Quickstart

Galley Render turns a template plus a JSON payload into a PDF, PNG or JPG behind a signed URL.

There are two ways in. Path A needs nothing at all: the MCP endpoint mints a 50-render trial on your first call. Path B is the same render over the REST API once you have a key.

Path A — one curl, no key

The MCP server is stateless Streamable HTTP, so a single tools/call request works on its own. There is no initialize handshake to do first, and no session to keep. Two headers matter: content-type: application/json and an accept that lists both JSON and SSE.

Render an invoice with no API key

curl -sS https://mcp.galleyrender.com/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "render",
      "arguments": {
        "template": "invoice",
        "format": "pdf",
        "data": {
          "invoice_number": "INV-1042",
          "issued_on": "2026-09-16",
          "seller": { "name": "Galley Render" },
          "buyer": { "name": "Acme Robotics" },
          "line_items": [
            { "description": "Starter plan, September", "quantity": 1, "unit_price": 19 }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }'

The answer is a JSON-RPC envelope. The tool result is one text block whose body is JSON:

Response

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "{\n  \"object\": \"render\",\n  \"id\": \"rnd_7hq2m4x8k1bv\",\n  …\n}"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Decoded, that text block is:

result.content[0].text

{
  "object": "render",
  "id": "rnd_7hq2m4x8k1bv",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "template": "invoice@1",
  "format": "pdf",
  "engine": "chromium",
  "cached": false,
  "url": "https://galley-renders.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/renders/acct_9k2p…/2026/09/4f1c…d0.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=…",
  "expires_at": "2026-10-16T14:02:11.804Z",
  "page_count": 1,
  "billable_units": 1,
  "byte_size": 48213,
  "content_type": "application/pdf",
  "created_at": "2026-09-16T14:02:10.119Z",
  "completed_at": "2026-09-16T14:02:11.804Z",
  "error": null,
  "trial": {
    "mode": "keyless_trial",
    "renders_limit": 50,
    "renders_remaining": 49,
    "trial_token": "glr_sk_8Qd1nR7xKpV2sYbL4mTf9Uae",
    "keep_this_token": "Send it back as the `X-Galley-Api-Key` header (or `Authorization: Bearer`) on later MCP requests, and it works as an ordinary API key against https://api.galleyrender.com too.",
    "to_remove_the_limit": "Call `create_account` with an email. The trial is upgraded in place, so these templates and renders are kept."
  }
}

Open url and you have the PDF.

Note

trial.trial_token is a real API key. Keep it and send it as X-Galley-Api-Key on later MCP calls to stay on the same trial account — otherwise the trial is re-derived from your IP and User-Agent, and a change to either starts a different one. The trial is 50 renders for its whole lifetime, not per month.

Path B — the same render over REST

Every MCP tool has a REST equivalent at https://api.galleyrender.com. The trial token works there unchanged, so you can run this immediately with the token from Path A.

POST /v1/render shell

curl -sS https://api.galleyrender.com/v1/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GALLEY_API_KEY" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "template": "invoice",
    "format": "pdf",
    "options": { "page_size": "Letter", "margin": "0.5in" },
    "data": {
      "invoice_number": "INV-1042",
      "issued_on": "2026-09-16",
      "seller": { "name": "Galley Render" },
      "buyer": { "name": "Acme Robotics" },
      "line_items": [
        { "description": "Starter plan, September", "quantity": 1, "unit_price": 19 }
      ]
    }
  }'

POST /v1/render javascript

// Node 22+. No dependencies — `fetch` is built in.
const res = await fetch("https://api.galleyrender.com/v1/render", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.GALLEY_API_KEY}`,
    "content-type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    template: "invoice",
    format: "pdf",
    options: {
      page_size: "Letter",
      margin: "0.5in"
    },
    data: {
      invoice_number: "INV-1042",
      issued_on: "2026-09-16",
      seller: {
        name: "Galley Render"
      },
      buyer: {
        name: "Acme Robotics"
      },
      line_items: [
        {
          description: "Starter plan, September",
          quantity: 1,
          unit_price: 19
        }
      ]
    }
  }),
});

const render = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(render.error.message);

console.log(render.url);

POST /v1/render python

# Python 3.9+. Standard library only.
import json, os, urllib.request

body = json.dumps({
    "template": "invoice",
    "format": "pdf",
    "options": {
        "page_size": "Letter",
        "margin": "0.5in"
    },
    "data": {
        "invoice_number": "INV-1042",
        "issued_on": "2026-09-16",
        "seller": {
            "name": "Galley Render"
        },
        "buyer": {
            "name": "Acme Robotics"
        },
        "line_items": [
            {
                "description": "Starter plan, September",
                "quantity": 1,
                "unit_price": 19
            }
        ]
    }
}).encode()

req = urllib.request.Request(
    "https://api.galleyrender.com/v1/render",
    data=body,
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['GALLEY_API_KEY']}",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
)

render = json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req))
print(render["url"])

200 OK

{
  "object": "render",
  "id": "rnd_2bk9wx4m7q1h",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "template": "invoice@1",
  "format": "pdf",
  "engine": "chromium",
  "cached": false,
  "url": "https://galley-renders.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/renders/acct_9k2p…/2026/09/9ab3…71.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Signature=…",
  "expires_at": "2026-10-16T14:05:44.210Z",
  "page_count": 1,
  "billable_units": 1,
  "byte_size": 48213,
  "content_type": "application/pdf",
  "created_at": "2026-09-16T14:05:43.002Z",
  "completed_at": "2026-09-16T14:05:44.210Z",
  "error": null
}

Run it a second time with the identical body and you get "cached": true, instantly, for free.

Two expiries live in that response and they are not the same thing. The signature inside url lasts an hour; expires_at is when the stored object itself stops being kept. Call GET /v1/renders/:id for a fresh URL rather than re-rendering.

Get a permanent key

The trial is capped at 50 renders. To lift it, call the create_account MCP tool with an email address:

create_account

curl -sS https://mcp.galleyrender.com/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -H "X-Galley-Api-Key: $GALLEY_TRIAL_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 2,
    "method": "tools/call",
    "params": {
      "name": "create_account",
      "arguments": { "email": "dev@example.com" }
    }
  }'

1. The first call returns status: "pending_verification" and mails a verification link.
2. A human clicks the link.
3. Call create_account again with the same email. It returns api_key — once. Store it as GALLEY_API_KEY.

The trial is upgraded in place: the templates and renders you made during it are kept, and the lifetime cap is lifted. The free tier is 200 renders a month and 3 templates; see pricing for everything beyond that.

Caution

The key is shown on exactly one response. Only its SHA-256 is stored, so nobody — including us — can read it back to you afterwards.

What to read next

If you want to	Read
Understand the key headers and the 401 body	Authentication
See every field of the render request	POST /v1/render
Render many documents in one call	POST /v1/render/batch
Ship your own HTML template	POST /v1/templates
Check a payload before spending a render	POST /v1/templates/:ref/validate
Know why a second identical call is free	Caching and signed URLs
Handle failures properly	Errors
Watch what you are spending	Spend caps, quotas and metering