pdfme/website/docs/cli.md

CLI

@pdfme/cli is the command-line surface for JSON-first pdfme workflows.

It is designed for:

• local template iteration without writing a custom Node script
• CI checks before running generate
• agentic workflows that need machine-readable output
• basePdf overlay work, where you place fields on top of an existing PDF

Installation

Node.js 20 or later is required.

npm install -D @pdfme/cli

You can also run it directly with npx:

npx @pdfme/cli generate --help

Main Commands

• pdfme generate
  • generate a PDF from a template + inputs or a unified job file
  • optionally render page images with --image
  • optionally overlay a grid and schema bounds with --grid
  • use --verbose to print input/output/render settings to stderr without polluting JSON stdout
• pdfme validate
  • validate a template or unified job before generation
  • use --json for machine-readable inspection output
  • use --verbose to print source/mode/count summaries to stderr
• pdfme doctor
  • diagnose runtime, font, basePdf, cache, and output-path issues before generation
  • use --verbose to print target/input/runtime summaries to stderr
• pdfme pdf2img
  • convert an existing PDF into page images
  • use --verbose to print source/output/render settings to stderr without polluting JSON stdout
• pdfme pdf2size
  • inspect page sizes in millimeters
  • use --verbose to print source/total-page information to stderr
• pdfme examples
  • export official example assets, optionally as a unified job with sample inputs
  • use --verbose to print manifest/template source and output destination to stderr

Typical Workflow

Start from an official example, inspect the runtime assumptions, then generate images for visual review:

pdfme examples invoice --withInputs -o job.json
pdfme doctor job.json --json
pdfme generate job.json -o out.pdf --image --grid

This is especially useful for agentic or CI workflows because the CLI can return structured JSON instead of human-only output.

Existing PDF Overlay Workflow

If you already have a PDF and want to place text, dates, signatures, or other fields on top of it:

pdfme pdf2img invoice.pdf --grid --gridSize 10
pdfme pdf2size invoice.pdf --json
pdfme doctor template.json -o out.pdf --image --json
pdfme generate -t template.json -i inputs.json -o out.pdf --image --grid

In this flow, your template uses the existing PDF as basePdf, and pdfme renders only the overlay fields.

Machine-Readable Contract

When you pass --json:

• stdout is JSON only
• success payloads include command
• --verbose writes supplementary context to stderr
• failures return ok: false with a structured error
• doctor returns ok: true when the command ran successfully, and uses healthy to report whether blocking issues were found
• scalar page counts use canonical names such as pageCount, templatePageCount, and estimatedPageCount
• per-page arrays stay under pages, with pageNumber as the page index field
• validate --json and doctor --json return field-level inputHints, so automation can tell whether a field expects a plain string, an asset-like string with contentKind, a barcode string with a human-readable rule, a string[][] table payload, a date/time string with format metadata, a constrained string enum, a group-aware enum, or a JSON string object

This makes the CLI suitable for automation, agents, and CI gates.

For example, image/signature/svg fields expose contentKind, barcode fields expose contentKind plus a human-readable rule, table fields expose columnCount, columnHeaders, and acceptsJsonString, date fields expose format and canonicalFormat and are validated against canonical stored content, select and checkbox expose enum-style allowedValues, radioGroup adds groupName and groupMemberNames, and multiVariableText exposes expected variable names and a sample JSON string payload.

Font Contract

The CLI treats fonts as a source contract rather than a filename convention.

Supported inputs:

• local .ttf paths via --font
• local .ttf paths in unified job options.font
• public direct http(s) font asset URLs
• .ttf data URIs
• inline bytes from programmatic use

Current policy:

• direct fonts.gstatic.com/...ttf URLs are supported remote sources
• fonts.googleapis.com/css* stylesheet URLs are not supported
• unsafe/private/loopback font URLs are rejected
• .otf and .ttc are currently outside the supported contract

For CJK content, the CLI can automatically resolve and cache NotoSansJP unless you disable it with --noAutoFont.

Remote Font Runtime Safety

Explicit remote fonts are resolved by the CLI before calling the generator.

• timeout: 15 seconds
• size limit: 32 MiB
• network/HTTP/timeout/size-limit failures are returned as EFONT

pdfme doctor fonts ... --json includes needsNetwork in each font source diagnosis so you can tell in advance whether the current job depends on network access.

More Details

For the full command reference, examples, and current implementation notes, see the package README:

• packages/cli/README.md