Business: root cause found (CSP blocks inline JS), Playwright for QA, updated bug tracker

projects/business/memory/devto-draft.md

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+---
+title: "Stop Wrestling with Puppeteer: Generate PDFs with One API Call"
+published: false
+description: "How to generate invoices, reports, and documents as PDFs from HTML, Markdown, or JSON data — without managing headless browsers."
+tags: webdev, api, node, tutorial
+cover_image: # (add a cover image URL)
+---
+
+Every developer has the same PDF story. It starts innocently:
+
+> "Can we add a 'Download as PDF' button?"
+
+Three days later, you're debugging Chrome memory leaks in production, your Puppeteer instance is eating 2GB of RAM, and the PDFs look different on every server.
+
+I got tired of this cycle, so I built [DocFast](https://docfast.dev) — a PDF API that takes HTML, Markdown, or structured data and returns a PDF. No headless browser setup, no dependencies.
+
+Here's what I learned, and how you can generate PDFs in about 30 seconds.
+
+## The Simple Version
+
+```bash
+curl -X POST https://docfast.dev/v1/convert/html \
+  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
+  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+  -d '{"html": "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a PDF.</p>"}' \
+  -o hello.pdf
+```
+
+That's it. JSON in, PDF out.
+
+## Three Ways to Generate PDFs
+
+DocFast has three conversion endpoints, each for a different use case:
+
+### 1. HTML → PDF
+
+You have full control. Pass any HTML with optional CSS:
+
+```javascript
+const response = await fetch('https://docfast.dev/v1/convert/html', {
+  method: 'POST',
+  headers: {
+    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_KEY',
+    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
+  },
+  body: JSON.stringify({
+    html: `
+      <h1 style="color: navy;">Monthly Report</h1>
+      <p>Revenue: <strong>$12,345</strong></p>
+      <table>
+        <tr><td>Users</td><td>1,234</td></tr>
+        <tr><td>MRR</td><td>$5,670</td></tr>
+      </table>
+    `,
+    css: 'body { font-family: Georgia, serif; padding: 40px; }',
+    format: 'A4'
+  })
+});
+
+const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();
+fs.writeFileSync('report.pdf', Buffer.from(pdf));
+```
+
+### 2. Markdown → PDF
+
+This is my favorite endpoint. Write Markdown, get a styled PDF with syntax highlighting:
+
+```javascript
+const markdown = `
+# Project Proposal
+
+## Overview
+We propose building a **real-time dashboard** for monitoring API usage.
+
+## Timeline
+| Phase | Duration | Cost |
+|-------|----------|------|
+| Design | 2 weeks | $3,000 |
+| Build | 4 weeks | $8,000 |
+| Test | 1 week | $1,500 |
+
+## Code Sample
+\`\`\`javascript
+const analytics = new Analytics({ key: 'abc123' });
+analytics.track('pdf_generated', { format: 'A4' });
+\`\`\`
+`;
+
+const response = await fetch('https://docfast.dev/v1/convert/markdown', {
+  method: 'POST',
+  headers: {
+    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_KEY',
+    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
+  },
+  body: JSON.stringify({ markdown })
+});
+```
+
+Tables, code blocks, images — it all renders beautifully.
+
+### 3. URL → PDF
+
+Need to snapshot a webpage? Just pass the URL:
+
+```bash
+curl -X POST https://docfast.dev/v1/convert/url \
+  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
+  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
+  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "waitUntil": "networkidle0"}' \
+  -o page.pdf
+```
+
+It handles JavaScript-rendered pages too (SPAs, dashboards, etc).
+
+## The Killer Feature: Invoice Templates
+
+This is what I wish existed years ago. Instead of building invoice HTML from scratch, you pass JSON data and get a professional invoice:
+
+```javascript
+const response = await fetch('https://docfast.dev/v1/templates/invoice/render', {
+  method: 'POST',
+  headers: {
+    'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_KEY',
+    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
+  },
+  body: JSON.stringify({
+    data: {
+      invoiceNumber: 'INV-2026-042',
+      date: '2026-02-14',
+      dueDate: '2026-03-14',
+      from: {
+        name: 'Your Company',
+        address: '123 Main St',
+        email: 'billing@yourco.com'
+      },
+      to: {
+        name: 'Client Corp',
+        address: '456 Oak Ave',
+        email: 'ap@client.com'
+      },
+      items: [
+        { description: 'Web Development', quantity: 40, unitPrice: 95, taxRate: 20 },
+        { description: 'Hosting', quantity: 1, unitPrice: 29 }
+      ],
+      currency: '€',
+      notes: 'Payment due within 30 days.',
+      paymentDetails: 'IBAN: AT12 3456 7890 1234 5678'
+    }
+  })
+});
+```
+
+No HTML. No CSS. Just data → PDF.
+
+## Integrating Into Your App
+
+Here's a minimal Express.js endpoint that generates and returns an invoice:
+
+```javascript
+app.get('/api/invoice/:id', async (req, res) => {
+  const invoice = await db.getInvoice(req.params.id);
+
+  const pdfResponse = await fetch('https://docfast.dev/v1/templates/invoice/render', {
+    method: 'POST',
+    headers: {
+      'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.DOCFAST_KEY}`,
+      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
+    },
+    body: JSON.stringify({ data: invoice })
+  });
+
+  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
+  res.setHeader('Content-Disposition', `attachment; filename=invoice-${invoice.invoiceNumber}.pdf`);
+  pdfResponse.body.pipe(res);
+});
+```
+
+12 lines. Your users can download invoices.
+
+## Why Not Just Use Puppeteer?
+
+You can! But here's what you're signing up for:
+
+- **Memory:** Each Chrome instance uses 200-500MB RAM
+- **Cold starts:** Launching a browser takes 1-3 seconds
+- **Stability:** Chrome crashes, zombie processes, OOM kills
+- **DevOps:** Managing Chrome versions, fonts, dependencies in Docker
+- **Concurrency:** Need multiple PDFs at once? Now you're managing a browser pool
+
+DocFast handles all of this. Persistent browser pool, sub-second generation, no infrastructure to manage.
+
+## Pricing
+
+- **Free:** 100 PDFs/month, all endpoints, all templates
+- **Pro:** $9/month for 10,000 PDFs/month
+
+No per-page fees. No credit card for the free tier. [Get your API key here](https://docfast.dev).
+
+---
+
+If you have questions about the API or want to see specific templates added, drop a comment. I'm actively building based on user feedback.
+
+Happy PDF-ing! 📄