Glossary

Terms in alphabetical order. Cross-links point to the canonical page for each concept.

AcroForm

The fillable-form standard built into the PDF spec since PDF 1.2 (1996). Every fillable PDF SimplyFill accepts is an AcroForm under the hood — the parser walks the AcroForm tree to discover field names and types. See Templates.

Alias

The human-readable name your application uses for a PDF field, as opposed to the raw PDF field name. In a mapping, aliases are the values of the field_mappings dictionary; raw PDF field names are the keys. See Mappings.

API key

The credential SimplyFill uses to identify your application. Bearer token in the Authorization header. Scoped to an environment and a permission level (read / write / admin). See API authentication.

BAA

Business Associate Agreement. The contract that lets you process PHI through SimplyFill under HIPAA. Email security@simplyfill.app to request the current BAA template.

Bulk envelope

A multi-row CSV upload that fans out into one generated PDF per row, then bundles the outputs into a single ZIP. Use for any "fill N PDFs at once" workflow. See Bulk envelopes.

Envelope

A linked template + mapping pair. Useful when you want callers to reference a single ID instead of two. Most relevant for bulk envelopes.

Environment

A publish channel inside your SimplyFill account. Three channels ship by default: development, staging, production. API keys are environment-scoped; template versions are published per environment. See Environments.

Field manifest

The list of fields SimplyFill extracts from a PDF on upload — name, type, max length, default value, required flag. Stored as field_metadata on the template; returned in the Get template response.

Generation

A single PDF-fill operation. Counts against your monthly PDF quota. Synchronous by default; async mode returns a task ID for polling.

HMAC

Hash-based Message Authentication Code. SimplyFill signs webhook deliveries with HMAC-SHA-256 using your stored webhook secret. See Webhooks signature verification.

Idempotency key

A unique identifier you include on each delivery to dedupe retries. Use the id field of the webhook event envelope. See Webhooks retry policy.

Mapping

A named translation between raw PDF field names and your aliases. One template can have many mappings — one per consumer of the PDF. See Mappings concept.

Mapping template (mapping library)

A mapping flagged is_template: true is published to your account's mapping library so other teammates can clone it. Distinct from a PDF template.

PHI

Protected Health Information. Defined by HIPAA; covered by your BAA when SimplyFill stores it.

Promotion

Moving a template version from one environment to the next (dev → staging → prod). Explicit, atomic, reversible via rollback. See Multi-environment promotion guide.

Quota

A per-tier monthly cap on PDF generations and AI generations. Counters reset on the first of each calendar month at 00:00 UTC. See Quotas.

Rate limit

A per-API-key hourly cap on request volume. Sliding window. Returns 429 with Retry-After when exceeded. See Quotas.

Schema template

A reusable validation schema referenced by schema_template_id on a mapping. Lets you share field-type constraints across mappings.

Signature widget

A PDF field of type signature. Accepts a base64 PNG, a typed name (rendered in a script font), or a SimplyFill signature ID.

Task

An async generation. Created by POST /generate/pdf with async_mode: true. Has a task_id, a status (pending / processing / completed / failed / cancelled), and an optional download_url on completion. See Async status.

Template

An uploaded fillable PDF. SimplyFill stores the bytes plus the parsed field manifest. Templates are immutable; re-uploads create new versions. See Templates concept.

Transformation

A small expression evaluated against your data payload before writing to a PDF field. Concatenation, uppercase, conditional defaults. See Custom field transformations.

Version

An immutable snapshot of a template. Re-uploading the source PDF creates a new version. Mappings pin to versions; promotion publishes a version to an environment. See Templates versioning.

Webhook

An HTTPS endpoint you register to receive events. SimplyFill POSTs JSON event envelopes; you verify the HMAC signature, dedupe by idempotency key, and respond 2xx. See Webhooks concept.

XFA

XML Forms Architecture. A separate dynamic-form standard layered on top of PDF, primarily seen in older government and enterprise forms. SimplyFill flattens XFA to AcroForm on upload — dynamic XFA scripting is lost. See Templates XFA handling.