Generate a PDF in PHP

The simplest way to generate a PDF in PHP is to call the Docweave API with cURL or file_get_contents() — no headless browser to install, configure, or keep running on your server.

Generate a PDF in PHP with cURL

POST HTML to /api/v1/pdf using PHP's built-in cURL extension, then write the response body to disk:

<?php

$ch = curl_init("https://docweave.dev/api/v1/pdf");

$payload = [
    "source" => [
        "type" => "html",
        "html" => "<h1>Hello from PHP</h1><p>Rendered by Docweave.</p>",
    ],
    "options" => ["format" => "A4"],
    "idempotencyKey" => "php-example-001",
];

curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        "Authorization: Bearer dw_live_your_key",
        "Content-Type: application/json",
        "Accept: application/pdf",
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($payload),
]);

$pdfBytes = curl_exec($ch);
$statusCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

if ($statusCode !== 200 || $pdfBytes === false) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Docweave request failed with status {$statusCode}");
}

file_put_contents(__DIR__ . "/hello.pdf", $pdfBytes);

echo "Saved hello.pdf" . PHP_EOL;

Alternative: file_get_contents() with a stream context

If your project avoids the cURL extension, the standard file_get_contents() HTTP client works the same way once you attach a stream context with the POST method, headers, and body:

<?php

$payload = json_encode([
    "source" => [
        "type" => "html",
        "html" => "<h1>Hello from PHP</h1><p>Rendered by Docweave.</p>",
    ],
    "options" => ["format" => "A4"],
    "idempotencyKey" => "php-example-002",
]);

$context = stream_context_create([
    "http" => [
        "method" => "POST",
        "header" => implode("\r\n", [
            "Authorization: Bearer dw_live_your_key",
            "Content-Type: application/json",
            "Accept: application/pdf",
        ]),
        "content" => $payload,
        "ignore_errors" => true,
    ],
]);

$pdfBytes = file_get_contents("https://docweave.dev/api/v1/pdf", false, $context);

$statusLine = $http_response_header[0] ?? "";
if ($pdfBytes === false || strpos($statusLine, "200") === false) {
    throw new RuntimeException("Docweave request failed: {$statusLine}");
}

file_put_contents(__DIR__ . "/hello.pdf", $pdfBytes);

echo "Saved hello.pdf" . PHP_EOL;

…or from an AI agent

The same request works without any PHP code at all. Run npx @docweave/mcp and an AI agent gets a generate_pdf tool that wraps this same orchestration:

// From an AI agent over MCP — no HTTP client, no PHP required:
generate_pdf({
  source: {
    type: "html",
    html: "<h1>Hello from PHP</h1><p>Rendered by Docweave.</p>"
  },
  outputPath: "/tmp/hello.pdf"
})

FAQ