Upload

The upload method uploads files to Reducto’s servers and returns a file reference that you can use with other endpoints.

Basic Usage

import Reducto from 'reductoai';
import fs from 'fs';

const client = new Reducto();

// Upload a file
const upload = await client.upload({ 
  file: fs.createReadStream("document.pdf") 
});

// Use the file_id in other operations
console.log(upload.file_id);  // "reducto://abc123def456.pdf"

Method Signature

upload(params?: {
  file?: Uploadable | null;
  extension?: string | null;
}, options?: RequestOptions): Promise<Upload>

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`file`	`Uploadable \| null`	No	The file to upload. Can be a `File`, `fs.ReadStream`, `fetch Response`, or result of `toFile()` helper.
`extension`	`string \| null`	No	File extension hint (e.g., “pdf”). Usually auto-detected from filename.

Returns

Promise<Upload> with the following fields:

file_id (string): The file reference to use with other endpoints (format: reducto://...)

Upload Options

From File Stream

The most common way to upload:

import fs from 'fs';

const upload = await client.upload({ 
  file: fs.createReadStream("invoice.pdf") 
});

From Buffer

import Reducto, { toFile } from 'reductoai';
import fs from 'fs';

const fileBuffer = fs.readFileSync("document.pdf");
const file = await toFile(fileBuffer, "document.pdf");
const upload = await client.upload({ file });

From File Object

import Reducto, { toFile } from 'reductoai';

// Convert various formats to File
const file = await toFile(new Uint8Array([0, 1, 2]), "file.pdf");
const upload = await client.upload({ file });

From URL (Presigned URLs)

For large files, you can generate a presigned URL and pass it directly to parse/extract endpoints without uploading:

// For files > 100MB, use presigned URLs
// See: /upload/large-files for details

// You can pass presigned URLs directly to parse/extract
const result = await client.parse.run({ 
  input: "https://bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/doc.pdf?X-Amz-..." 
});

File Size Limits

Direct upload: Up to 100MB
Presigned URLs: Up to 5GB

For files larger than 100MB, use presigned URLs instead of the upload endpoint.

Large File Upload Guide

Complete guide to uploading large files using presigned URLs.

Supported File Types

The SDK accepts any file type that Reducto supports. Common formats include:

Documents: PDF, DOCX, DOC, RTF
Images: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP
Spreadsheets: XLSX, XLS, CSV
Presentations: PPTX, PPT

Supported File Formats

Complete list of supported file formats.

Error Handling

import Reducto, { APIError, BadRequestError } from 'reductoai';

try {
  const upload = await client.upload({ 
    file: fs.createReadStream("document.pdf") 
  });
} catch (error) {
  if (error instanceof BadRequestError) {
    console.error(`Invalid file: ${error.status} - ${error.message}`);
  } else if (error instanceof APIError) {
    console.error(`Upload failed: ${error.status} - ${error.message}`);
  }
}

Common errors:

File not found: The file path doesn’t exist
File too large: File exceeds 100MB limit (use presigned URLs)
Invalid file type: File format not supported
Network error: Connection issues during upload

Examples

Upload and Parse

import Reducto from 'reductoai';
import fs from 'fs';

const client = new Reducto();

// Upload
const upload = await client.upload({ 
  file: fs.createReadStream("invoice.pdf") 
});

// Parse immediately
const result = await client.parse.run({ input: upload.file_id });

Batch Upload

import Reducto from 'reductoai';
import fs from 'fs';

const client = new Reducto();
const files = ["doc1.pdf", "doc2.pdf", "doc3.pdf"];

const uploads = [];
for (const filePath of files) {
  const upload = await client.upload({ 
    file: fs.createReadStream(filePath) 
  });
  uploads.push(upload);
  console.log(`Uploaded ${filePath}: ${upload.file_id}`);
}

Upload with Extension Hint

import Reducto from 'reductoai';
import fs from 'fs';

const client = new Reducto();

// Upload with an extension hint (useful when filename is missing)
const upload = await client.upload({
  file: fs.createReadStream("document"),
  extension: "pdf"
});

console.log(upload.file_id);

Best Practices

Use File Streams

Prefer fs.createReadStream() for large files to avoid loading entire file into memory.

Handle Large Files

For files > 100MB, use presigned URLs instead of direct upload.

Reuse File IDs

File IDs can be reused across multiple operations without re-uploading.

Error Handling

Always wrap uploads in try/catch blocks for production code.

Next Steps

Learn about parsing documents after upload
Explore extracting data from uploaded files
Check out large file uploads for files > 100MB

Get Started

Core Methods

Utilities

Basic Usage

Method Signature

Parameters

Returns

Upload Options

From File Stream

From Buffer

From File Object

From URL (Presigned URLs)

File Size Limits

Large File Upload Guide

Supported File Types

Supported File Formats

Error Handling

Examples

Upload and Parse

Batch Upload

Upload with Extension Hint

Best Practices

Use File Streams

Handle Large Files

Reuse File IDs

Error Handling

Next Steps

​Basic Usage

​Method Signature

​Parameters

​Returns

​Upload Options

​From File Stream

​From Buffer

​From File Object

​From URL (Presigned URLs)

​File Size Limits

Large File Upload Guide

​Supported File Types

Supported File Formats

​Error Handling

​Examples

​Upload and Parse

​Batch Upload

​Upload with Extension Hint

​Best Practices

Use File Streams

Handle Large Files

Reuse File IDs

Error Handling

​Next Steps

Basic Usage

Method Signature

Parameters

Returns

Upload Options

From File Stream

From Buffer

From File Object

From URL (Presigned URLs)

File Size Limits

Supported File Types

Error Handling

Examples

Upload and Parse

Batch Upload

Upload with Extension Hint

Best Practices

Next Steps