--- title: "Introduction to Workflow Documents" description: "Design invoices, packing slips and your own PDF documents in HTML, CSS and Liquid, and generate them for orders, products and customers from Shopify Flow." canonical: "https://docs.workflow-documents.app/introduction-to-workflow-documents" --- # Introduction to Workflow Documents Workflow Documents turns your orders, products and customers into PDF documents. You design a template in HTML, CSS and Liquid, and the **Generate document** action in Shopify Flow renders it whenever a workflow runs. The action hands Flow a download link, so the next step can email the PDF link to a customer, send it to your warehouse or pass it to another system. Use it for invoices, packing slips, product data sheets, customer summaries, or any document of your own. ## What you can do with it - **Generate a PDF from Shopify Flow.** The Generate document action renders a template for the order, product or customer of the workflow and returns a download link, the file name and the size. See [Set up the Generate document action in Shopify Flow](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/set-up-the-generate-document-action-in-shopify-flow.md). - **Design your own templates.** HTML with Liquid, plus CSS, a file name pattern, paper size, orientation and margin. Start from an invoice, a packing slip, a product data sheet, a customer summary or a blank page. See [Create your first template](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/create-your-first-template.md). - **Preview while you write.** The editor shows the page next to the code, with your latest order or sample data, and renders the actual PDF on request. See [The template editor](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/template-editor.md). - **Brand every document in one place.** Logo, colors, fonts and company details from Settings reach every template. See [Branding your documents](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/branding.md). - **Write a template in several languages.** Each language has its own HTML and file name, and the customer's language picks the right one. See [Templates in several languages](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/languages.md). - **Find every document again.** The history lists each generated document with its status, and stored PDFs can be downloaded again. See [Document history and downloads](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/document-history.md). - **Automate from code or an AI agent.** A REST API and an MCP server manage templates and generate documents. See [Developer API and MCP](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/developer-api-and-mcp.md). ## How a document is generated 1. Your Flow workflow triggers as usual, for example on *Order paid*. 2. Flow reaches the **Generate document** action and sends the order, product or customer of the workflow together with the template name you entered. 3. Workflow Documents reads the current data from your store, fills the template and renders the PDF. 4. The PDF is stored, and the action returns a download link that is valid for 7 days, the file name and the size. 5. The document appears in **Documents** with its status. If something fails, the error is shown there and in Flow. ## What a template looks like A template is HTML with Liquid tags over the data of one order, product or customer: ```liquid

Invoice {{ order.name }}

{% for line in order.line_items %} {% endfor %}
{{ line.title }} {{ line.quantity }} {{ line.discounted_total | money }}

Total: {{ order.total_price | money }}

``` See [Template variables and Liquid](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/template-variables-and-liquid.md) for everything a template can print. ## Around the app | Page | What it is for | | --- | --- | | Home | Setup guide, documents over time, plan usage, success rate and recent failures | | Templates | Create, edit and delete templates | | Documents | Every generated document with status, source and size, and the PDF to download | | Settings | Your branding: logo, colors, fonts and company details | | Developer | API keys, the REST API and the MCP server for AI agents | | Help | Support, documentation links and plans | ## Plans Every plan includes all features and unlimited templates. There are three plans: **Free** with 100 documents, **Starter** with 1,000 documents for $9 per month, and **Unlimited** for $29 per month. They differ in how many documents you can generate per rolling 30 days and in how long the PDFs are kept. Documents from Shopify Flow and from the API count, previews and downloads in the app do not. See [Plans and pricing](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/plans-and-pricing.md). ## Next steps - [Create your first template](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/create-your-first-template.md) - pick a ready-made template and make it yours. - [The template editor](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/template-editor.md) - the tabs, the live preview and the PDF preview. - [Set up the Generate document action in Shopify Flow](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/set-up-the-generate-document-action-in-shopify-flow.md) - connect a template to a workflow. - [Example workflows](https://docs.workflow-documents.app/example-workflows.md) - email an invoice link, send a packing slip to the warehouse.