AddThisFeature

Document Watermarking

Stamp a draft, confidential, or recipient mark onto documents as they are downloaded.

moderate Documents & Files

What it adds

A server-side watermarking stage applied to generated and stored documents on their way to a reader.

What your agent is told to do

5
  1. 1

    Apply the mark on the server as the file is generated or served. A watermark drawn in the browser or laid over a preview is gone the moment somebody requests the raw file, which defeats the entire point.

  2. 2

    Extend the app's existing PDF Export path rather than adding a second document pipeline. The watermark is a stage in the export, not a separate feature with its own renderer and its own fonts.

  3. 3

    Make the mark legible without obscuring the content: a diagonal or footer mark at reduced opacity, sized against the page rather than a fixed number of points.

  4. 4

    Support a recipient-identifying mark for documents that need leak tracing, carrying the reader's name or account and the time the copy was served.

  5. 5

    Keep the clean original and the watermarked copy at separate storage paths with separate access rules, and never let a request for one return the other.

Edge cases it handles

8
  • A mark drawn in the viewer is not a watermark. If the client composites it, the reader can request the underlying file directly and get a clean copy.
  • A mark heavy enough to be unmissable is usually heavy enough to make small print unreadable. Tune opacity and size so the document is still usable at normal reading zoom.
  • One file can hold pages of different sizes and rotations. Position and rotate the mark from each page's own box, or landscape and rotated pages get a mark running off the edge.
  • When the mark identifies a recipient, the marked copy becomes personal data in its own right. Decide how long those copies are kept and who besides the recipient may read them back.
  • Clean and watermarked copies must not share a cache key or a predictable filename. A shared key will eventually serve the unmarked file to someone entitled only to the marked one.
  • Regenerating the same document for the same recipient must produce the same mark, or a leaked copy cannot be traced back to a single download.
  • A document whose pages are scanned images needs the mark composited into the image layer. A text layer added over a flat scan may never render at all.
  • Exporting an already-watermarked document through the same path must not stamp it twice.

Definition of done

8
  • Every document served through the export path carries the configured mark.
  • The mark is applied server-side and is present in the raw downloaded file.
  • Pages of differing size and rotation each carry a correctly placed mark.
  • Body text stays readable at normal zoom with the mark applied.
  • Recipient-marked copies record who they were issued to and when.
  • Clean originals are stored apart from marked copies and are unreachable by a reader entitled only to the marked one.
  • The feature matches the existing design system.
  • No existing functionality is broken.

Related features

How it works

  1. 1

    Copy the link

    Grab the Markdown instruction URL for this feature.

  2. 2

    Give it to your AI

    Paste it into Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Lovable — whatever you build with.

  3. 3

    It inspects, then implements

    Your agent reads your existing app first, then adds the feature to fit it.

Works with your stack

These instructions are written to adapt. They tell the agent to detect your framework, match your existing design system, and reuse what you already have — rather than assuming a particular stack.

Need it tighter than that? Customize the feature and tell it exactly what you're running.