Documenso SDK Patterns

Output

• A scoped SDK boundary with document authorization, idempotency, redacted telemetry, and safe error handling.
• A test-backed client design that never logs signing URLs, document content, signer PII, or credentials.

Examples

Instantiate the SDK with a development secret reference, create a synthetic test document with a stable idempotency key, and assert the mocked request shape in unit tests. For one development integration check, record only correlation ID and lifecycle state; never log document or signer payloads.

Overview

Production-ready patterns for the Documenso TypeScript SDK (@documenso/sdk-typescript) and Python SDK. Covers singleton clients, typed wrappers, error handling, retry logic, and testing patterns.

Prerequisites

• Completed documenso-install-auth setup
• Familiarity with async/await and TypeScript generics
• Understanding of error handling best practices

Instructions

Pattern 1: Singleton Client with Configuration

// src/documenso/client.ts
import { Documenso } from "@documenso/sdk-typescript";

interface DocumensoConfig {
  apiKey: string;
  baseUrl?: string;
  timeout?: number;
}

let instance: Documenso | null = null;

export function getDocumensoClient(config?: DocumensoConfig): Documenso {
  if (!instance) {
    const apiKey = config?.apiKey ?? process.env.DOCUMENSO_API_KEY;
    if (!apiKey) throw new Error("DOCUMENSO_API_KEY is required");

    instance = new Documenso({
      apiKey,
      ...(config?.baseUrl && { serverURL: config.baseUrl }),
    });
  }
  return instance;
}

// Reset for testing
export function resetClient(): void {
  instance = null;
}

Pattern 2: Typed Document Service

// src/documenso/documents.ts
import { getDocumensoClient } from "./client";

export interface CreateDocumentInput {
  title: string;
  pdfPath: string;
  signers: Array<{
    email: string;
    name: string;
    fields: Array<{
      type: "SIGNATURE" | "INITIALS" | "NAME" | "EMAIL" | "DATE" | "TEXT";
      pageNumber: number;
      pageX: number;
      pageY: number;
      pageWidth?: number;
      pageHeight?: number;
    }>;
  }>;
}

export interface DocumentResult {
  documentId: number;
  recipientIds: number[];
  status: "DRAFT" | "PENDING" | "COMPLETED";
}

export async function createAndSendDocument(
  input: CreateDocumentInput
): Promise<DocumentResult> {
  const client = getDocumensoClient();
  const { readFileSync } = await import("fs");

  // Create document
  const doc = await client.documents.createV0({ title: input.title });

  // Upload PDF
  const pdfBuffer = readFileSync(input.pdfPath);
  await client.documents.setFileV0(doc.documentId, {
    file: new Blob([pdfBuffer], { type: "application/pdf" }),
  });

  // Add recipients and fields
  const recipientIds: number[] = [];
  for (const signer of input.signers) {
    const recipient = await client.documentsRecipients.createV0(doc.documentId, {
      email: signer.email,
      name: signer.name,
      role: "SIGNER",
    });
    recipientIds.push(recipient.recipientId);

    for (const field of signer.fields) {
      await client.documentsFields.createV0(doc.documentId, {
        recipientId: recipient.recipientId,
        type: field.type,
        pageNumber: field.pageNumber,
        pageX: field.pageX,
        pageY: field.pageY,
        pageWidth: field.pageWidth ?? 20,
        pageHeight: field.pageHeight ?? 5,
      });
    }
  }

  // Send
  await client.documents.sendV0(doc.documentId);

  return { documentId: doc.documentId, recipientIds, status: "PENDING" };
}

Pattern 3: Error Handling Wrapper

// src/documenso/errors.ts

export class DocumensoError extends Error {
  constructor(
    message: string,
    public statusCode?: number,
    public retryable: boolean = false
  ) {
    super(message);
    this.name = "DocumensoError";
  }
}

export async function withErrorHandling<T>(
  operation: string,
  fn: () => Promise<T>
): Promise<T> {
  try {
    return await fn();
  } catch (err: any) {
    const status = err.statusCode ?? err.status;
    switch (status) {
      case 401:
        throw new DocumensoError(`${operation}: Invalid API key`, 401, false);
      case 403:
        throw new DocumensoError(
          `${operation}: Insufficient permissions — use team API key`,
          403,
          false
        );
      case 404:
        throw new DocumensoError(`${operation}: Resource not found`, 404, false);
      case 429:
        throw new DocumensoError(`${operation}: Rate limited`, 429, true);
      case 500:
      case 502:
      case 503:
        throw new DocumensoError(
          `${operation}: Documenso server error`,
          status,
          true
        );
      default:
        throw new DocumensoError(
          `${operation}: ${err.message ?? "Unknown error"}`,
          status,
          false
        );
    }
  }
}

Pattern 4: Retry with Exponential Backoff

// src/documenso/retry.ts
import { DocumensoError } from "./errors";

interface RetryConfig {
  maxRetries: number;
  baseDelayMs: number;
  maxDelayMs: number;
}

const DEFAULT_RETRY: RetryConfig = {
  maxRetries: 3,
  baseDelayMs: 1000,
  maxDelayMs: 30000,
};

export async function withRetry<T>(
  fn: () => Promise<T>,
  config: Partial<RetryConfig> = {}
): Promise<T> {
  const { maxRetries, baseDelayMs, maxDelayMs } = { ...DEFAULT_RETRY, ...config };
  let lastError: Error | undefined;

  for (let attempt = 0; attempt <= maxRetries; attempt++) {
    try {
      return await fn();
    } catch (err) {
      lastError = err as Error;
      if (err instanceof DocumensoError && !err.retryable) throw err;
      if (attempt === maxRetries) break;

      const delay = Math.min(baseDelayMs * 2 ** attempt, maxDelayMs);
      const jitter = delay * (0.5 + Math.random() * 0.5);
      await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, jitter));
    }
  }
  throw lastError;
}

Pattern 5: Python Service Pattern

# src/documenso/service.py
from documenso_sdk_python import Documenso
from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Optional
import os

@dataclass
class SignerInput:
    email: str
    name: str
    field_type: str = "SIGNATURE"
    page: int = 1
    x: float = 50.0
    y: float = 80.0

class DocumensoService:
    def __init__(self, api_key: Optional[str] = None, base_url: Optional[str] = None):
        self.client = Documenso(
            api_key=api_key or os.environ["DOCUMENSO_API_KEY"],
            **({"server_url": base_url} if base_url else {}),
        )

    def create_and_send(
        self, title: str, pdf_path: str, signers: list[SignerInput]
    ) -> dict:
        doc = self.client.documents.create_v0(title=title)

        with open(pdf_path, "rb") as f:
            self.client.documents.set_file_v0(doc.document_id, file=f.read())

        recipient_ids = []
        for signer in signers:
            recip = self.client.documents_recipients.create_v0(
                doc.document_id, email=signer.email, name=signer.name, role="SIGNER"
            )
            recipient_ids.append(recip.recipient_id)

            self.client.documents_fields.create_v0(
                doc.document_id,
                recipient_id=recip.recipient_id,
                type=signer.field_type,
                page_number=signer.page,
                page_x=signer.x,
                page_y=signer.y,
            )

        self.client.documents.send_v0(doc.document_id)
        return {"document_id": doc.document_id, "recipient_ids": recipient_ids}

Pattern 6: Testing with Mocks

// tests/mocks/documenso.ts
import { vi } from "vitest";

export function createMockClient() {
  return {
    documents: {
      createV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ documentId: 1 }),
      setFileV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
      findV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ documents: [] }),
      sendV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
      deleteV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
    },
    documentsRecipients: {
      createV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ recipientId: 100 }),
    },
    documentsFields: {
      createV0: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ fieldId: 200 }),
    },
  };
}

Error Handling

Pattern Issue	Cause	Solution
Client not initialized	Missing env var	Check DOCUMENSO_API_KEY is set
Singleton stale after key rotation	Cached client	Call resetClient()
Retry loop on 401	Non-retryable treated as retryable	Check retryable flag
Type mismatch on field type	Wrong enum string	Use union type from SDK

Resources

• TypeScript SDK Source
• Python SDK Source
• SDK Documents API
• Zod for Validation

Next Steps

Apply patterns in documenso-core-workflow-a for document creation workflows.