Service license keys

Overview

Service license keys authenticate and enable Tiny on-premises services that run as Docker containers. These keys are separate from TinyMCE editor license keys.

Service license keys and TinyMCE editor license keys serve different purposes:

TinyMCE editor license keys configure the license mode for the TinyMCE editor (GPL or commercial). See License key for details.
Service license keys authenticate on-premises Docker-based services such as TinyMCE AI, Export to PDF, and the Import from Word / Export to Word converters. They are provisioned separately and managed through the Tiny customer portal.

Services requiring a service license key

The following on-premises services require a service license key:

TinyMCE AI — the on-premises AI service.
Export to PDF — the PDF converter service.
Import from Word and Export to Word — the DOCX converter service.

Other containerized services such as Spell Checker, Enhanced Media Embed, and Image Proxy do not currently require service license keys. These services use access tokens for Docker registry authentication only.

How service license keys work

Service license keys are used in two contexts when deploying on-premises services:

Docker registry authentication — an access token (provided separately by Tiny) is used with docker login to pull service images from the Tiny Docker registry.
Container runtime licensing — the service license key is passed to the Docker container as the LICENSE_KEY environment variable to enable the service at runtime. Without a valid service license key, the container will not start.

Obtaining a service license key

Service license keys are provisioned through the Tiny customer portal. Contact Tiny to request a trial or to discuss service licensing.

Using service-specific environment variables

When running multiple on-premises services, use service-specific environment variable names to store each service license key. This prevents collisions when consolidating services into a single .env file or Docker Compose project.

Service Environment variable name Docker container mapping

Service	Environment variable name	Docker container mapping
TinyMCE AI	`AI_LICENSE_KEY`	`-e LICENSE_KEY="$AI_LICENSE_KEY"`
Export to PDF	`PDF_LICENSE_KEY`	`-e LICENSE_KEY="$PDF_LICENSE_KEY"`
Import from Word / Export to Word	`DOCX_LICENSE_KEY`	`-e LICENSE_KEY="$DOCX_LICENSE_KEY"`

TinyMCE AI

AI_LICENSE_KEY

-e LICENSE_KEY="$AI_LICENSE_KEY"

Export to PDF

PDF_LICENSE_KEY

-e LICENSE_KEY="$PDF_LICENSE_KEY"

Import from Word / Export to Word

DOCX_LICENSE_KEY

-e LICENSE_KEY="$DOCX_LICENSE_KEY"

Each Docker container expects the LICENSE_KEY environment variable internally. The service-specific variable names (such as AI_LICENSE_KEY, PDF_LICENSE_KEY, and DOCX_LICENSE_KEY) are host-side conventions that map to LICENSE_KEY when launching the container.

For example, in a .env file used with Docker Compose:

AI_LICENSE_KEY=[your license key]
PDF_LICENSE_KEY=[your license key]
DOCX_LICENSE_KEY=[your license key]

Deployment guides

See the deployment guides for each service for complete setup instructions:

For an overview of containerized server-side services, see Introduction and initial setup for containerized server-side services.