your_key"   -d '{
    "name": "Invoice",
    "description": "Monthly invoice template",
    "content": "<h1>Invoice {{invoiceNumber}}</h1>"
  }'

List all templates available to the authenticated user.

GET/api/v1/templates

Headers

X-API-Key: df_live_...

Request

No request body

Response

[
  {
    "id": "clx123",
    "name": "Invoice",
    "description": "Monthly invoice template",
    "createdAt": "2026-04-02T10:00:00.000Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-04-02T10:00:00.000Z"
  }
]

cURL

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/templates   -H "X-API-Key: df_live_your_key"

Fetch one template, including full content, by ID.

GET/api/v1/templates/:id

Headers

X-API-Key: df_live_...

Request

No request body

Response

{
  "id": "clx123",
  "name": "Invoice",
  "description": "Monthly invoice template",
  "content": "<h1>Invoice {{invoiceNumber}}</h1>",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-02T10:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-02T10:00:00.000Z"
}

cURL

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/templates/clx123   -H "X-API-Key: df_live_your_key"

Delete a stored template by ID.

DELETE/api/v1/templates/:id

Headers

X-API-Key: df_live_...

Request

No request body

Response

{
  "success": true
}

cURL

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/api/v1/templates/clx123   -H "X-API-Key: df_live_your_key"

Render a stored template with JSON data and return a PDF binary.

POST/api/v1/render

Headers

Content-Type: application/json
X-API-Key: df_live_...

Request

interface RenderRequest {
  templateId: string;
  data: Record<string, unknown>;
  options?: {
    format?: 'A4' | 'Letter';
    landscape?: boolean;
    margin?: {
      top?: string;
      right?: string;
      bottom?: string;
      left?: string;
    };
  };
}

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/pdf
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="document.pdf"

cURL

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/render   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -H "X-API-Key: df_live_your_key"   -d '{
    "templateId": "clx123",
    "data": {
      "customer": "Acme Inc.",
      "invoiceNumber": "INV-2026-042"
    }
  }'   --output document.pdf

Fetch current monthly usage totals and plan limits for the key owner.

GET/api/v1/usage

Headers

X-API-Key: df_live_...

Request

No request body

Response

{
  "tier": "FREE",
  "limit": 50,
  "used": 12,
  "remaining": 38,
  "periodStart": "2026-04-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "periodEnd": "2026-04-30T23:59:59.999Z"
}

cURL

curl http://localhost:3000/api/v1/usage   -H "X-API-Key: df_live_your_key"

Template Guide

Templates are HTML documents rendered with Handlebars. Use variable interpolation, conditionals, and loops to generate invoices, contracts, reports, and custom branded output.

• Variables: {{customer.name}}
• Conditionals: {{#if notes}}...{{/if}}
• Loops: {{#each items}}...{{/each}}

<html>
  <body>
    <h1>Invoice {{invoiceNumber}}</h1>
    <p>Customer: {'{{customer.name}}'}</p>
    <ul>
      {{#each items}}
        <li>{{name}} — {{quantity}} × {{price}}</li>
      {{/each}}
    </ul>
    {{#if notes}}
      <p>Notes: {{notes}}</p>
    {{/if}}
  </body>
</html>

Plans & Monthly Quotas

Tier	Monthly limit	Included features
Free	50 docs / month	Handlebars templating, PDF rendering, API access, usage analytics
Pro	5,000 docs / month	Everything in Free plus priority rendering and email support
Business	50,000 docs / month	Everything in Pro plus custom templates, dedicated support, and SLA

Error Codes

Status	Meaning
400	Invalid body, template data, or malformed payload
401	Missing or invalid API key
402	Usage limit exceeded for current billing period
404	Requested template resource not found
429	Rate limit exceeded — check Retry-After header
500	Unexpected render or server failure