This document outlines the development direction for the Helios FHIR Server. It is organized into three horizons — Now, Next, and Later — to set expectations without overpromising timelines. Items may shift between horizons as priorities evolve based on community feedback, production needs, and contributor availability.
Want to influence the roadmap? Join our weekly developer meeting or comment on a GitHub Discussion.
These capabilities are available today in the current release.
Helios FHIR Server
- FHIR REST API server with CRUD operations, search, history, and batch/transaction support
Persistence
- SQLite as a primary store
- SQLite as a primary store with Elasticsearch as a query secondary
- PostgreSQL as a primary store
- PostgreSQL as a primary store with Elasticsearch as a query secondary
Analytics & Tooling
- SQL on FHIR — CLI and HTTP server
- FHIRPath expression engine — CLI and HTTP server
- Python bindings (pysof)
Work that is currently underway or planned for the near term.
| Area | Item | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance | Audit logging (AuditEvent resource support) | 🔵 Design |
| Standards | FHIR Validation engine | 🔵 Design |
| Standards | Authentication & Authorization | 🔵 Design |
| Documentation | Project documentation website | 🔵 Design |
| Persistence | MongoDB as a primary store | 🟡 In progress |
| Persistence | S3 as a primary store | 🟡 In progress |
We are actively developing community discussion documents on the following topics to gather feedback before implementation begins. These will be published as GitHub Discussions:
- Authentication & Authorization — Scoping the approach to identity, access control, and SMART on FHIR integration
- Terminology — Defining how code systems, value sets, and concept maps will be managed
- Validation — Establishing the strategy for StructureDefinition-based validation and profiles
- Audit — Designing the audit trail architecture and AuditEvent generation
These items are well-understood and will be picked up once current work completes.
- Bulk Data API — Import and export (
$export/$importoperations) - FHIR Subscriptions — Topic-based notification support
- Terminology Server — CodeSystem
$lookup, ValueSet$expand, ConceptMap$translate - SMART on FHIR — Full launch framework and scoped access
- SQL on FHIR — SQL on FHIR operations - using read-only database connections
- Cassandra as a primary store
- ClickHouse as a primary store
- S3 with Elasticsearch as a query secondary
- Cassandra with Elasticsearch as a query secondary
- Administrative UI — Web-based management console for server configuration and monitoring
- MCP Server for FHIR API — Model Context Protocol integration for the FHIR REST API
- MCP Server for SQL on FHIR — Model Context Protocol integration for analytics workflows
- Deployment Cookbooks — Reference architectures and deployment templates covering standalone development servers, single-node production setups, composite storage configurations, and full CQRS architectures on AWS, Azure, and GCP
Longer-term ideas we are exploring. These are not yet committed and may evolve significantly based on community input.
- Neo4j as a primary store
- PostgreSQL with Neo4j as a graph query secondary
An intelligent recommendation engine for storage configuration:
- Analyze a FHIR query and recommend an optimal persistence configuration
- Leverage historical benchmark data to inform recommendations
- Web UI for interactive configuration guidance
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🟡 | In progress — actively being developed |
| 🔵 | Design — in planning or community discussion phase |
We welcome contributors and feedback at every level — from opening issues to joining design discussions.
- 📋 GitHub Discussions: github.com/HeliosSoftware/hfs/discussions
- 🐛 Issues: github.com/HeliosSoftware/hfs/issues
- 🗓️ Weekly Developer Meeting: — Open to all. We review roadmap progress, discuss design decisions, and plan upcoming work. Details and updates are posted to this GitHub Discussion.
- Comment on a discussion document — Help shape the design of upcoming features
- Claim a roadmap item — Open an issue or comment on an existing one to signal interest
- Join the weekly call — Introduce yourself and find out where help is needed
- Contribute code — See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines
This roadmap is a living document. It does not represent a commitment or guarantee to deliver any feature by any particular date. Items may be reprioritized based on community needs, production feedback, and resource availability.