Actionist·Carbone
C

Carbone

· #417 most-used

Generate professional documents from templates and data — at scale

ProductivityDocumentsStorageFinanceDeveloperAutomation

Carbone is a document generation engine that merges JSON data into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or LibreOffice templates and outputs PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, CSV, HTML, and 30+ other formats. Connect it to Actionist and your agents can upload and manage template libraries, render invoices, contracts, reports, and certificates from structured data, convert any Office document to PDF, and monitor the Carbone API health — without anyone opening a desktop application or writing a script.

Try Carbone with ActionistVisit Carbone
Average time saved
10 hours
per person · per month
≈ 1 workdays back

Eliminates manual work. Agents eliminate the manual cycle of opening templates, copying in data, exporting to PDF, and routing the finished document — a process that adds 15–30 minutes to every document that leaves the business.

Schedule

What your Carbone agent runs on autopilot

A week of scheduled jobs your Actionist agent will execute on your behalf.

28Scheduled jobs
7Agents at work
24/7Always on
Agents
Tue–Thu
Tue
Wed
Thu
7a
8a
9a
10a
11a
12p
1p
2p
3p
4p
5p
6p
Multi-app workflows

Carbone × every other app you use

End-to-end automations that span multiple apps — each one a real business outcome.

6Workflows
8Apps spanned
~24 hrsSaved / week
6Personas served
For finance
Featured4 apps

End-of-month invoice batch, dispatched before the team wakes up

The Finance Agent reads all billable records from Google Sheets, confirms the Carbone API is healthy, locates the current invoice template, and calls Render Batch Documents to produce every invoice in a single API call. The ZIP is archived in Google Drive and each PDF is emailed to the correct client — the entire billing run completes before the finance team's first coffee.

~8 hrs

Time saved for your team — every week, on autopilot

The flow
Trigger·When the last day of the billing period is reached on the scheduled agent task
Trigger
Step 1
Google Sheets
Read all billable client records for the closing billing period
read
Step 2
C
Carbone
Get API Status to confirm Carbone is healthy before the batch
read
Step 3
C
Carbone
List Templates to locate the active invoice template ID
write
Step 4
C
Carbone
Render Batch Documents — all client records in one call, returns a ZIP of PDFs
write
Step 5
Google Drive
Upload the ZIP to the monthly invoices archive folder
write
Step 6
Gmail
Email each client's invoice PDF to their billing contact
Result
Render Batch Documents — all client records in one call, returns a ZIP of PDFsUpload the ZIP to the monthly invoices archive folderEmail each client's invoice PDF to their billing contact
The win
Saved per run
~2 hrs
Runs / week
~4×
An entire billing run dispatched automatically without anyone opening a template
Driven byFinance Agent
ROI

Savings

What your team gets back — two angles: what you stop doing manually, and what that's worth.

Without Actionist

What you do manually today

With Actionist

What your agent runs for you

  • Sales
    25 min / week
    Manual contract and proposal preparation

    Sales reps open a Word template, copy in deal data from the CRM, manually update names, values, and dates, export to PDF, and email the file — 20–30 minutes per document, every time.

    Sales Agent
    0 min
    Agent renders and files the document automatically

    When a deal closes or advances, the agent merges CRM data into the Carbone template and delivers a formatted PDF in seconds — the rep receives a Slack notification with the document already filed in the client's folder.

  • Marketing
    30 min / week
    Manual certificate and report distribution

    The marketing team opens a certificate template per attendee, fills in names and dates, exports each to PDF, and emails them individually — a 2-hour job after every webinar or event.

    Marketing Agent
    0 min
    Agent issues all certificates in one batch call

    After a webinar ends, the agent calls Render Batch Documents with all attendee data in one request, extracts the ZIP, and emails each personalised PDF — the entire run takes under 2 minutes regardless of attendee count.

  • Customer Support
    20 min / week
    Manual onboarding pack and letter preparation

    Support coordinators open a welcome guide template per new customer, personalise it with account details, export to PDF, and send — repeating the process for every new account that week.

    Customer Support Agent
    0 min
    Agent generates personalised documents for every new account

    The support agent renders a tailored welcome guide for each new customer and emails it automatically, with no coordinator opening a template or exporting a file.

  • Human Resources
    18 min / week
    Manual offer letter and contract production

    HR coordinators open the offer letter template, manually enter the candidate's role, salary, start date, and benefits, export to PDF, and send — repeating the process for every accepted offer.

    Human Resources Agent
    0 min
    Agent delivers offer letters automatically on acceptance

    When a candidate accepts, the agent renders a personalised offer letter from HRIS data, stores it in Google Drive, and emails it — the candidate has a professional offer letter before the hiring call ends.

  • Finance
    45 min / week
    Manual end-of-month invoice preparation

    Finance staff open the invoice template per client, copy in billing data, export to PDF, and send — a process that takes 2–4 hours at the end of every billing period for teams with more than 20 clients.

    Finance Agent
    0 min
    Agent runs the full invoice batch in a single API call

    The Finance Agent calls Render Batch Documents with all client billing records, gets back a ZIP of completed invoices, and emails each client before the team starts their day — the billing run takes minutes, not hours.

  • Operations
    35 min / week
    Manual template library governance

    Operations staff periodically review the Carbone template library, identify stale or duplicated templates, download originals for backup, and manually delete outdated versions — a task that gets skipped until the library becomes a mess.

    Operations Agent
    0 min
    Agent backs up, audits, and retires templates on a schedule

    The Operations Agent runs scheduled tasks to download and back up all templates to Google Drive, audit category and tag consistency, and delete retirement-flagged templates — the library stays clean without a governance meeting.

  • Legal
    22 min / week
    Manual NDA and compliance document preparation

    Legal team members open the NDA or compliance template per new partner or employee, fill in jurisdiction details, export to PDF, route for signature, and update the CRM — 20 minutes per document, growing with headcount and partner count.

    Legal Agent
    0 min
    Agent renders and routes legal documents automatically

    When a new partner or compliance event triggers a document need, the agent renders the correct jurisdiction-specific document from Carbone, stores it in Google Drive, and routes it for signature — the legal team reviews and approves, not drafts.

+ 100s of other Carbone automations
Average time saved
20 hrs / person / month
Calculator

Calculate what your team saves

Team size
5 people
Hourly rate
$75 / hr
Hours saved / week
13
Hours saved / year
625
Annual ROI
$46,875

Based on Carbone's typical team usage — the visible tasks plus a few other automations the agent runs: ~2.5 hrs / person / week of admin work automated.

Connect

How to plug Carbone into Actionist

Pick the connection method that suits your environment.

Authenticate with a Carbone Cloud API key sent as a Bearer token on every request. Required for all template management and document generation operations.

1
Open your Carbone Cloud account

Log in at app.carbone.io. Go to Account → API Keys and click Generate a new key.

2
Copy the API key

Copy the key immediately — it is shown only once. Store it in a secrets manager before closing the dialog.

3
Paste into Actionist

Find Carbone in the Actionist Apps library, click Connect, paste the key into the API key field, and click Test connection.

Credentials you'll need
API key*
Carbone Cloud → Account → API Keys → Generate a new key
Actions

13 actions your agent can call

Read and write operations available to your Actionist agent.

Triggers

0 events your agent can react to

Events your agent watches for, and the actions it kicks off in response.

This app has no triggers yet.
MCP servers

MCP servers that work with Carbone

Connect Actionist to MCP servers built for or around this app.

Carbone MCP
Official

Generate PDF/DOCX/XLSX/PPTX from templates+JSON. Convert Office/HTML/MD to PDF. Universal templating.

FAQs

Questions about Carbone + Actionist

How does Actionist connect to Carbone?
Go to the Apps tab in Actionist, search for Carbone, and click Connect. You will need a Carbone Cloud API key — generate one at app.carbone.io under Account → API Keys. Paste the key into the API key field and click Test connection. Actionist calls Get API Status to verify the handshake before any document operations run. Alternatively, you can connect through the official Carbone MCP server, which wraps the same API key authentication in a model-friendly interface.
What document formats can Carbone generate and convert through Actionist?
Carbone supports 30+ output formats. For generation (merging a template with JSON data): PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, CSV, HTML, XML, and more. For conversion (transforming an existing file): any Office format (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) to PDF, HTML to PDF (using the Chromium engine for pixel-perfect rendering), and spreadsheets to CSV. You can call Get Capabilities through the agent to see the full list of supported formats and which converter engine to specify for each combination.
What is the difference between Render Document and Render Batch Documents?
Render Document generates a single document from one JSON data payload and one template — it returns a render ID that you use to download the file. Render Batch Documents accepts an array of JSON datasets in one API call and returns a ZIP archive containing a rendered document for each dataset. For any workflow that needs to produce the same document type for more than one record — invoices for all clients, certificates for all attendees, offer letters for a cohort — Render Batch Documents is the right action. It reduces API round-trips dramatically and is significantly faster than looping Render Document calls.
How do Carbone templates work and do I need to rebuild them in Actionist?
Carbone templates are standard Word (DOCX), Excel (XLSX), PowerPoint (PPTX), or LibreOffice files with special double-curly-brace tags (e.g. {d.invoiceNumber}) marking where data values are injected. You create and edit templates in the desktop application you already use, then upload them to Carbone Cloud via Upload Template. Actionist stores and uses the template ID — you never rebuild a template inside Actionist. If a template is updated, upload the new version to Carbone, get the new template ID, and update the workflow parameter. The template design and the Actionist workflow are fully decoupled.
Can Actionist handle large document batches reliably?
Yes, with a few planning considerations. The Render Batch Documents action handles large arrays in a single API call — Carbone returns a ZIP archive of all rendered files. For very large batches, it is good practice to call Get API Status as a pre-flight check before submitting the batch, so the workflow can hold and alert the team if the API is degraded rather than running a partial batch that would be hard to reconcile. Rendered documents are available for download for up to one hour after generation, so the Download Rendered Document step should follow the render within the same workflow run.
How does the agent know which template to use when the template library grows?
The agent calls List Templates with a keyword search or category filter to find the correct template dynamically rather than relying on a hardcoded template ID. This means workflows adapt automatically when a template is updated and re-uploaded with a new ID — the agent discovers the current version at run time. For production workflows where the template changes infrequently, you can also store the template ID in a configuration sheet and have the agent read it from there, giving the team a single place to update the ID when a new version is published.
What happens when a rendered document is ready — does the agent need to do anything to retrieve it?
Carbone returns a render ID when a document is submitted for generation. For synchronous renders the file can be downloaded immediately using that render ID via Download Rendered Document — the file is available for one hour and can be downloaded once. For asynchronous or webhook-based renders (useful for large or complex documents), the agent waits for the completion webhook event and then calls Download Rendered Document with the render ID. The one-hour, one-download window means the agent should retrieve and store the file (in Google Drive, S3, or another destination) within the same workflow run rather than saving the render ID for later.
Can I control which version of a template is used to prevent accidental renders from an outdated template?
Yes. Carbone supports template versioning — when you upload a new version with Upload Template, you can deploy it as the current production version while the previous version ID remains accessible. The Update Template Metadata action lets you promote a staging version to production or schedule an old version for deletion without re-uploading the file. For strict version control, your workflow can call List Templates filtered by version tag to always target the approved production version explicitly, ensuring that a draft or staging upload never accidentally enters a production document run.