Does the Starter API plan support embedded signing (clientUserId + EnvelopeViews::createRecipient)

Question

Hi,

We're currently building on a developer (demo) account and we're about to
purchase a production API plan. Our volume is ~40 envelopes/month, which matches
the Starter plan. Before buying, we need to know whether Starter supports the
embedded signing flow our integration depends on.

What we need is specifically these two API calls:

1. Creating an envelope where a signer has `clientUserId` set (so Docusign does
not send its own signing email to that recipient).
2. Calling EnvelopeViews::createRecipient
(POST /restapi/v2.1/accounts/{accountId}/envelopes/{envelopeId}/views/recipient)
to obtain a signing URL, which we then serve from our own application.

We are NOT asking about PowerForms or Web Forms — only the REST API calls above.

On our demo account this works: the envelope is created (HTTP 201), the recipient
view returns a URL (HTTP 201), and a second call returns a different, single-use
URL. But demo accounts have every feature enabled, so that tells us nothing about
the Starter plan.

The reason we're asking is that the two sources we found contradict each other:

- The developer plan comparison page (https://ecom.docusign.com/plans-and-pricing/developer)
lists "Embedded Signing" as included only in the Enhanced tier, and NOT included
in Starter, Intermediate or Advanced.
- In this thread (https://community.docusign.com/esignature-111/embedded-signing-plan-22694)
a moderator states that "if the embedded signing you mention is only via API,
it is available in all plans", and that the plan restriction applies to
PowerForms and Web Forms.

So, three questions:

1. On a paid Starter API plan, does EnvelopeViews::createRecipient work for a
recipient with `clientUserId`, or does it return ACCOUNT_LACKS_PERMISSIONS?
2. Does the Starter plan support the `suppressEmails` property at the recipient
level?
3. Does the Starter plan allow configuring Connect keys (HMAC) so we can validate
the X-DocuSign-Signature-1 header on webhook notifications? On our demo account
/connect/keys returns errors.

If any of these requires a higher tier, which is the lowest plan that includes it?

Thanks!

Koll.Klienstuber · Accepted Answer

​@Gu1d0For all three questions my input would be that the features will be included and should all work correctly in production.A general note is that ifyou’re using embedded signing and setting aclientUserId, thesuppressEmails properties shouldn’t be also needed since setting a clientUserId will suppress the emails from Docusign.If you run into any issues during the build out in production I’d suggest a formal case with Docusign support. Support can assist if any features need manual enablement.

Koll.Klienstuber · Answer

​@Gu1d0Yes the 5 minute lifespan of the embedded signing URL is the same in both production and demo accounts.No settings exist under the admin menu to extend the time of this URL.“The returned URL can be used only once and expires after 5 minutes. Do not store or email the returned URL.”Reference: https://developers.docusign.com/docs/esign-rest-api/reference/envelopes/envelopeviews/createrecipient/Based on our documentation we do not suggest storing or emailing the URL. If needed a work around could be to send your own custom email but you’d need to build out a process that for example has a button in the email or a link and when clicked it redirects over to some server you control that can then trigger the generation of a new URL and display it to the end user at that point.Otherwise if you did send the link via email, signers would need to act on that email within five minutes or else it would expire.

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