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The Forme dashboard is a reference implementation. The same API endpoints that power it are available to your own applications. Build custom document workflows without adopting the Forme UI.

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Architecture

Your frontend collects user intent (what to redact, which PDFs to merge, which certificate to use). Your backend sends the structured request to Forme’s API and returns the result. 
Your Frontend → Your Backend → Forme API → PDF result
All /v1/* endpoints accept JSON and return PDF bytes (or JSON for rasterize). No cookies, sessions, or UI dependencies.

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Custom Redaction UI

Build a UI where users draw boxes on a PDF preview, then send the coordinates to Forme: 
// Your frontend collects redaction regions from user interaction
const regions = [
  { page: 0, x: 100, y: 200, width: 150, height: 20 },
  { page: 0, x: 300, y: 400, width: 200, height: 15 },
];

// Your backend sends them to Forme
const res = await fetch('https://api.formepdf.com/v1/redact', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FORME_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    pdf: pdfBase64,
    redactions: regions,
  }),
});

const redactedPdf = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
To show a PDF preview for drawing, use POST /v1/rasterize to convert pages to images, then overlay a canvas for region selection.

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Custom Merge Workflow

Let users select and reorder PDFs, then merge: 
// User selected these PDFs in your UI
const selectedPdfs = [invoicePdfBase64, termsPdfBase64, appendixPdfBase64];

const res = await fetch('https://api.formepdf.com/v1/merge', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FORME_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ pdfs: selectedPdfs }),
});

const merged = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());

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Programmatic Certification

Certify documents as part of an approval workflow: 
// After user approves the document in your UI
const res = await fetch('https://api.formepdf.com/v1/certify', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FORME_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    pdf: documentPdfBase64,
    certificateId: 'clxyz...', // saved certificate
    reason: `Approved by ${user.name}`,
    location: user.office,
  }),
});

const certified = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());

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Preview Generation

Use rasterization to generate preview images for your own document viewer: 
const res = await fetch('https://api.formepdf.com/v1/rasterize', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FORME_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ pdf: pdfBase64, dpi: 150 }),
});

const { pages } = await res.json();
// pages is an array of base64 PNG images — one per page

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Resource Management

List your templates, documents, and certificates programmatically: 
# List templates
curl https://api.formepdf.com/v1/templates \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer forme_sk_abc123..."

# Get a specific document with download URL
curl https://api.formepdf.com/v1/documents/clxyz... \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer forme_sk_abc123..."
See Resources for the full listing API.

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Self-Hosted

All operation endpoints (/v1/render, /v1/certify, /v1/redact, /v1/merge, /v1/rasterize) work on self-hosted instances. Point your application at your own Forme container and avoid external API calls entirely. The only features that require the hosted API are: saved templates, saved certificates (certificateId), redaction templates (template slug), document storage, and resource listing.