Document Utilities

PDF Redaction

Permanently removes content from a PDF (redaction).#

POST/lmkit/v1/pdf-redact

Redacts a PDF by permanently deleting the underlying content, not merely drawing a black box over it. Text glyphs are removed from content streams, image pixels are scrubbed and re-encoded, vector graphics are trimmed, intersecting annotations are deleted, and content nested inside Form XObjects is processed per instance. The removed content cannot be recovered from the output by text extraction, raw stream inspection, or rendering. Specify what to remove with 'search_terms' (every occurrence of each string is redacted), 'areas' (explicit page regions in points), and/or 'apply_existing_annotations' (apply the document's pre-existing /Redact marks). Surviving content is untouched: text is removed at glyph granularity, and shared resources are cloned before editing so only the targeted instance changes. The redacted document is stored on the server and returned as a file ID together with a report of what was removed. This is a pure document processing operation that does not require an AI model. Returns 422 Unprocessable Entity with an ErrorResponse body if the input file cannot be processed. The 'error' field contains one of: 'password_required' (encrypted PDF), 'invalid_format' (not a valid PDF), 'unsupported_security' (unsupported encryption), 'page_error' (content error).

Request body

application/json ·

Property	Type	Description
`input`required	string	The source PDF document. When input_format is 'Base64EncodedFile', provide a base64-encoded PDF payload. When 'FileIdentifier', provide the file ID previously returned by the lmkit/v1/files/upload endpoint.
`input_format`		How the input is provided. Accepted values: 'Base64EncodedFile' or 'FileIdentifier'. 'Base64EncodedFile' expects a base64-encoded PDF file. 'FileIdentifier' references a file previously uploaded via lmkit/v1/files/upload. Defaults to 'Base64EncodedFile'.
`search_terms`	string[]	Text strings to search for and redact. Every occurrence of each term found anywhere in the document is removed. Combine with 'areas' and 'apply_existing_annotations'; everything matched is redacted in a single pass.
`areas`	[]	Explicit rectangular regions to redact, in page points (top-left origin). Use these to redact a figure, a signature, or any region regardless of its content.
`apply_existing_annotations`	boolean	When true, the document's pre-existing /Redact annotations (for example marks created in Acrobat or another tool) are applied and consumed as part of this request. Defaults to false.
`case_sensitive`	boolean	Whether term matching is case-sensitive. Applies only to 'search_terms'. Defaults to false.
`whole_word`	boolean	When true, a term only matches when bounded by non-word characters on both sides. Applies only to 'search_terms'. Defaults to false.
`draw_fill_boxes`	boolean	When true (default), an opaque box is drawn over each redacted region after its content is removed.
`fill_color`	string	Fill-box color as a hex string '#RRGGBB'. Ignored when 'draw_fill_boxes' is false. Defaults to '#000000' (black).
`redact_images`	boolean	When true (default), image pixels intersecting a redacted region are scrubbed. An intersecting image that cannot be decoded is removed entirely; redacted pixel data never survives.
`redact_vector_graphics`	boolean	When true (default), vector path content intersecting a redacted region is removed.
`remove_annotations`	boolean	When true (default), annotations whose rectangle intersects a redacted region are removed. Annotation payloads (markup contents, link targets, form field values) often duplicate the content being redacted.
`recurse_into_forms`	boolean	When true (default), redaction descends into Form XObjects. The affected form instance is cloned before editing, so the same form referenced from other pages keeps its original content.
`password`	string	Password used to open the source document when it is encrypted. The output is always written unencrypted.

Responses

Status	Type	Description
200		OK
202		Accepted
422		Unprocessable Entity
400		Bad Request

curl -X POST "$LMKIT_ONE_URL/lmkit/v1/pdf-redact" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LMKIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "input": "",
  "input_format": "Base64EncodedFile",
  "search_terms": [
    "string"
  ],
  "areas": [
    {
      "page_index": "string",
      "left": "string",
      "top": "string",
      "width": "string",
      "height": "string"
    }
  ],
  "apply_existing_annotations": false
}'