Getting Started

The PDFSamurai Docker Server is a self-hosted PDF generation server. Deploy it on any infrastructure and generate PDFs via HTTP from any programming language. It uses the @pdfsamurai/pdfsamurai-js library internally and handles worker threads, request queuing, and concurrency out of the box.

All processing happens locally — your dynamic data never leaves your network.

Start the server

docker pull pdfsamurai/server
docker run -p 3000:3000 pdfsamurai/server

The server is now running on http://localhost:3000.

Generate your first PDF

Send a POST request with your template ID, API key, developer key, and dynamic data:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/generate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "templateId": "your-template-id",
    "apiKey": "your-api-key",
    "developerKey": "your-developer-key",
    "dynamicData": {"customerName": "John Doe"}
  }' \
  -o invoice.pdf

You need both an API key and a developer key from your Dashboard. See Integration — Developer keys for how to create one.

The server returns the PDF as binary data (application/pdf).

Examples

Python

import requests

response = requests.post("http://localhost:3000/generate", json={
    "templateId": "your-template-id",
    "apiKey": "your-api-key",
    "developerKey": "your-developer-key",
    "dynamicData": {"customerName": "John Doe", "amount": "150"}
})

with open("invoice.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Go

body := `{
  "templateId": "your-template-id",
  "apiKey": "your-api-key",
  "developerKey": "your-developer-key",
  "dynamicData": {"customerName": "John Doe"}
}`
resp, err := http.Post("http://localhost:3000/generate", "application/json", strings.NewReader(body))
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal(err)
}
defer resp.Body.Close()

pdf, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
os.WriteFile("invoice.pdf", pdf, 0644)

Node.js

const response = await fetch("http://localhost:3000/generate", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    templateId: "your-template-id",
    apiKey: "your-api-key",
    developerKey: "your-developer-key",
    dynamicData: { customerName: "John Doe" },
  }),
});

const pdf = Buffer.from(await response.arrayBuffer());
fs.writeFileSync("invoice.pdf", pdf);

Health check

Verify the server is running and check worker pool status:

curl http://localhost:3000/health

Next steps

• API Reference — all endpoints, request and response formats
• Configuration — environment variables, worker scaling, and resource limits