avatar   wardweistra  

Ever since Firely first proposed FHIR packages, back at the FHIR DevDays of 2017, these versioned groups of FHIR resources have really taken off! In 2018 we implemented the first FHIR Package Server in Simplifier and, with 1000s of packages published for all jurisdictions, they have become the standard for versioning FHIR resources as a group.

Private FHIR packages

Most FHIR specifications, and thus their FHIR package representations, are public. But sometimes you don't want everyone to know what you are working on (yet). Or maybe you have spent a lot of private or commercial time in representing healthcare knowledge, like questionnaires, terminology or guidelines, in FHIR and can't just give that away.

For this we have always supported private FHIR packages, but the support has been limited. You could only go one layer deep, so no building of private FHIR packages on top of your other private packages. And you weren't able to use them in many places. In our latest release we are changing this, with the release of FHIR Package Feeds!

FHIR Package Feeds

With package feeds you can group a set of private FHIR packages and determine who has access to them. Private packages within the feed can build on each other and you can use them within your projects, as the scope of your guide or within validation.

Private FHIR Package Feeds are available on all paid Simplifier plans.

Changes to how private packages work

For those who were already using the previous limited version of private FHIR packages, there are a few things you should know:

  • Your private packages have gotten their own package feed; one for every team that has private packages. Every project using private packages will need to choose a package feed to get its dependencies from and to publish packages to.
  • You will no longer be able to publish a private FHIR package from a public Simplifier project.
    • If you are creating non-sensitive packages for review, you can still create public packages labeled as a prerelease (using the - in the semver version, like 1.0.0-something) and/or unlist a package version afterwards.
    • You can also change a project to private and then create a private package.
  • Private package publishing via Firely Terminal is temporarily unavailable. This will require specifying a feed in the near future:
    • fhir publish-package will require --feed public or a reference to a specific private feed to indicate who should have access to the package.
  • Private package installing with Firely Terminal is temporarily unavailable. We are planning to have a new version of Firely Terminal supporting package feeds in the coming weeks. You can still download private packages via the user interface and install them from file with fhir install acme.private.base-0.0.1.tgz --file

Questions? Please reach out to the Simplifier support team.

Want to show the world what private FHIR packages you have on offer? Also have a look at our new Marketplace for FHIR.

Other news from Firely
Ardon Toonstra
Earlier this year, we asked the Simplifier community how they use Simplifier, Forge, and Firely Terminal in their day-to-day FHIR work. First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to participate.
Ardon Toonstra
Simplifier now runs entirely on Firely .NET SDK 6. This release brings a list of rendering improvements for your conformance resources, and consolidates our documentation in one place.
Ardon Toonstra
Forge 2026.2.0 upgrades the profiling engine to .NET 10 and Firely .NET SDK 6.2.1, adds support for the suppression extension, and speeds up loading of complex profiles. Quality Control now runs solely on the current Firely validator, and the Project view's Structure Type filter has been streamlined. Note that .NET 10 may need to be installed by your IT department on managed machines.
Ardon Toonstra
Simplifier.net now hosts country-specific results from the 2026 State of FHIR Survey, letting you explore how HL7 FHIR is being adopted in each participating jurisdiction.
Ardon Toonstra
This release lets you pin canonical references when creating a package, locking each one to the exact version it resolved to so your packages stay reproducible. Simplifier honours the version in a reference when resolving, with two new quality-control rules to help you pin safely. On top of that, the platform has moved to .NET 10, alongside a set of UI improvements and bug fixes.
Ardon Toonstra
The 2026 Simplifier User Survey is now open, and we need your input. Tell us which tools and features drive real value in your FHIR workflow, and where the platform can do better. It only takes a few minutes, and your response shapes what we build next.
Ward Weistra 🔥
Use this new skill to combine Firely Terminal with your AI-driven workflows to give your agent real tools to perform FHIR validation and not just guess.
Ward Weistra 🔥
This latest Forge 2026.1.0 release introduces significant updates, focusing on advanced modeling capabilities, more robust validation, and improved package management to enhance your profiling workflow.
Ward Weistra 🔥
The latest Simplifier.net release revolves around safety and productivity. While we have implemented new measures behind the scenes to protect accounts, we introduce important innovations for professionals in metadata management, validation and user-friendliness. In this note we explain the improvements and outline what they mean for your FHIR projects.
Ward Weistra 🔥
New on Firely: a deep‑dive blog and whitepaper on how FHIR Obligations sharpen the long‑standing Must Support flag into explicit, actor‑specific, and machine‑readable conformance rules—moving interoperability from narrative intent to testable behavior in real‑world FHIR implementations.
SUBSCRIBE