PDF Monkey Integration with SmythOS

Need to generate professional PDF documents automatically? Connect PDF Monkey to SmythOS and empower your agents to create data-driven invoices, reports, and contracts from your templates.

TL;DR

Securely link your PDF Monkey account to SmythOS using an API Key. Then, use our components to automate the creation of draft or final PDF documents by populating your PDF Monkey templates with dynamic data.

List of PDF Monkey Components

Quickly compare PDF Monkey components by what they do and their key I/O. Click any component name to jump directly to its detailed guide.

Component	Action	What it Does	Inputs	Key Outputs	Use Case
Generate PDF	Generate	Creates a final, finalized PDF document from a template.	required document_template_id, filename, Body	document_id, download_url	Generating a final customer invoice.
Generate Draft Document	Generate	Creates a draft PDF that can be regenerated later.	required document_template_id, filename, Body	document_id, preview_url	Creating a report that needs review before finalizing.
Get Document Info	Read	Fetches metadata about a specific generated document.	required document_id	download_url, filename	Checking the status or download link of a PDF.
Delete PDF Document	Write	Permanently deletes a generated document from PDF Monkey.	required document_id	Response	Cleaning up temporary or outdated documents.

INFO

Why Integrate PDF Monkey with Your Agent?

PDF Monkey is a powerful API for creating pixel-perfect PDF documents from templates and data. Integrating it with SmythOS allows you to build sophisticated document generation workflows.

• Automate Invoicing and Billing: Create agents that automatically generate and send PDF invoices to customers when a payment is due or an order is completed.
• Generate Custom Reports: Build workflows that gather data from multiple sources (like databases or other APIs), format it, and then use PDF Monkey to render a professional, branded PDF report.
• Contract and Agreement Automation: When a new client is onboarded, an agent can automatically populate a contract template with their details and prepare it for a signature workflow.
• Personalized Document Creation: Generate personalized certificates, tickets, or welcome letters at scale by feeding user-specific data into your PDF Monkey templates.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, please ensure you have the following:

• An active SmythOS account. (Sign up here).
• A PDF Monkey account with at least one document template created.
• Your PDF Monkey API Key.

Getting Started With PDF Monkey

The connection between SmythOS and PDF Monkey is configured using a secure API Key.

Step 1: Get Your PDF Monkey API Key

1. Log in to your PDF Monkey Dashboard.
2. Navigate to your Account settings.
3. In the API Keys section, you will find your Private key. This is your API Key.
4. Copy the key to your clipboard.

Step 2: Store Your API Key in SmythOS Vault

Your API Key is a sensitive credential. Use the SmythOS Vault to store it securely.

1. In your SmythOS dashboard, navigate to the Vault.
2. Create a new secret and paste your PDF Monkey API Key as the value. Give it a memorable name, like pdfmonkey_api_key.
3. For more details, see the Vault Documentation.

Step 3: Configure a PDF Monkey Component

1. In your SmythOS agent graph, drag and drop any PDF Monkey component.
2. Click the component to open its Settings panel.
3. In the API Key field, select the secret you saved in the Vault (e.g., pdfmonkey_api_key).
4. Your connection is now configured for that component.

Heads-up

You must add the API Key from the Vault to each PDF Monkey component you use. This ensures all your API calls are properly authenticated.

Which PDF Monkey Component Should I Use?

If you need to…	Target	Use this Component	Why this one?
Create a final PDF that is ready to be sent	A document_template_id	Generate PDF	This component creates a finalized document that cannot be regenerated later.
Create a PDF that might need updates	A document_template_id	Generate Draft Document	Creates a draft version, which is ideal for multi-step review or approval workflows.
Check the status of a generated PDF	A document_id	Get Document Info	Retrieves the metadata, including the all-important download_url.
Permanently remove a generated PDF	A document_id	Delete PDF Document	Use this to clean up temporary or sensitive documents after they've been used.

Component Details

This section provides detailed information for each PDF Monkey component.

Generate PDF

Generates a new, finalized PDF document from a template and dynamic data.

INFO

This component requires an API Key for authentication, as detailed in the Getting Started section.

Component-Specific Settings

• Body: A JSON editor where you define the payload object. The keys in this object must match the variables in your PDF Monkey template.

Inputs

Field	Type	Required	Notes
document_template_id	string	Yes	The unique ID of the PDF Monkey template to use.
filename	string	Yes	The desired filename for the output PDF (e.g., invoice-123.pdf).

Outputs

Field	Type	Description
document_id	string	The unique ID of the generated document.
download_url	string	The URL to download the generated PDF document.
Response	object	The full, raw JSON response from the PDF Monkey API.

Use Case

An agent processes a completed order, gathers the customer's name, address, and line items, and uses this component to generate a final PDF invoice from a template.

{
  "component": "pdfmonkey.generatePdf",
  "document_template_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-a1b2-c3d4e5f6g7h8",
  "filename": "invoice-INV001.pdf",
  "Body": {
    "_payload": {
      "customer_name": "John Doe",
      "invoice_number": "INV001",
      "amount_due": "99.99"
    }
  }
}

Finalized Document

Documents created with this component are final and cannot be regenerated. For workflows that require updates, use the Generate Draft Document component.

Generate Draft Document

Creates a new draft PDF document. Drafts can be regenerated later with new data using the Generate PDF from Draft component.

INFO

This component requires an API Key for authentication, as detailed in the Getting Started section.

Component-Specific Settings

• Body: A JSON editor to define the initial payload for the draft.

Inputs

Field	Type	Required	Notes
document_template_id	string	Yes	The ID of the template to use for the draft.
filename	string	Yes	The desired filename for the PDF.

Outputs

Field	Type	Description
document_id	string	The unique ID of the generated draft document.
preview_url	string	A URL to preview the generated draft document.
Response	object	The raw JSON response from the API.

Use Case

An agent creates an initial draft of a contract. This draft is sent for internal review. Once approved, another agent takes the document_id and finalizes it.

Get Document Info

Fetches the metadata and status for a specific document that has already been generated.

INFO

This component requires an API Key for authentication, as detailed in the Getting Started section.

Inputs

Field	Type	Required	Notes
document_id	string	Yes	The unique identifier of the document to retrieve.

Outputs

Field	Type	Description
download_url	string	The URL to download the final PDF. Will be null if the document is still processing.
filename	string	The filename of the document.
status	string	The generation status of the document (e.g., success, failure).
Response	object	The raw JSON response from the API.

Use Case

After starting a generation job, an agent can use this component in a loop to poll the document's status until the download_url becomes available.

Delete PDF Document

Permanently deletes a previously generated document from PDF Monkey servers.

INFO

This component requires an API Key for authentication, as detailed in the Getting Started section.

Inputs

Field	Type	Required	Notes
document_id	string	Yes	The unique identifier of the document to delete.

Outputs

Field	Type	Description
Response	object	A successful deletion returns an empty response body.
Headers	object	The HTTP headers from the API response.

Use Case

An agent generates a temporary PDF report for a user to download. After 24 hours, another scheduled agent runs this component to delete the old file for security and privacy.

Irreversible Action

This action is permanent and cannot be undone.

Best Practices & Advanced Tips

• Secure Your API Key: Always store your PDF Monkey API key in the SmythOS Vault.
• Design Your Templates First: The core of PDF Monkey is its powerful template editor. Build your HTML and CSS templates in the PDF Monkey dashboard first. Use their dynamic data syntax (e.g., {{customer_name}}) for all the data points you intend to populate via your agent.
• Master the Body Payload: The Body setting in the Generate PDF and Generate Draft components is where you pass your data. The JSON must have a _payload key, and its value should be an object containing key-value pairs that match the variables in your template.
• Handle Asynchronous Generation: PDF generation is not always instantaneous. For complex documents, it's best to check the document status using Get Document Info before trying to use the download_url.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

• Error: 401 Unauthorized

  • Cause: The API Key is incorrect, has been revoked, or is missing.
  • Solution: Verify that the API Key in your SmythOS Vault is correct and matches the one in your PDF Monkey dashboard.

• Error: 404 Not Found

  • Cause: The document_template_id or document_id provided is incorrect.
  • Solution: Log in to your PDF Monkey dashboard and double-check the ID of the template or document you are trying to access.

• Error: 422 Unprocessable Entity

  • Cause: The JSON payload in the Body is malformed, or it is missing data for a required variable in your template.
  • Solution: Validate your JSON syntax. Ensure that the _payload object contains all the necessary keys that your template expects.

• PDF Looks Incorrect or Data is Missing

  • Cause: The keys in your JSON _payload do not exactly match the variable names in your PDF Monkey template (e.g., {{customer_name}} in the template vs. "customerName" in the JSON).
  • Solution: Carefully check that every key in your JSON payload is an exact match for the corresponding variable in your template.

What's Next?

You are now ready to build powerful document generation workflows with the SmythOS PDF Monkey Integration!

Consider these ideas:

• Build an Agent That...

  • Generates monthly invoices. The agent fetches billing data from Stripe, populates an invoice template using Generate PDF, and then emails it to the customer using SendGrid.
  • Creates personalized certificates. It reads a list of names from a Google Sheet and generates a unique PDF certificate of completion for each person.
  • Automates legal documents. When a new client is onboarded in your CRM, an agent takes their details, generates an NDA from a template, and sends it for signature using the SignNow Integration.

• Explore Other Integrations:

  • Combine PDF Monkey with a database integration to generate reports based on live application data.
  • Use a web scraper to gather data, format it into an HTML report, and then use the HTML to PDF component from PdfCrowd or a similar tool to create a final document if you don't have a template.