fhir-validator-cli

v0.1 scaffold for a CLI that will validate FHIR R4/R5 resources against bundled EU Implementation Guide packs. Today this is NOT a conformance validator — see Status below.

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Status (read this first)

v0.1 is a CLI scaffold and manifest format. It does not perform real IG conformance validation. Specifically:

• The 4 bundled IGs declared in the manifest (hl7-europe-base, ips-international, mcsd, ehds-skeleton-pending) are placeholders with sha256 = 0 and placeholder: true. No StructureDefinition content ships.
• The validator runs a minimal structural sanity check: every resource must have a resourceType field plus a tiny hand-coded required-field map covering 5 resource types (Patient, Bundle, Observation, Encounter, Condition) with a total of ~6 required fields. No terminology check, no cardinality beyond required/not-required, no slicing, no fixed-value, no must-support, no invariants, no profile walk.
• Almost any resource you throw at it will return "valid": true. That is expected behaviour for v0.1, not a bug.

Use this today only as: a smoke test for the CLI surface, an example of the manifest format, a fixture for downstream tooling that needs some fhirv-compatible binary on $PATH. Do not rely on "valid": true as evidence of IG conformance.

Real IG-level validation is scheduled for v0.2.

If you need production-grade FHIR validation today, use HAPI FHIR ValidationCLI (docs) or Firely .NET SDK / firely-terminal.

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Install

pip install fhir-validator-cli   # not yet on PyPI; install from source for now

From source:

git clone https://github.com/plusultra-tools/fhir-validator-cli
cd fhir-validator-cli
pip install -e ".[dev]"

CLI surface (v0.1)

fhirv validate patient.json --ig hl7-europe-base   # base-shape check only (see Status)
fhirv list-igs                                     # list bundled IGs (all placeholders today)
fhirv manifest                                     # dump the raw IG manifest JSON
fhirv --version

Exit code 0 on pass, 1 on fail, 2 on user error (file not found / invalid JSON).

What v0.1 does NOT do

• Does not walk StructureDefinitions.
• Does not ship real EU IG content — all bundled IGs are placeholders.
• Does not do terminology expansion ($expand, SNOMED CT, LOINC, ICD-10).
• Does not cover most of the ~150 FHIR R4 resources — only 5 have any required-field rules.
• Does not validate against meta.profile.
• Does not offer --strict, --profile, --severity-filter flags.
• Does not replace HAPI FHIR validator, Firely .NET SDK / firely-terminal, or Inferno.

Roadmap

• v0.1 (this release) — CLI surface + manifest format + base structural sanity check.
• v0.2 — Real EU IG packs bundled (hl7-europe-base first), full StructureDefinition walk, --strict, --profile flags, generated required-fields map from FHIR R4 metadata covering all resources.
• v0.3 — Optional terminology-server plug (--tx-server), SNOMED CT subset validation, custom-profile loading.
• v1.0 — Stable wire format for structured-error JSON, semver guarantees.

Why this might eventually exist

The European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation (entered into force 2025; phased in 2026-2031) will require FHIR resources conformant to a stack of EU-flavoured IGs (HL7 Europe Base, IPS, mCSD, an EHDS-specific submission profile). Today the toolchain for that workflow is fragmented: HAPI FHIR validator (Java, heavy, requires fetching each IG pack from simplifier.net / national registries) and the Firely .NET stack (Windows-first, .NET runtime).

The wedge — if this venture survives to v0.2 — is a pure-Python wheel with EU IG packs bundled, suitable for pip install && fhirv validate in a Linux CI runner with no JVM and no first-run network fetch. v0.1 ships only the wrapper.

Audience (target, not validated)

FHIR engineers at EU hospital integration teams who already run Python in CI and want a faster smoke test than spinning up HAPI.

Until at least one such engineer files an issue or starts a discussion, the target audience is hypothetical. See kill-gate.md (operator-internal) for the 30-day demand-signal threshold.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Issues welcome, especially:

• Bug reports against the v0.1 CLI surface (--help, exit codes, JSON output shape).
• Feedback on the manifest format before v0.2 locks it in.
• Pointers to EU national IGs (Spain HL7-ES, France ANS, Germany MIO/KBV) that should be in scope for v0.2.

Security

See SECURITY.md for the vulnerability disclosure policy.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Trademarks

FHIR® and HL7® are registered trademarks of Health Level Seven International. This project is not affiliated with HL7. References to IPS, mCSD, and EHDS are nominative use of standard names.