Install for Node.js

Run Document Authoring headlessly in Node.js to import, edit, and convert documents on the server. Typical uses include converting DOCX files to PDF, filling templates programmatically, or processing documents in a queue. The Node.js entry point exposes the same document API as the browser library, without the visual editor.

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or 24.
• The @nutrient-sdk/document-authoring package.

Edge runtimes (such as Cloudflare Workers or Vercel Edge Functions) and alternative Node-compatible runtimes aren’t supported. Use a standard Node.js server runtime.

Document Authoring for Node.js is a licensed feature. Contact Sales to enable it for production use.

Adding to your project

Install the package:

npm install @nutrient-sdk/document-authoring

The Node.js entry point is the /node subpath of the package and supports both ESM import and CommonJS require. It uses the same document API as the browser library. See working with documents for import and export formats and programmatic editing for changing document content.

Getting started requires no asset setup. The engine and support files load from the installed package, and built-in fonts load from Nutrient’s content delivery network (CDN) when they’re needed. For an offline or self-hosted deployment, see Node.js in production.

Importing, editing, and converting a document

Save the following code as process-document.mjs, and place a DOCX file next to it as input.docx. It processes a document end to end:

import { createDocAuthSystem } from '@nutrient-sdk/document-authoring/node';
import { readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const system = await createDocAuthSystem();

try {
  // `Buffer` extends `Uint8Array`, so it can be passed directly.
  const document = await system.import(await readFile('input.docx'), {
    format: 'docx',
  });

  await document.transaction(async ({ draft }) => {
    const paragraph = draft.body().content().addParagraph();
    paragraph.asTextView().setText('Processed on the server.');

    return true;
  });

  const pdf = await document.export({ format: 'pdf' });
  await writeFile('output.pdf', new Uint8Array(pdf));
} finally {
  system.destroy();
}

A few details worth noting:

• Binary inputs accept Buffer and other Uint8Array values directly, as well as Blob, ArrayBuffer, and Response values.
• system.import() can detect a format from the content or a fileName hint. Passing format skips detection when you already know the input format.
• Call system.destroy() when the process shuts down or you no longer need the system.

Run it

Run the script from the project root:

node process-document.mjs

output.pdf appears next to the script: the imported DOCX with the added paragraph, converted to PDF on the server. From here, the same document API covers every import and export format and the full programmatic editing surface.

TypeScript configuration

The Node.js entry uses the shared DocAuthSystem API. Its createEditor() method is browser-only and throws if called in Node.js.

The shared type definitions also describe the browser API. As a result, a Node-only TypeScript project might report that it can’t find types such as HTMLElement or Document. These are TypeScript errors, not missing Node.js runtime dependencies.

Configure the fix in your project’s tsconfig.json file, usually found at the project root. Add "DOM" to the existing compilerOptions.lib array so TypeScript knows about the browser types referenced by the shared API declarations:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "lib": ["ES2022", "DOM"]
  }
}

The lib setting only makes these type declarations available to the TypeScript compiler. It doesn’t add browser code or browser APIs to the Node.js runtime.

Alternatively, you can tell TypeScript not to check declaration files from dependencies:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "skipLibCheck": true
  }
}

This still type-checks your application code, but it skips errors inside dependency declaration files.

Next steps

Node.js in production
The scaling model, worker threads, and asset configuration for servers.

Programmatic editing
Transactions and the document editing API — identical in the browser and Node.js.

Document data and formats
Import and export formats.