Documenso Deploy Integration

Overview

Deploy Documenso-integrated applications and self-hosted Documenso instances to Docker, Kubernetes, serverless, and cloud platforms. Covers both app deployment (your code that uses the Documenso API) and self-hosted Documenso deployment.

Prerequisites

• Application ready for deployment
• Cloud platform account (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Docker installed locally
• Completed documenso-multi-env-setup

Instructions

Step 1: Dockerize Your Documenso Integration

# Dockerfile
FROM node:20-alpine AS builder
WORKDIR /app
COPY package*.json ./
RUN npm ci
COPY . .
RUN npm run build

FROM node:20-alpine AS runtime
WORKDIR /app
RUN addgroup -S app && adduser -S app -G app
COPY --from=builder /app/dist ./dist
COPY --from=builder /app/node_modules ./node_modules
COPY --from=builder /app/package.json .
USER app
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "dist/server.js"]
# Note: DOCUMENSO_API_KEY injected at runtime, never baked into image

Step 2: Self-Hosted Documenso (Docker Compose)

# docker-compose.prod.yml
services:
  documenso:
    image: documenso/documenso:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - NEXTAUTH_URL=https://sign.yourcompany.com
      - NEXTAUTH_SECRET=${NEXTAUTH_SECRET}   # openssl rand -hex 32
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_KEY=${ENCRYPTION_KEY}
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_ENCRYPTION_SECONDARY_KEY=${ENCRYPTION_SECONDARY_KEY}
      - NEXT_PUBLIC_WEBAPP_URL=https://sign.yourcompany.com
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://documenso:${DB_PASS}@db:5432/documenso
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_DIRECT_DATABASE_URL=postgresql://documenso:${DB_PASS}@db:5432/documenso
      # SMTP
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_TRANSPORT=smtp-auth
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_HOST=${SMTP_HOST}
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_PORT=587
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_USERNAME=${SMTP_USER}
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_PASSWORD=${SMTP_PASS}
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_FROM_ADDRESS=signing@yourcompany.com
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SMTP_FROM_NAME=YourCompany Signing
      # Signing certificate
      - NEXT_PRIVATE_SIGNING_PASSPHRASE=${CERT_PASSPHRASE}
    volumes:
      - ./certs/signing-cert.p12:/opt/documenso/cert.p12:ro
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: documenso
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASS}
      POSTGRES_DB: documenso
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U documenso"]
      interval: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  pgdata:

Important notes:

• Documenso container runs as non-root (UID 1001) -- ensure mounted files are readable
• Prisma migrations run automatically on container start
• Documents are stored in PostgreSQL by default (fine for small-to-medium deployments)
• Use a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy, Traefik) for SSL termination

Step 3: AWS Lambda (API Integration)

// lambda/signing-handler.ts
import { Documenso } from "@documenso/sdk-typescript";
import { SecretsManager } from "@aws-sdk/client-secrets-manager";

const sm = new SecretsManager({ region: "us-east-1" });
let client: Documenso;

async function getClient(): Promise<Documenso> {
  if (!client) {
    const secret = await sm.getSecretValue({ SecretId: "documenso/api-key" });
    client = new Documenso({ apiKey: JSON.parse(secret.SecretString!).apiKey });
  }
  return client;
}

export async function handler(event: any) {
  const documenso = await getClient();
  const { title, signerEmail, signerName } = JSON.parse(event.body);

  const doc = await documenso.documents.createV0({ title });
  await documenso.documentsRecipients.createV0(doc.documentId, {
    email: signerEmail,
    name: signerName,
    role: "SIGNER",
  });
  await documenso.documents.sendV0(doc.documentId);

  return {
    statusCode: 200,
    body: JSON.stringify({ documentId: doc.documentId }),
  };
}

Step 4: Google Cloud Run

# Store secret
echo -n "$DOCUMENSO_API_KEY" | gcloud secrets create documenso-api-key --data-file=-

# Deploy
gcloud run deploy signing-service \
  --image gcr.io/$PROJECT_ID/signing-service \
  --platform managed \
  --region us-central1 \
  --set-secrets DOCUMENSO_API_KEY=documenso-api-key:latest \
  --memory 256Mi \
  --timeout 30s

Step 5: Health Check Endpoint

// src/health.ts — include in every deployment
app.get("/health", async (req, res) => {
  try {
    const client = new Documenso({ apiKey: process.env.DOCUMENSO_API_KEY! });
    await client.documents.findV0({ page: 1, perPage: 1 });
    res.json({ status: "healthy", service: "documenso" });
  } catch (err: any) {
    res.status(503).json({
      status: "unhealthy",
      service: "documenso",
      error: err.message,
    });
  }
});

Deployment Checklist

• API keys stored in secret manager (not env files)
• Health check endpoint configured
• HTTPS enforced (required for webhooks)
• Self-hosted: signing certificate mounted
• Self-hosted: secrets generated with openssl rand -hex 32
• Reverse proxy handles SSL termination
• Container runs as non-root user
• Monitoring and alerting configured

Error Handling

Deployment Issue	Cause	Solution
Container crash on start	Missing env vars	Check all required env vars are set
Health check fails	API key invalid	Verify secret manager value
Database connection refused	Wrong connection string	Check NEXT_PRIVATE_DATABASE_URL
Signing certificate error	Wrong passphrase or path	Verify mount path and SIGNING_PASSPHRASE
Emails not sending	SMTP misconfigured	Check host/port/credentials

Resources

• Documenso Self-Hosting
• Self-Hosting Quick Start
• Docker README
• Tips & Common Pitfalls

Next Steps

For webhook configuration, see documenso-webhooks-events.