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Question

Tab values not filling when creating envelope from template via API

  • March 9, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 17 views

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Hi,

I'm creating envelopes from a template using the REST API. 
The envelope is created successfully but all text field 
values remain empty.

Setup:
- Production account
- POST /v2.1/accounts/{accountId}/envelopes
- Text fields placed under Company Rep recipient
- Tab labels are auto-generated UUIDs

Things I already tried:
- Sending tab values in templateRoles in the POST request
- PUT request to update tabs after creation using tabLabel and tabId
- Enabled "write initial value of fields for all recipients" setting

All attempts result in a correct draft but with empty fields.

What is the correct way to pre-fill text tab values from a 
template via API?

Thank you.

1 reply

JohnSantos
Guru
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  • Guru
  • March 10, 2026

@Abdul 

The right approach depends on what kind of tabs those are. If the text fields are assigned to the Company Rep recipient, they are recipient tabs, not sender pre-fill tabs. In that case, the normal pattern is to set their values when you create the envelope from the template, inside the matching templateRoles[].tabs.textTabs[] object for that role. DocuSign’s tabs documentation distinguishes recipient tabs from sender pre-filled tabs, and the prefilled-tabs docs make clear that sender pre-fill fields are a separate tab type.  https://developers.docusign.com/docs/esign-rest-api/esign101/concepts/tabs/prefilled-tabs/