@apdf/n8n-nodes-apdf

An n8n node for Apdf — the PDF engagement layer for apps and agents.

Share a PDF as a per-recipient tracking link, then find out who opened it, which pages they
actually read, how long they stayed and what they typed into its forms. The same node also
covers the full Apdf PDF toolset: create, convert from Office, merge, split, compress, OCR,
encrypt and page operations.

n8n is a fair-code licensed
workflow automation platform.

• Installation
• Credentials
• Nodes
• Apdf Trigger
• Apdf
• Asynchronous operations
• Page ranges
• Resources

Installation

Follow the
community node installation guide
and install @apdf/n8n-nodes-apdf.

Credentials

The nodes authenticate with an Apdf API token.

1. Sign in at apdf.io and open Dashboard → API → Tokens.
2. Create a token and copy it. A token belongs to one workspace, so every request through
   this node acts on that workspace.
3. In n8n, create new Apdf API credentials and paste the token.

The Base URL field defaults to https://apdf.io/api and only needs changing if you run
Apdf on another host.

Apdf sends the token as Authorization: Bearer <token>. The credential test calls
GET /me, which returns the user and workspace the token acts as.

Nodes

This package ships two nodes:

Node	Purpose
Apdf Trigger	Starts a workflow when someone interacts with a PDF you shared
Apdf	Reads engagement data and runs PDF operations

Apdf Trigger

The trigger receives the webhook that an Apdf automation sends when a reader does something.

Automations, and so this trigger, need a Pro or Business plan. On the free Hobby plan
Apdf refuses to create the automation, so activating the workflow fails with an error. The
same happens once the plan's limit of active automations is reached. See
pricing for the limits of each plan.

Setup

The trigger registers itself. Pick the events you care about and activate the workflow — the
node creates the matching automation in Apdf, and deletes it again when you deactivate.

1. Add the Apdf Trigger node and select your Apdf API credentials.
2. Choose one or more Events.
3. Optionally restrict it to certain Documents by ID, and add Conditions such as
   page number equals 7.
4. Activate the workflow. The automation appears under Documents → Automations in Apdf,
   named after your workflow.

Nothing needs creating by hand. If you delete the automation in Apdf, deactivating and
reactivating the workflow recreates it.

Under Options you can set an Auth Header Value. The node sends it to Apdf as a
webhook header and rejects any incoming request that does not carry it — worth setting, since
the webhook URL is otherwise the only thing protecting the endpoint. Auth Header Name
changes which header carries it, and Automation Name overrides the name the automation
gets in Apdf.

Events

Choose at least one event. Apdf filters on its side, so the workflow only runs for what you
selected.

Event	Fires when
Document Opened	A viewer opens the PDF
Document Downloaded	A viewer downloads the PDF
Document Printed	A viewer prints the PDF
Page Viewed	A viewer navigates to a page
Page Read	A viewer stays on a page, measured every 15 seconds
Page Left	A viewer navigates away from a page
Text Copied	A viewer copies text from the PDF
Link Clicked	A viewer clicks a link in the PDF
Form Submitted	A viewer submits a form in the PDF
Annotation Created	A viewer creates an annotation
Annotation Updated	A viewer modifies an annotation
Annotation Deleted	A viewer removes an annotation

Document and page events — opened, downloaded, printed, viewed, read and left — trigger an
automation once per reading session, even where the underlying measurement repeats. Page
Read is measured every 15 seconds, but your workflow runs once for that session. Text Copied,
Link Clicked, Form Submitted and the annotation events fire every time they happen.

Output

The trigger emits the automation payload unchanged:

{
  "automation": { "id": "…", "name": "Notify on read" },
  "document": {
    "doc_id": "…",
    "name": "Proposal.pdf",
    "viewer_url": "https://…",
    "file_pages": 12
  },
  "trigger": { "matched_event": "page:read", "conditions_evaluated": true },
  "event": {
    "session_id": "…",
    "viewer_id": "…",
    "recipient": { "name": "Jane Doe", "email": "jane@example.com" },
    "data": { "page": 5, "duration_ms": 45000 }
  },
  "session": { "total_duration_ms": 182000, "pages_viewed": 8, "completion_rate": 66.7 },
  "timestamp": "2026-07-28T12:00:00+00:00"
}

session.completion_rate is a percentage of the document's pages. event.recipient is
null when Apdf cannot tie the reader to a tracking link.

event.data varies by event:

Event	event.data
Page Viewed	page
Page Read, Page Left	page, duration_ms
Text Copied	page, text
Link Clicked	page, url, text, is_internal
Form Submitted	fields
Annotation Created, Annotation Updated	page, type, comment_text, comment_author, annotated_text
Annotation Deleted	page
Document Opened, Downloaded, Printed	null

Example

Alert your team the moment a prospect reads your pricing page:

1. Apdf Trigger — event Page Read, Documents set to the proposal's ID, and a
   Condition of page number equals 5.

   Use a condition rather than an IF node downstream. The automation fires once per reading
   session, on the first Page Read that satisfies its conditions, so filtering afterwards in
   n8n would usually see a different page and never match.

2. Slack — post {{ $json.event.recipient.name }} just read page {{ $json.event.data.page }} — {{ $json.session.pages_viewed }} pages in {{ $json.session.total_duration_ms / 1000 }}s.

Conditions

Condition	Tests
Page Number Equals	The page the event happened on
Time on Page At Least	Seconds spent on that page
Total Reading Time At Least	Seconds spent in the whole session
Pages Viewed At Least	How many distinct pages were seen
Completion Rate At Least	Percentage of the document read

Not every condition works with every event — a page condition needs a page event, for
instance. Apdf validates the combination when the workflow is activated and returns a clear
error if it cannot work.

Apdf

Wherever an operation needs a document, the node offers a Document Name or ID dropdown
populated from your workspace — pick one, or supply an ID with an expression when it comes
from an earlier node.

List operations follow the n8n convention: Return All fetches every page, or leave it off
and set a Limit. Responses are unwrapped, so each record arrives as its own item rather
than as one item holding the whole response.

Document

Create, list, get and delete tracked documents, archive and unarchive them, and switch a
document between public and link-only access.

Creating a document takes a publicly reachable File URL and a Name.

Tracking Link

Mint one link per recipient so that reading activity is attributed to a person rather than an
anonymous viewer. Create, list, delete, activate and deactivate links.

A Recipient Name is required; Recipient Email is optional.

Analytics

Operation	Returns
Get KPIs	Sessions, viewers, completion rate and downloads for a document
Get Sessions	The reading sessions recorded for a document
Get Session	One session, including its per-page detail
Get Annotations	Highlights and comments readers left
Get Form Submissions	What readers typed into the document's forms

PDF

Nineteen operations over the Apdf PDF API: Create From HTML, Convert From Office,
Merge, Split, Compress, Convert to Image, Extract Pages, Delete
Pages, Rotate Pages, Overlay Pages, Underlay Pages, Search Content,
Read Content, OCR Convert, OCR Search Content, OCR Read Content, Add
Security, Remove Security and Read Metadata.

Every operation takes its source as a publicly reachable URL and returns a new file. None of
them modify the source, including Delete Pages.

Convert From Office takes a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument or RTF file (docx, doc,
xlsx, xls, pptx, ppt, odt, ods, odp, rtf) instead of a PDF.

Automation

Full control over the rules that turn reader activity into webhook calls: Create, Get,
Get Many, Delete, Activate, Deactivate, Duplicate, and Get Executions
for the delivery history.

Creating one takes a Name, one or more Events and a Webhook URL. Set Scope to
Specific Documents to narrow it to given IDs, add Conditions to fire only past a
threshold, and add Webhook Headers so your endpoint can authenticate the call.

Like the trigger, this needs a Pro or Business plan. Create, Activate and
Duplicate fail with an error on the Hobby plan or once the plan's limit of active
automations is reached.

If you only want a workflow to react to readers, use the Apdf Trigger instead — it creates
and removes its own automation. Use this resource when you are managing automations
programmatically, for instance pointing them at systems outside n8n.

Job

Check Status polls an asynchronous operation for its result.

Asynchronous operations

Apdf runs heavy work on a queue. Seven operations always return a job ID instead of a result:

• Create From HTML
• Convert From Office
• Compress
• Convert to Image
• OCR Convert
• OCR Read Content
• OCR Search Content

The remaining PDF operations run inline by default, and return a job ID only when you enable
Run Asynchronously under Options.

To get the result of a job, either poll it with the Job → Check Status operation, or set
a Webhook URL so Apdf calls you when the job finishes.

Page ranges

Operations that take a Pages value accept page numbers and ranges, for example 1,3-5.
Two shortcuts are available:

• z — the last page
• rN — the Nth page from the end, so r2 is the second-to-last page

Split additionally accepts nN, which splits into files of N pages each. n2 yields
files of two pages.

Resources

• Apdf documentation
• Apdf MCP server — for agent access rather than
  workflow steps
• n8n community nodes documentation

License

MIT