A document must be uploaded to Doctavian storage before it can be included in an envelope. Once uploaded, it is assigned a unique URN that is used to reference it in the envelope create body. Each document in the envelope also carries the signing fields — the placeholders that define where and how each recipient must interact with the document.
Documents are uploaded via POST /signatures/document/upload. The endpoint accepts PDF, DOCX, and DOC files in either multipart form-data or binary format. On success, the response returns a URN that uniquely identifies the document in storage — this is what you pass as the urn value when adding the document to an envelope.
File size limits: 20 MB per file in production, 10 MB in staging. Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, DOC.
When referencing a document in the envelope create body, you provide its URN, give it a display name, and assign it a referenceDocumentId — a locally unique integer used within the envelope to link signing fields to the correct document. The only currently supported loadMethod for envelope creation is Storage.
Fields define where and how each recipient must interact with a document — where to sign, where to initial, where to enter a date or a text value. Each field is positioned on a specific page using X/Y coordinates and dimensions, and linked to its document via referenceDocumentId. Fields are assigned to a recipient via referenceSignerId, or to a recipient group via referenceSignGroupId when using group signing.
Fields also carry optional styling properties — font, size, colour, alignment — that control how the completed value is rendered in the document.
See the Signature Fields Reference for all supported field types, placement properties, and styling options.
A digital signature field requires a PKI certificate for validation, producing a certificate-backed signature embedded directly in the PDF. This is distinct from standard signature fields, which support drawn, typed, uploaded, or pre-saved signatures. See Signing for details on how digital signatures work during the signing session.
Ready to put this into practice? See Place Document Fields for a step-by-step guide to positioning fields on a document.
See the FAQ for details on the certificate used to validate digital signatures.
See the full set of document endpoints in the API Reference.