Package Information
Documentation
n8n-nodes-doclift
An n8n community node for Doclift: generate PDF
documents from templates you design once and fill from your workflows.
Installation · Credentials · Operations ·
Knowing what a template expects · Compatibility
Installation
Follow the
community node installation guide,
and use n8n-nodes-doclift as the package name.
Credentials
Authentication is an API key, created in Doclift under External applications.
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| API Key | The application's secret key. A sandbox key produces watermarked documents; a production key produces final ones. The environment is a property of the key, so there is nothing to switch in n8n. |
| Base URL | The Doclift instance, https://app.doclift.io by default. Synchronous generation is served by this public domain — pointing elsewhere makes it unavailable. |
Use Test to check the key: it calls GET /api/v1/user and answers 403 on an unknown or
revoked key.
Operations
Document → Generate
Generates a PDF from a published template.
- Template — picked from a searchable list. Only workflows and fillable forms are
offered: they are the categories whose payload the API validates. - Variables — a form built from the template itself. Pick a template and the fields appear,
with a dropdown wherever the template constrains the values, and marked mandatory only where
the API will actually refuse a payload without them. An optional dropdown opens on None,
which sends an empty value. - Options — Collections (JSON) for tabular variables, which the flat form cannot hold;
Download PDF to attach the file as binary rather than returning only its URL; a Tag of
your own, echoed back and searchable; and Max Attempts When Busy (see below).
The node waits on the open connection and returns the document. The response carries the
generated file as a pre-signed URL valid for two hours, and one call generates one document.
When Doclift is busy
An organization holds a fixed number of synchronous slots — five by default — and Doclift
answers 429 with a Retry-After once they are all taken. Slots free as generations finish, so
saturation is usually a matter of seconds.
The node honours that header and re-sends, up to Max Attempts When Busy (5 by default). Only
a 429 is retried; every other failure is raised on the first try. If the slots are still full
after the last attempt, the node stops with a message naming the three ways out: raise the
option, spread the work, or have the organization's synchronous limit raised — it is a per-organization setting on the Doclift side.
Generating a batch is therefore a loop of single calls rather than one call carrying many, and
the retry is what keeps that loop from failing on a transient burst.
Knowing what a template expects
GET /api/v1/templates/:id/payload_contract describes a template in one shape whatever its
category, and — the part worth reading — says which constraints the API actually enforces:
{
"category": "fillable_form",
"variables": [{ "name": "civility", "allowed_values": ["M.", "Mme"], "required": false }],
"required": [],
"constrained": ["civility"],
"enforced": { "required": false, "allowed_values": true, "collections": false }
}
The two categories enforce different halves of the same contract:
required |
allowed_values |
collections | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workflow | refused if missing | refused if outside the list | shape, row count and row fields checked |
| Fillable form | not enforced | refused if outside the list | — |
enforced tells you which checks you can leave to Doclift and which your workflow should make
itself. A refused payload answers 422 with invalid_variables, naming each variable, the value
sent and the values allowed — the same shape for both categories.
Values are compared case-insensitively and trimmed, so "FR" matches a list holding "fr".
Compatibility
Tested against n8n 1.x. Requires Node.js 20 or later.