# PDF sidecar

The PDF sidecar is the service that Fabricate uses to render PDFs.

For information on how to deploy Fabricate, go to [Deploying and managing a self-hosted instance](/fabricate/self-hosting-fabricate/deploying-and-managing-a-self-hosted-instance.md).

This page only covers the configuration options that are used to connect Fabricate to the PDF sidecar.

## PDF sidecar container option

Set the following environment variable on the PDF sidecar container:

{% code overflow="wrap" lineNumbers="true" %}

```
PDF_SOCKET_PATH=  # Unix socket path to communicate between Fabricate and the PDF sidecar.
```

{% endcode %}

Use a path that is available to both the PDF sidecar container and the Fabricate container.

This is usually a shared Docker volume that is mounted into both containers.

## Fabricate options

In `.env`, set the following options:

{% code overflow="wrap" lineNumbers="true" %}

```
FABRICATE_PDF_SOCKET_PATH=  # Unix socket path to communicate with the PDF sidecar.
RENDER_TIMEOUT_MS=  # Timeout in milliseconds for PDF rendering.
```

{% endcode %}

### How these options work

* `FABRICATE_PDF_SOCKET_PATH` — Uses a Unix socket to connect Fabricate to the PDF sidecar.
* `RENDER_TIMEOUT_MS` — Sets the PDF rendering timeout in milliseconds.

If you use `FABRICATE_PDF_SOCKET_PATH`, it should match the shared socket path used for `PDF_SOCKET_PATH`.

That path must be accessible to both containers.


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