gh-christianlouis-docuelevate/docs/API.md

API Documentation

DocuElevate provides a powerful REST API for programmatic access to all its features. This document serves as a reference for the available endpoints and their usage.

API Overview

• Base URL: http://<your-docuelevate-instance>/api
• Authentication: OAuth2 (when enabled)
• Response Format: JSON
• Rate Limiting: Enabled by default (see Rate Limiting section below)

Interactive API Documentation

The most up-to-date and interactive API documentation is available at:

http://<your-docuelevate-instance>/docs

This Swagger UI provides a complete reference with the ability to try out API calls directly from your browser.

Rate Limiting

DocuElevate implements rate limiting to protect against abuse and DoS attacks. Rate limits are enforced per IP address for unauthenticated requests and per user for authenticated requests.

Default Limits

• Default endpoints: 100 requests per minute
• File upload: 600 requests per minute
• Authentication: 10 requests per minute

Note: Document processing endpoints (OCR, metadata extraction) use built-in queue throttling to control processing rates and prevent upstream API overloads. No additional API-level rate limit is applied to processing endpoints.

Rate Limit Headers

When a rate limit is exceeded, the API returns a 429 Too Many Requests response:

{
  "detail": "Rate limit exceeded: 100 per 1 minute"
}

The response includes a Retry-After header indicating when the client can retry the request.

Configuration

Rate limits can be configured via environment variables:

RATE_LIMITING_ENABLED=true
RATE_LIMIT_DEFAULT=100/minute
RATE_LIMIT_UPLOAD=600/minute
RATE_LIMIT_AUTH=10/minute

See Configuration Guide for more details.

Best Practices

1. Respect rate limits: Monitor your request rates and implement backoff strategies
2. Cache responses: Reduce unnecessary API calls by caching responses when appropriate
3. Batch operations: Use bulk endpoints when available instead of making multiple individual requests
4. Handle 429 responses: Implement retry logic with exponential backoff when rate limits are exceeded

Example: Handling Rate Limits

import requests
import time

def make_api_request(url, max_retries=3):
    """Make API request with rate limit handling."""
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        response = requests.get(url)
        
        if response.status_code == 429:
            # Rate limit exceeded
            retry_after = int(response.headers.get('Retry-After', 60))
            print(f"Rate limit exceeded. Retrying after {retry_after} seconds...")
            time.sleep(retry_after)
            continue
        
        return response
    
    raise Exception("Max retries exceeded")

Authentication

When authentication is enabled, you must include an authentication token in your requests:

curl -X GET "http://<your-docuelevate-instance>/api/files" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <your-token>"

Common Endpoints

Document Upload

POST /api/upload

Upload one or more files for processing.

Request:

• Multipart form data with file(s)

Response:

{
  "success": true,
  "file_ids": [123, 124],
  "message": "Files uploaded and queued for processing"
}

Get Files

GET /api/files

Retrieve a list of processed files.

Parameters:

• limit (optional): Maximum number of files to return
• offset (optional): Pagination offset
• search (optional): Search term

Response:

[
  {
    "id": 123,
    "original_filename": "invoice.pdf",
    "file_size": 1024000,
    "mime_type": "application/pdf",
    "created_at": "2023-04-15T12:30:45Z"
  },
  ...
]

File Metadata

GET /api/files/{file_id}/metadata

Retrieve metadata for a specific file.

Response:

{
  "document_type": "invoice",
  "date": "2023-04-10",
  "vendor": "Acme Corp",
  "amount": "$1,234.56",
  "extracted_text": "..."
}

Process Control

POST /api/files/{file_id}/reprocess

Reprocess a specific file. This queues the file for complete reprocessing through the entire pipeline.

Response:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "File queued for reprocessing",
  "file_id": 123,
  "filename": "invoice.pdf",
  "task_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7g8h-9i0j-k1l2m3n4o5p6"
}

Error Responses:

• 404: File not found
• 400: Local file not found on disk (cannot reprocess)

File Preview

GET /api/files/{file_id}/preview

Retrieve the file content for preview purposes.

Parameters:

• version (required): Either original or processed
  • original: Returns the file as it was uploaded (from tmp directory)
  • processed: Returns the file after metadata embedding (from processed directory)

Response: Returns the file content with appropriate MIME type for browser display.

Example:

# Preview original file
curl "http://<your-instance>/api/files/123/preview?version=original"

# Preview processed file
curl "http://<your-instance>/api/files/123/preview?version=processed"

Error Responses:

• 404: File not found in database or on disk
• 400: Invalid version parameter

Batch Processing

POST /api/processall

Process all PDF files in the configured workdir directory.

Throttling: For large batches (>20 files by default), tasks are automatically staggered to prevent overwhelming downstream APIs. The throttling behavior can be configured via environment variables:

• PROCESSALL_THROTTLE_THRESHOLD: Number of files above which throttling is applied (default: 20)
• PROCESSALL_THROTTLE_DELAY: Delay in seconds between each task submission when throttling (default: 3)

Example: When processing 25 files with default settings, the first file is queued immediately, the second after 3 seconds, the third after 6 seconds, etc., spreading the load over 72 seconds total.

Response:

{
  "message": "Enqueued 25 PDFs for processing (throttled over 72 seconds)",
  "pdf_files": ["file1.pdf", "file2.pdf", ...],
  "task_ids": ["a1b2c3...", "d4e5f6...", ...],
  "throttled": true
}

POST /send_to_google_drive/

Send a processed file to Google Drive.

Parameters:

• file_path: Path to the file to upload

Response:

{
  "task_id": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7g8h-9i0j-k1l2m3n4o5p6",
  "status": "queued"
}

Error Handling

Errors follow standard HTTP status codes with descriptive messages:

{
  "detail": "File not found",
  "status_code": 404
}

Rate Limiting

The API implements rate limiting to ensure system stability. If you exceed the limits, you'll receive a 429 Too Many Requests response.

Further Assistance

For additional help with the API, please contact our support team or refer to the Development Guide.