Reference / Architecture

API Overview

Factur-X Engine is a high-performance Python middleware designed to act as a compliance gate for electronic invoicing.

Capabilities
  • PDF/A-3 Hybrid Generation
  • EN 16931 Schematron Validation
  • JSON to CII XML Conversion
  • Semantic Meta-data Extraction
Guarantees
  • 100% Air-Gapped (No Telemetry)
  • Sovereign Infrastructure Friendly
  • Low Memory Footprint (~128MB)
  • High Throughput (Native C/C++ XSLT)
Constraints
  • Requires Docker environment
  • Input PDF must be standard PDF
  • Commercial license for Full Report

System Requirements

The engine is optimized for containerized deployments. It focuses on stability and minimal resource consumption.

Resource Recommended Minimum
CPU 1.0 vCPU 0.1 vCPU
RAM 512 MB 128 MB
Latency < 200ms Depends on PDF size

Compliance & Standards

Factur-X Engine follows the semantic data model of EN 16931. It supports the following profiles:

  • MINIMUM / BASIC WL Simplified tax summary
  • BASIC / COMFORT Full business document
  • EXTENDED Complex taxation & structures
  • XRECHNUNG 3.0 Pure XML standard (Germany)

Core Workflows

The four primary e-invoicing operations: validate, generate, merge, and extract.

Endpoint Purpose Input Output
/v1/validate Compliance gate — EN 16931 Schematron validation PDF or XML (CII/UBL) JSON Report
/v1/xml Generate CII/UBL XML from business data JSON metadata XML (CII/UBL)
/v1/merge Embed existing XML into PDF/A-3b container PDF + XML Factur-X PDF/A-3
/v1/extract Extract structured data from received invoices Factur-X/ZUGFeRD PDF JSON + XML

Advanced Integration

ERP serialization and convenience shortcuts for advanced integrations.

Endpoint Purpose Input Output Edition
/v1/convert One-step: JSON + PDF → compliant Factur-X PDF PDF + JSON Factur-X PDF/A-3 Community
/v1/serialize ERP-ready normalized JSON from invoice Factur-X PDF or XML Business-Ready JSON Pro

Operations

Health probes, diagnostics, and observability endpoints for DevOps teams.

Endpoint Purpose Edition
/health Kubernetes liveness probe All
/healthz Readiness probe (JRE, VeraPDF, Saxon) All
/diagnostics Full system dump (versions, memory, config) All
/metrics Prometheus metrics scrape target Pro

Security Footprint

Designed for zero-trust and highly regulated environments (Banking, Government, Health).

SBOM & SLSA

Every image is shipped with a CycloneDX SBOM. We use Cosign for image signing. The software is scanned daily against CVEs.

No Remote Calls

Unlike cloud-only validators, Factur-X Engine contains all XSD and Schematron rules locally. It does not phone home to validate schemas.