> You are reading the Docusign Developer Documentation. For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL. > > Documentation indexes by section: > - APIs and SDKs: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/docs/llms.txt > - Platform 101: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/platform/llms.txt > - Extension Apps: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/extension-apps/llms.txt > - Docusign CLI: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/docusign-cli/llms.txt > > Authentication (OAuth, JWT Grant, M2M): https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/platform/auth > Webhooks and Connect: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/platform/webhooks > > OpenAPI specifications: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/openapi.json > MCP server: https://docusign.docs.buildwithfern.com/_mcp/server # Content API > **Warning** > > Developing with the CLM API is only available for CLM customers with a production account. To purchase a plan to gain access to the CLM API, contact [Docusign Sales](https://www.docusign.com/contact-sales). The CLM Content API enables you to upload, download, and version documents in Docusign CLM. The URLs for Content API operations are generally discovered as properties of the Object API’s Document and Folder objects. For performance reasons, the Content API uses different base URLs than the [Object API](/docs/clm-api/clm101/object-api) and [Task API](/docs/clm-api/clm101/task-api). See [Base URLs](/docs/clm-api/clm101#base-urls) for more information. ## Document download The URI for downloading a document via the REST API is in general the same path as retrieving a document object by using the Object API. However, the base URLs are different for the Object and Content APIs. As a convenience, the Document object contains a `DownloadDocumentHref` property. You can make a GET request to this property's URI to retrieve the document content stream in its native format. For certain document types, Docusign CLM will create copies of the document in different formats. To download a document in a format other than the native content type, specify the content type you want in the ACCEPT header. See the section for the format you want to use for details. ### Native format You can download a document in the original format in which it was uploaded. This functionality is supported for all documents in Docusign CLM. **ACCEPT header**: Either omit the ACCEPT header or specify the content type **native**. ### PDF format The API supports retrieving PDF versions of documents in these formats: * PDF * Word * Excel * PowerPoint * Text Creating the PDF document is an asynchronous operation in Docusign CLM. A newly uploaded or created document can be downloaded immediately in its native format. However, the PDF rendition will not be available for download until shortly after it was uploaded or created. The document’s **PageCount** property is populated when the PDF is created. Generally, if the **PageCount** property of the document object is greater than zero, the PDF rendition of the document can be requested. If a PDF rendition is not available for a document, a **404** response will be returned. **ACCEPT header**: Specify the content type **application/pdf**. ### Text format Docusign CLM executes Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for PDFs, most image types, and Microsoft Office documents as part of full text indexing the documents for search. You can use the Content API to download this OCR text. If no text is available for a document, a **404** response is returned. OCR text extraction for a document is an asynchronous process in Docusign CLM. It becomes available a few minutes after you create or upload a document in Docusign CLM. **ACCEPT header**: Specify the content type **text/plain**. ### Image formats For any document that has a PDF rendition in Docusign CLM, you can request a PNG image of a specific page at a specific zoom level. If you don’t specify a page or zoom level, page 1 of the document at the default zoom level set for the account (generally 100%) is returned. To request a specific page, append the **page** query string parameter to the URI. If a zoom level other than the default zoom level is needed, also append the **zoom** query string parameter. The valid values for the **zoom** parameter are **thumbnail**, **50**, **75**, **100**, **125**, **150**, and **200**. Unlike PDFs and OCR text, PNG images are generated on the fly when they are requested through the API and then cached for an indefinite period of time. If the image is available from the cache at the time of the request, it will be returned immediately. If it is not, it will be queued for creation and a response similar to the following example will be returned. Docusign CLM does not support a strict SLA for PNG creation time, but the PNG is generally available within a few seconds. You should code your retry logic accordingly. #### Error object when a document preview image is not yet available ```json { "Error": { "HttpStatusCode": 404, "UserMessage": "Document Not Yet Available", "DeveloperMessage": "Document Not Yet Available", "ErrorCode": 119, "ReferenceId": "77e94e25-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-d297ff6730ac" } } ``` ### Document download: Native document hashes When downloading most documents, Docusign CLM will add a custom **X-SpringCM-Content-SHA256** header to the header collection. As the name implies, this will be a base64-encoded SHA256 hash of the native content that can be used to verify the download. Hashes of content other than the native file are not supported at this time. In some cases, it may be desirable to retrieve the SHA256 hash generated by Docusign CLM on the server side without downloading the entire document. To enable this, make a HEAD request to the download URL to only retrieve the download headers without asking the server to send the full document body in the response. ## Document upload ### Document upload: New document creation Two items are required when uploading a new document to Docusign CLM: the target parent folder for the document and the document’s name. The URI template for uploading a document to a particular folder is specified on the Object API folder object in the **CreateDocumentHref** property. For general reference the URI will be as follows: `https://apiupload[datacenter].springcm.com/[api version]/folders/[folder identifier]/documents{?name}` Or `https://apiupload.[datacenter].clm.docusign.net/[api version]/folders/[folder identifier]/documents{?name}` The \{?name} placeholder is the [RFC 6570](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6570) nomenclature indicating that you must add a `name` parameter to the query string to indicate the target name of the document you are uploading. This is only required if a document is being streamed to the upload endpoint. You can also upload one or more documents via the `multipart/form-data` content type. In this case, the native document names will be used and names are not appended to the query string. If a file is successfully uploaded, the server will return a **201** **Created** response and the document object of the uploaded file. In the case where multiple documents are successfully uploaded in a multi-part form, an array of document objects will be returned. ### Document upload: Versioning a document The `Lock` object is a child object of a document and is used to manage document check in, check out, and versioning. The `Lock` object is also used to monitor when a document is sent out for electronic signature, as this is a special type of document checkout. The document `Lock` object can have the following properties: * `IsLocked` (boolean): Indicates whether the document is locked. * `LockDate` (string): Indicates when the document was locked. Null if the document is not locked. * `Type` (string): The type of document lock. Possible values: not checked out, checked out, out for signature. * `Comment` (string): The comment the user entered when the document was locked. * `LockOwner` (User): The owner of the lock. Null if not locked. * `CheckInHref` (string): If the document is checked out, this is the URI where it can be checked in. * `SignatureHref` (string): If the lock due to a pending signature(s), this is the URI for checking signature status. * `Href` (string): The URI where the object can be retrieved. To retrieve the `Lock` object for a document, either make a GET request to the URI specified in the document's `Lock.Href` property, or add **expand=lock** to the query string when requesting the document object. **Example lock object** ```json { "Lock": { "IsLocked": false, "Type": "NotCheckedOut", "CheckInHref": "https://apiuploadna11.springcm.com/v201411/documents/133d190e-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-3863bb335c14" } } ``` You can version the document by making a POST request to the `CheckInHref` of the document's `Lock` object. Note that this is the same URI as the document object itself, but has the API upload base URL substituted for the Object API base URL. In the case where a document must be checked out by a user so that no one else may upload a document until the current user is finished with it, you can make an empty POST request to the URI specified in the `Lock.Href` property. To cancel the checkout, make a DELETE request to the same URI. To check the document back in, make a PUT or PATCH request to the same URI. ## Next steps See the [API reference](/docs/clm-api/reference) for a list of content methods and details about how to use them.