> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.formepdf.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bring Your Own UI

> Use Forme as a PDF operations engine behind your own frontend — redaction, merging, certification, and rasterization via API.

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.

***

## 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.

***

## Custom Redaction UI

Build a UI where users draw boxes on a PDF preview, then send the coordinates to Forme:

```javascript theme={null}
// 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](/api-reference/rasterize) to convert pages to images, then overlay a canvas for region selection.

***

## Custom Merge Workflow

Let users select and reorder PDFs, then merge:

```javascript theme={null}
// 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());
```

***

## Programmatic Certification

Certify documents as part of an approval workflow:

```javascript theme={null}
// 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());
```

***

## Preview Generation

Use rasterization to generate preview images for your own document viewer:

```javascript theme={null}
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
```

***

## Resource Management

List your templates, documents, and certificates programmatically:

```bash theme={null}
# 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](/api-reference/render#resources) for the full listing API.

***

## Self-Hosted

All operation endpoints (`/v1/render`, `/v1/certify`, `/v1/redact`, `/v1/merge`, `/v1/rasterize`) work on [self-hosted](/self-hosting) 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.