Anvil · PDF Forge

Six microservices forge your PDFs in seconds.

Merge · Split · Compress · Images → PDF — async on real infrastructure, not a single-container toy.

Built for The Zerops Challenge (WeMakeDevs × Zerops).

Not affiliated with anvil.works or useanvil.com.

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Live demo

https://anvilapi-2e7c-3000.prg1.zerops.app

No login. Sample files included. Results download when ready.

1. Open the live URL
2. Click Run live pipeline demo (or pick Merge / Compress / Images → PDF)
3. Watch the job ticket + architecture nodes update
4. Download the forged PDF

Health: https://anvilapi-2e7c-3000.prg1.zerops.app/api/health

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Why Anvil

PDF tools usually hide work in one process. Anvil makes the platform story visible:

• API only enqueues — no heavy PDF work on the request path
• Worker runs qpdf, Ghostscript, img2pdf
• NATS carries jobs
• Valkey streams progress
• Postgres is the audit trail
• Object storage holds uploads and results

That is the Zerops multi-service model: private network env refs, real managed services, deploy + verify.

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How Zerops is used

Hostname	Type	Role
anvilapi	Node.js 22	React UI + Fastify REST (enqueue, samples, signed downloads)
anvilworker	Node.js 22	PDF pipeline (merge / split / compress / images→PDF)
anvildb	PostgreSQL 16	Jobs table — source of truth
anvilbus	NATS	Job queue (anvil.jobs)
anvilcache	Valkey	Live progress for the UI
anvilstore	Object storage	Uploads + result objects
anvilweb	Node.js 22	Optional reverse-proxy UI host

Browser → anvilapi ──enqueue──► NATS ──► anvilworker ──► object storage
                │                  │           │
                └──── Postgres ◄───┴── Valkey progress ─┘

Env wiring (examples):

DATABASE_URL: postgresql://${anvildb_user}:${anvildb_password}@${anvildb_hostname}:${anvildb_port}/${anvildb_dbName}
NATS_HOST: ${anvilbus_hostname}
REDIS_URL: ${anvilcache_connectionString}
S3_ENDPOINT: ${anvilstore_apiUrl}
S3_BUCKET: ${anvilstore_bucketName}

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Tools

Tool	What it does
Merge	Combine multiple PDFs (qpdf)
Split	Extract a page range
Compress	Shrink with Ghostscript (+ qpdf fallback)
Images → PDF	Stack PNG/JPEG/WebP into one PDF (img2pdf)

Demos use built-in samples: report, brief, photo — no upload required for judges.

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Stack

• npm workspaces: apps/api, apps/web, apps/worker
• API: Fastify, multipart, NATS publish, Postgres, Valkey, S3
• Worker: NATS queue group, system PDF tools on Ubuntu
• Web: React 19 + Vite (baked into anvilapi public for one public host)

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Local development

# Needs Postgres, NATS, Valkey/Redis, S3-compatible storage
export DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres:postgres@127.0.0.1:5432/anvil
export NATS_HOST=127.0.0.1 NATS_PORT=4222
export REDIS_URL=redis://127.0.0.1:6379
export S3_ENDPOINT=... S3_BUCKET=... S3_KEY=... S3_SECRET=... S3_REGION=us-east-1

npm install
npm run dev:api      # :3000
npm run dev:worker
npm run dev:web      # :5173 proxies /api

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Deploy on Zerops

npm i -g @zerops/zcli
zcli login <token>
# create services (see zerops-project-import.yml), then:
zcli push --setup anvilapi
zcli push --setup anvilworker
# optional:
zcli push --setup anvilweb

See zerops.yaml for build/run and cross-service env wiring.
Demo script: docs/DEMO.md.

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Repo layout

anvil-pdf-forge/
  apps/
    api/       Fastify + SPA + samples + job enqueue
    web/       React UI (architecture live view)
    worker/    NATS consumer + qpdf/gs/img2pdf
  docs/        DEMO.md, screenshot.png
  zerops.yaml
  zerops-project-import.yml

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AI disclosure

Built with Grok Build (including Zerops ZCP / Browser VS Code) under human direction for product, architecture, demo, and submission.

Local zcli was used for project wiring; finishing and iterating on live infra happened fastest inside ZCP.

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License

MIT