sheetrender mcp

@sheetrender/mcp

MCP server for SheetRender. It lets your AI assistant render PDFs from HTML templates and spreadsheet data.

Setup

Get an API key from sheetrender.com under Settings → API keys, then add this to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "sheetrender": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@sheetrender/mcp"],
      "env": { "SHEETRENDER_API_KEY": "sr_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

SHEETRENDER_API_URL is also read, and defaults to https://sheetrender.com. Set it only if you're pointing at a self-hosted or staging instance.

Tools

render_pdf

Renders one PDF from HTML you supply.

Argument	Type
html	string	Required. A full HTML document. CSS has to be inline in a <style> tag; external stylesheets, fonts and scripts are not fetched.
data	object	Optional. Keys become Jinja variables, so {"total": "42.00"} makes {{ total }} available in the HTML.
page_settings	object	Optional, see below.

Returns the path of the saved PDF and its size. Under 512 KB it's also attached inline as a base64 resource, so clients that display attachments show the document itself.

Two server limits apply. HTML over 2 MB is rejected, and that's measured both on what you send and on the document after data is substituted in, so a template that expands a long dataset can cross the line even when the markup you wrote doesn't. The other is the free plan, where every rendered PDF carries a "Made with SheetRender" footer. That applies to render_pdf and render_template alike. Paid plans don't get it.

list_templates

No arguments. Returns each saved template's name, id and last-updated date. Call it to turn a template name the user mentioned into the id the other tools want.

render_template

Renders one PDF from a template already saved in the account.

Argument	Type
template_id	string	Required, from list_templates.
data	object	Required. One row's values, as Jinja variables.
page_settings	object	Optional. Omit it to keep the template's own saved page setup; passing it overrides that for this render.

Same return as render_pdf.

create_dataset

Turns JSON rows into a dataset a batch job can render. This is the usual way to start a batch: assemble the rows, send them, get back a dataset_id.

Argument	Type
template_id	string	Required, from list_templates. The dataset lands in that template's project.
rows	array of objects	Required. One flat object per document.
name	string	Optional label, used as the stored filename.

The header is the union of every row's keys in first-seen order, so rows don't have to agree on their keys — a missing one is a blank cell rather than a shifted row. Values have to be scalars: strings, numbers, booleans or null. Nested objects and arrays are rejected, and so are NaN, Infinity and whole numbers past 2^53 (send those as strings to keep them exact). The caps are 50,000 rows and 500,000 cells per call.

Returns the dataset id, row count and, for each column, the sanitized key. That key is what template placeholders, filename_template and group_by address, and it's often not the header verbatim — Invoice No becomes invoice_no. Read it off this result instead of guessing.

Creating a dataset is free; only rendering counts against the plan.

upload_dataset

The same thing from a file that already exists.

Argument	Type
template_id	string	Required, from list_templates.
file_path	string	Required. A .csv or .xlsx on the machine running this server — the user's machine, not SheetRender's. ~ is expanded.

The first row has to be the header. Files over 20 MB, the wrong extension and empty files are refused locally, before anything is uploaded. Same return as create_dataset.

list_datasets

Takes template_id and lists every dataset in that template's project, newest first, with ids, row counts and column keys. Use it to find data the user already loaded, or to read a dataset's column keys before writing a filename_template or picking group_by.

create_batch_job

Queues a background job that renders one PDF per row of a dataset. The whole loop runs from here — list_templates → create_dataset or upload_dataset → create_batch_job → get_job → get_document.

Argument	Type
template_id	string	Required, from list_templates.
dataset_id	string	Required, from create_dataset, upload_dataset or list_datasets. Must be in the same project as the template.
filename_template	string	Optional. Output naming pattern, e.g. invoice-{{ invoice_no }}.
group_by	string	Optional. Column key to group rows by, giving one multi-page PDF per distinct value.

Returns the job id to poll with get_job. Worth knowing: filename_template and group_by are persisted to the template and the project respectively, so they change the defaults for later runs too.

If the server predates the public batch endpoint, the tool reports that batch jobs are unavailable rather than failing obscurely. The three dataset tools do the same for a server that predates the dataset endpoints.

get_job

Takes job_id. Returns the status, rows done and failed, and the id and filename of every rendered document. That document list stays empty while the job is queued, retry_queued or running, and fills in once the job reaches succeeded, partial, failed or cancelled. Those document ids are what get_document takes.

get_document

Takes document_id and downloads that single rendered PDF. The ids come from get_job on a finished batch, and there's no other way to get one. Same return as render_pdf: path, size, and an inline blob under 512 KB.

If you want a whole batch, the merged PDF and ZIP in the web app beat fetching each document in turn.

page_settings

Shared by both render tools. Every field is optional:

{
  "page_size": "a4",
  "orientation": "portrait",
  "margins": { "top": 15, "right": 15, "bottom": 15, "left": 15 }
}

page_size is lowercase: a3, a4, a5, letter, legal or tabloid. Margins are plain numbers in millimetres, not CSS lengths.

Rendered PDFs are written to the system temp directory. API errors like a bad key, a missing template or a rate limit come back as tool errors carrying the server's own message.

The public API allows 120 requests per minute per API key. Past that it returns 429, and the tool reports that you're rate limited and should retry shortly. Batch job creation is metered separately and more tightly.

Development

You don't need node or npm on the host: scripts/dev.sh install, then scripts/dev.sh deno task build.

MIT licensed.