Every SaaS product, internal tool, and data platform eventually needs to generate PDF reports. Monthly summaries, analytics exports, compliance documents, client deliverables — the list grows fast.

Most teams cobble together report generation with HTML-to-PDF libraries, headless browsers, or LaTeX. It works until it doesn’t: layouts break with different data lengths, output varies between environments, and the whole pipeline becomes a maintenance burden.

AgentPDF takes a different approach. You don’t need a designer to create report templates — build them yourself in the visual editor, or let your AI agent design them programmatically. Either way, the output is deterministic: same data in, same PDF out. Always.

Common Report Generation Problems

If you’ve built PDF reports before, you’ve hit these:

Variable-length content — Some reports have 2 pages of data, others have 50. Your template needs to handle both without layout issues.
Tables and charts — Data tables need proper column alignment, pagination, and repeated headers. The output can’t vary between runs.
Headers and footers — Page numbers, report titles, dates, confidentiality notices — these need to appear on every page.
Multiple formats from one dataset — Executive summary for leadership, detailed breakdown for analysts, both from the same data.
Scheduled generation — Weekly reports, monthly reports, end-of-quarter reports. These need to run automatically without babysitting.

Two Ways to Create Report Templates

Option 1: Build It Yourself in the Editor

AgentPDF’s visual editor lets anyone create a report template. You don’t need design skills — add sections for headers, data tables, summary blocks, and layout elements. The editor uses the same deterministic rendering engine as the API, so what you see is exactly what the PDF will look like.

Option 2: Let Your AI Agent Design It

This is where AgentPDF stands apart. Our layout rendering engine is simple enough for AI agents to work with directly. Your agent can:

Create the report layout from scratch via the API or MCP server
Set up headers, data table sections, summary blocks, and page footers
Define smart variables and repeatable sections for dynamic data
Iterate on the design, preview it, and save the template

No designer. No Figma files. No back-and-forth. Your AI agent designs the template, then immediately starts generating reports from it.

Generate Reports via API

Once your template exists (whether you or your agent created it), report generation is a single API call:

curl -X POST https://api.agentpdf.ai/v1/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "templateId": "monthly-report",
    "variables": {
      "reportTitle": "February 2026 Performance Report",
      "dateRange": "Feb 1 – Feb 28, 2026",
      "summaryMetrics": {
        "totalRevenue": "$142,300",
        "newCustomers": 87,
        "churnRate": "2.1%"
      },
      "dataRows": [
        { "metric": "API Calls", "value": "1,240,000", "change": "+18%" },
        { "metric": "Avg Response Time", "value": "45ms", "change": "-12%" },
        { "metric": "Error Rate", "value": "0.03%", "change": "-8%" }
      ]
    }
  }'

Same template, different data, deterministic output. The same input always produces the exact same PDF.

Why Deterministic Rendering Matters for Reports

Most PDF tools use headless browsers under the hood. That means your Q1 report might look subtly different from your Q2 report — not because the data changed, but because Chrome updated, or the server OS has different fonts, or a timing issue shifted a page break.

AgentPDF doesn’t use a browser. Our rendering engine is purpose-built for PDF output:

Same data = same PDF. No rendering variance between environments or runs.
No Chrome dependency. No memory leaks, no zombie processes, no container bloat.
Consistent at scale. Whether you generate 1 report or 1,000, the output is identical for identical inputs.

For compliance reports, audit documents, and client deliverables, this consistency isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a requirement.

Real-World Report Automation Patterns

Scheduled reports — Cron job pulls data, calls AgentPDF, emails the PDF to stakeholders. No manual step.

On-demand export — “Download Report” button in your app. Backend calls AgentPDF with current data, returns the PDF.

Client deliverables — Agencies generate branded reports per client. Same template, different data and branding.

Compliance and audit — Standardized compliance reports that look identical every quarter. Auditors appreciate deterministic output.

Let AI Agents Own the Report Workflow

With AgentPDF’s MCP server, AI agents can handle reports end-to-end:

Design the template — Agent creates the report layout using the simple rendering engine
Pull the data — Agent queries your database, analytics platform, or API
Generate the PDF — Deterministic output, every time
Deliver it — Email, Slack, upload to S3, attach to a ticket

The agent doesn’t just fill in templates someone else designed — it can design the template itself, then generate from it. That’s the difference.

Get Started

You don’t need a designer to produce professional reports. Build templates in the editor or let your AI agent create them, then generate deterministic PDFs at scale.

Try AgentPDF free →

How to Automate Report Generation With a PDF API