Cross-client tooling · Internal tooling / Productivity

DocGen — Word & PDF generator for Power Automate

Node / ReactPower Automate

THE PROBLEM

Generating Word and PDF documents inside Power Automate flows usually means buying a third-party connector like Encodian or Plumsail. Licence fees scale with every flow that needs a document, and you end up locked into a vendor for something that should be a commodity.

THE APPROACH

DocGen - a small web tool I built that creates DOCX templates with merge fields, accepts a JSON payload over HTTP, populates the template, and returns a finished DOCX or PDF. Plug it into any Power Automate flow with a standard HTTP action - no third-party connector, no extra licences.

Outcome

PER-DOCUMENT COST

BEFORE

Encodian licence

AFTER

Hosting only

effectively $0

VENDOR LOCK-IN

BEFORE

Connector dependency

AFTER

Self-hosted endpoint

eliminated

WHAT CHANGED

Annual Encodian / Plumsail licence cost went to zero. Document generation works the same way, with the same templates, but the cost stops at hosting. Same flows, fewer invoices.

TECH STACK

Node.jsTypeScriptdocxtemplaterLibreOffice (PDF)Docker