Document AI client libraries

This page shows how to get started with the Cloud Client Libraries for the Document AI API. Read more about the client libraries for Cloud APIs, including the older Google API Client Libraries, in Client Libraries Explained.

Installing the client library

Java

For more information, see Setting Up a Java Development Environment.

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM.

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
      <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
      <version>25.4.0</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-document-ai</artifactId>
    <version>2.5.2</version>
  </dependency>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

implementation platform('com.google.cloud:libraries-bom:25.4.0')

implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-document-ai'

If you are using sbt, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-document-ai" % "2.5.2"

If you're using Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

• Cloud Code for VS Code
• Cloud Code for IntelliJ
• Cloud Tools for Eclipse

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Note: Cloud Java client libraries do not currently support Android.

Node.js

For more information, see Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment.

npm install @google-cloud/documentai

Python

For more information, see Setting Up a Python Development Environment.

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-documentai

Setting up authentication

To run the client library, you must first set up authentication. One way to do that is to create a service account and set an environment variable, as shown in the following steps. For other ways to authenticate, see Authenticating as a service account.

Console

Create a service account:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create service account page.

   Go to Create service account
2. Select your project.

3. In the Service account name field, enter a name. The Google Cloud console fills in the Service account ID field based on this name.

   In the Service account description field, enter a description. For example, Service account for quickstart.

4. Click Create and continue.

5. Click Done to finish creating the service account.

   Do not close your browser window. You will use it in the next step.

Create a service account key:

1. In the Google Cloud console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
2. Click Keys.
3. Click Add key, and then click Create new key.
4. Click Create. A JSON key file is downloaded to your computer.
5. Click Close.

gcloud

Set up authentication:

1. Create the service account:

   gcloud iam service-accounts create NAME

   Replace NAME with a name for the service account.

2. Generate the key file:

   gcloud iam service-accounts keys create FILE_NAME.json --iam-account=SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

   Replace the following:

   • FILE_NAME: a name for the key file
   • SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME: the name of the service account
   • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account

Provide authentication credentials to your application code by setting the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. This variable applies only to your current shell session. If you want the variable to apply to future shell sessions, set the variable in your shell startup file, for example in the ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile file.

Linux or macOS

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"

Windows

For PowerShell:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="C:\Users\username\Downloads\service-account-file.json"

For command prompt:

set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=KEY_PATH

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

Using the client library

The following example shows how to use the client library.

Java

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import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1.Document;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1.DocumentProcessorServiceClient;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1.ProcessRequest;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1.ProcessResponse;
import com.google.cloud.documentai.v1.RawDocument;
import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

public class QuickStart {
  public static void main(String[] args)
      throws IOException, InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-project-id";
    String location = "your-project-location"; // Format is "us" or "eu".
    String processorId = "your-processor-id";
    String filePath = "path/to/input/file.pdf";
    quickStart(projectId, location, processorId, filePath);
  }

  public static void quickStart(
      String projectId, String location, String processorId, String filePath)
      throws IOException, InterruptedException, ExecutionException, TimeoutException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests. After completing all of your requests, call
    // the "close" method on the client to safely clean up any remaining background resources.
    try (DocumentProcessorServiceClient client = DocumentProcessorServiceClient.create()) {
      // The full resource name of the processor, e.g.:
      // projects/project-id/locations/location/processor/processor-id
      // You must create new processors in the Cloud Console first
      String name =
          String.format("projects/%s/locations/%s/processors/%s", projectId, location, processorId);

      // Read the file.
      byte[] imageFileData = Files.readAllBytes(Paths.get(filePath));

      // Convert the image data to a Buffer and base64 encode it.
      ByteString content = ByteString.copyFrom(imageFileData);

      RawDocument document =
          RawDocument.newBuilder().setContent(content).setMimeType("application/pdf").build();

      // Configure the process request.
      ProcessRequest request =
          ProcessRequest.newBuilder().setName(name).setRawDocument(document).build();

      // Recognizes text entities in the PDF document
      ProcessResponse result = client.processDocument(request);
      Document documentResponse = result.getDocument();

      // Get all of the document text as one big string
      String text = documentResponse.getText();

      // Read the text recognition output from the processor
      System.out.println("The document contains the following paragraphs:");
      Document.Page firstPage = documentResponse.getPages(0);
      List<Document.Page.Paragraph> paragraphs = firstPage.getParagraphsList();

      for (Document.Page.Paragraph paragraph : paragraphs) {
        String paragraphText = getText(paragraph.getLayout().getTextAnchor(), text);
        System.out.printf("Paragraph text:\n%s\n", paragraphText);
      }
    }
  }

  // Extract shards from the text field
  private static String getText(Document.TextAnchor textAnchor, String text) {
    if (textAnchor.getTextSegmentsList().size() > 0) {
      int startIdx = (int) textAnchor.getTextSegments(0).getStartIndex();
      int endIdx = (int) textAnchor.getTextSegments(0).getEndIndex();
      return text.substring(startIdx, endIdx);
    }
    return "[NO TEXT]";
  }
}

Node.js

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/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';
// const location = 'YOUR_PROJECT_LOCATION'; // Format is 'us' or 'eu'
// const processorId = 'YOUR_PROCESSOR_ID'; // Create processor in Cloud Console
// const filePath = '/path/to/local/pdf';

const {DocumentProcessorServiceClient} =
  require('@google-cloud/documentai').v1;

// Instantiates a client
// apiEndpoint regions available: eu-documentai.googleapis.com, us-documentai.googleapis.com (Required if using eu based processor)
// const client = new DocumentProcessorServiceClient({apiEndpoint: 'eu-documentai.googleapis.com'});
const client = new DocumentProcessorServiceClient();

async function quickstart() {
  // The full resource name of the processor, e.g.:
  // projects/project-id/locations/location/processor/processor-id
  // You must create new processors in the Cloud Console first
  const name = `projects/${projectId}/locations/${location}/processors/${processorId}`;

  // Read the file into memory.
  const fs = require('fs').promises;
  const imageFile = await fs.readFile(filePath);

  // Convert the image data to a Buffer and base64 encode it.
  const encodedImage = Buffer.from(imageFile).toString('base64');

  const request = {
    name,
    rawDocument: {
      content: encodedImage,
      mimeType: 'application/pdf',
    },
  };

  // Recognizes text entities in the PDF document
  const [result] = await client.processDocument(request);
  const {document} = result;

  // Get all of the document text as one big string
  const {text} = document;

  // Extract shards from the text field
  const getText = textAnchor => {
    if (!textAnchor.textSegments || textAnchor.textSegments.length === 0) {
      return '';
    }

    // First shard in document doesn't have startIndex property
    const startIndex = textAnchor.textSegments[0].startIndex || 0;
    const endIndex = textAnchor.textSegments[0].endIndex;

    return text.substring(startIndex, endIndex);
  };

  // Read the text recognition output from the processor
  console.log('The document contains the following paragraphs:');
  const [page1] = document.pages;
  const {paragraphs} = page1;

  for (const paragraph of paragraphs) {
    const paragraphText = getText(paragraph.layout.textAnchor);
    console.log(`Paragraph text:\n${paragraphText}`);
  }
}

Python

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# TODO(developer): Uncomment these variables before running the sample.
# project_id= 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID'
# location = 'YOUR_PROJECT_LOCATION' # Format is 'us' or 'eu'
# processor_id = 'YOUR_PROCESSOR_ID' #  Create processor in Cloud Console
# file_path = '/path/to/local/pdf'


def quickstart(project_id: str, location: str, processor_id: str, file_path: str):

    from google.cloud import documentai_v1 as documentai

    # You must set the api_endpoint if you use a location other than 'us', e.g.:
    opts = {}
    if location == "eu":
        opts = {"api_endpoint": "eu-documentai.googleapis.com"}

    client = documentai.DocumentProcessorServiceClient(client_options=opts)

    # The full resource name of the processor, e.g.:
    # projects/project-id/locations/location/processor/processor-id
    # You must create new processors in the Cloud Console first
    name = f"projects/{project_id}/locations/{location}/processors/{processor_id}"

    # Read the file into memory
    with open(file_path, "rb") as image:
        image_content = image.read()

    document = {"content": image_content, "mime_type": "application/pdf"}

    # Configure the process request
    request = {"name": name, "raw_document": document}

    result = client.process_document(request=request)
    document = result.document

    document_pages = document.pages

    # For a full list of Document object attributes, please reference this page: https://googleapis.dev/python/documentai/latest/_modules/google/cloud/documentai_v1beta3/types/document.html#Document

    # Read the text recognition output from the processor
    print("The document contains the following paragraphs:")
    for page in document_pages:
        paragraphs = page.paragraphs
        for paragraph in paragraphs:
            print(paragraph)
            paragraph_text = get_text(paragraph.layout, document)
            print(f"Paragraph text: {paragraph_text}")


def get_text(doc_element: dict, document: dict):
    """
    Document AI identifies form fields by their offsets
    in document text. This function converts offsets
    to text snippets.
    """
    response = ""
    # If a text segment spans several lines, it will
    # be stored in different text segments.
    for segment in doc_element.text_anchor.text_segments:
        start_index = (
            int(segment.start_index)
            if segment in doc_element.text_anchor.text_segments
            else 0
        )
        end_index = int(segment.end_index)
        response += document.text[start_index:end_index]
    return response

Additional resources

Java

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Node.js

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow

Python

• API Reference Documentation
• Source Code
• GitHub Issue Tracker
• Stack Overflow