DEV Community: Forgelab Africa

Build in public #5 — Shipped 3 APIs this week: Invoice, QR Code, PDF-to-JSON | $20 MRR

Forgelab Africa — Fri, 08 May 2026 09:02:00 +0000

Forgelab — Build in Public: Week of May 8, 2026

Three APIs shipped this week. Here's what's live, what the numbers look like, and what's coming next.

What shipped this week

1. Invoice Generator API

Turn JSON into a professional PDF invoice in one POST request. Supports 3 templates (modern, classic, minimal), 15 currencies, and line item calculations with tax.

curl -X POST https://forgelab.africa/api/invoice/generate \
  -H "X-API-Key: fliv_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"company":"Acme Corp","client":"Big Client","currency":"USD","items":[{"description":"API Integration","quantity":1,"price":1200.00}]}'

Response: a ready-to-send PDF invoice.

Templates: modern, classic, minimal. Currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, NGN, KES, INR, BRL, JPY, and 7 more.

2. QR Code API

Generate QR codes in PNG, SVG, or base64. Decode QR codes from uploaded images.

# Generate
curl -X POST https://forgelab.africa/api/qr/generate \
  -H "X-API-Key: flqr_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"data":"https://forgelab.africa","format":"png"}'

# Decode
curl -X POST https://forgelab.africa/api/qr/decode \
  -H "X-API-Key: flqr_your_key" \
  -F "file=@qrcode.png"

Useful for event tickets, product labels, app deep links.

3. PDF-to-JSON API

Extract structured text from any PDF. Returns pages array, text content, word count, and document metadata.

curl -X POST https://forgelab.africa/api/pdf-json/extract \
  -H "X-API-Key: flpj_your_key" \
  -F "file=@invoice.pdf"

Useful for parsing invoices automatically, reading bank statements, or turning any document into structured data.

By the numbers (honest)

Metric	Today
APIs live	5
Paying customers	2
MRR	$20/month
Waitlist signups	15
API keys issued	4

MRR is small. But both customers are paying — not on a free trial, not me testing my own product. That distinction matters at week 3.

Goal: $25,000 in 6 months.

Stack

Node.js 20 + Express + SQLite on a single Linux server behind Nginx. Stripe handles billing via webhooks. No Kubernetes. No managed cloud. SQLite handles 5 APIs fine at this scale — when we hit 10k users the plan is PostgreSQL. Until then, near-zero ops overhead is a feature.

All 5 APIs live

PDF API — merge, split, compress, convert
Image API — resize, compress, watermark, convert
PDF-to-JSON API — extract structured data from PDFs
QR Code API — generate and decode QR codes
Invoice API — generate PDF invoices from JSON

One account, one API key format, same pricing tiers across all products at forgelab.africa.

Free browser tools (SEO strategy)

Three free browser tools:

Merge PDF — forgelab.africa/merge-pdf
Compress PDF — forgelab.africa/compress-pdf
Split PDF — forgelab.africa/split-pdf

5 free uses per month, no card required. They run on the Forgelab PDF API internally. Free tools drive Google traffic — API drives revenue. Zero ad spend.

Pricing

Plan	Price	API Calls
Free	$0	5/month
Starter	$5/month	100
Pro	$15/month	1,000
Business	$30/month	10,000

Building next

Currency API — real-time exchange rates, historical data, conversion
OCR API — extract text from images (scanned docs, receipt photos)

Building in public. If you have questions about the stack or are building something similar, drop a comment.

forgelab.africa

I built a PDF + Image + Invoice API platform — free tier, no card required

Forgelab Africa — Wed, 06 May 2026 18:39:40 +0000

What I built

Forgelab is a developer API platform that handles the boring document and image work so you can ship faster.

Right now it does four things:

PDF API — merge, split, compress, convert
Image API — resize, compress, convert, watermark
Invoice API — generate professional PDF invoices from JSON
QR Code API — generate and decode QR codes

The problem it solves

Every SaaS app eventually needs to generate invoices, resize images, or process PDFs. You either spend a week building it yourself, or you pay $99/month for a service that does one thing.

Forgelab bundles all of it under one API key.

How it works

# Generate an invoice in one API call
curl -X POST https://api.forgelab.africa/api/invoice/generate \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "client": { "name": "Acme Corp", "email": "billing@acme.com" },
    "items": [{ "description": "Web development", "quantity": 10, "unit_price": 150 }],
    "currency": "USD",
    "template": "modern"
  }' \
  --output invoice.pdf

Pricing

Free: 5 calls/month, no card
Starter: $5/month — 100 calls
Pro: $15/month — 1,000 calls
Business: $30/month — 10,000 calls

One subscription works across all APIs.

Try it

https://forgelab.africa

I built this to scratch my own itch. Would love feedback from anyone who has dealt with invoice generation or PDF handling in their apps.

How to Compress PDFs via REST API — curl, Node.js & Python Examples

Forgelab Africa — Wed, 06 May 2026 09:02:23 +0000

If your app needs to compress PDFs, you have two paths:

Install pdf-lib, ghostscript, or puppeteer — and inherit binary dependencies, config complexity, and memory overhead.
Make one HTTP POST and let a dedicated API handle it.

Here's how the second option works with the Forgelab PDF API.

The endpoint

POST https://www.forgelab.africa/api/pdf/compress

Headers: X-API-Key: your_api_key

Body (multipart/form-data): file — the PDF to compress

Response: compressed PDF as a binary download.

curl

curl -X POST https://www.forgelab.africa/api/pdf/compress \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FORGELAB_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@report.pdf" \
  --output compressed.pdf

A 10 MB PDF typically comes back under 2 MB.

Node.js

import fs from 'fs';
import fetch from 'node-fetch';
import FormData from 'form-data';

async function compressPdf(inputPath, outputPath) {
  const form = new FormData();
  form.append('file', fs.createReadStream(inputPath));

  const res = await fetch('https://www.forgelab.africa/api/pdf/compress', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'X-API-Key': process.env.FORGELAB_API_KEY,
      ...form.getHeaders(),
    },
    body: form,
  });

  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Compress failed: ${res.status}`);

  const buffer = await res.buffer();
  fs.writeFileSync(outputPath, buffer);
  console.log(`Saved: ${outputPath}`);
}

compressPdf('invoice.pdf', 'invoice-compressed.pdf');

Python

import os
import requests

def compress_pdf(input_path: str, output_path: str) -> None:
    with open(input_path, "rb") as f:
        res = requests.post(
            "https://www.forgelab.africa/api/pdf/compress",
            headers={"X-API-Key": os.environ["FORGELAB_API_KEY"]},
            files={"file": f},
        )
    res.raise_for_status()
    with open(output_path, "wb") as out:
        out.write(res.content)
    print(f"Compressed PDF saved to {output_path}")

compress_pdf("report.pdf", "report-compressed.pdf")

Why use an API instead of a library?

Concern	Library (pdf-lib, ghostscript)	Forgelab API
Setup	Install + configure	HTTP call only
Binary deps	ghostscript, etc.	None
Memory usage	Spikes on large files	Server-side
Works in serverless	Sometimes	Always
Language	Library-specific	Any language

Offloading PDF processing to an API keeps your app lightweight and your deploys clean.

Pricing

Tier	Price	Calls/month
Free	$0	5 calls
Starter	$5/mo	100 calls
Pro	$15/mo	1,000 calls
Business	$30/mo	10,000 calls

No credit card required for the free tier.

Get your API key at forgelab.africa