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Recipe

PDF form filler

Automatically populate PDF forms with structured data using Nimbus.

Overview

This recipe walks through reading a PDF form template, mapping fields to a JSON payload, and writing the filled output. Works with AcroForm and static XFA forms.

Prerequisites

  • Nimbus CLI v2.1+ installed and authenticated
  • A PDF with fillable form fields
  • A JSON file containing field-value mappings

Step 1 — Inspect the form

nimbus pdf fields template.pdf

Lists every fillable field name and type in the document.

Step 2 — Prepare the payload

{
  "name": "Jane Doe",
  "email": "jane@example.com",
  "date": "2026-01-15"
}

Step 3 — Fill and export

nimbus pdf fill template.pdf data.json output.pdf

Writes a flattened copy with all fields populated.

Batch mode

nimbus pdf fill template.pdf records.jsonl out/

Each line in records.jsonl produces a separate filled PDF named by index or a key column.