Use

Starting the Service

Blaze Profile (Default)

Start the FHIR Validator with the local Blaze terminology server:

docker compose --profile blaze up -d

Ontoserver Profile

Start the FHIR Validator with the MII Ontoserver via nginx proxy (requires client certificates in nginx/certs/):

docker compose --profile ontoserver up -d

Loading Terminology Resources into Blaze

After starting Blaze for the first time, upload the required MII terminology packages:

# Download terminology packages (CodeSystems, ValueSets)
./scripts/terminology/get-mii-terminology.sh install

# Wait for Blaze to be ready, then upload:
./scripts/terminology/upload-terminology.sh

Without this step, terminology-dependent validation (CodeSystem lookups, ValueSet bindings) will fail.

Validating a FHIR Resource

The validator exposes a single HTTP endpoint on port 8080.

Endpoint

POST http://localhost:8080/validateResource

Headers

Header	Values
Content-Type	application/fhir+json or application/fhir+xml
Accept	application/fhir+json or application/fhir+xml (optional, defaults to JSON)

Example – JSON

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/validateResource \
  -H "Content-Type: application/fhir+json" \
  -H "Accept: application/fhir+json" \
  -d @patient-example.json

Example – XML

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/validateResource \
  -H "Content-Type: application/fhir+xml" \
  -H "Accept: application/fhir+xml" \
  -d @patient-example.xml

The validator returns an OperationOutcome resource with validation results.

Using a Custom HTTP Terminology Server

To connect to any HTTP terminology server, set TX_SERVER to an http:// URL. The container entrypoint script detects this at startup and automatically generates the required allowHttp configuration for that URL:

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 \
  -e TX_SERVER=http://my-terminology-server:8080/fhir \
  --network your-network \
  ghcr.io/medizininformatik-initiative/mii-fhir-validator:0.0.1-alpha.6

Loading Additional Implementation Guides

To load local IG packages from the igs/ directory, set IG_PARAMS in .env:

IG_PARAMS="-ig /igs/your-package-2026.0.0.tgz"

For multiple IGs:

IG_PARAMS="-ig /igs/package1.tgz -ig /igs/package2.tgz"

Offline Operation

The pre-built image contains the full FHIR package cache for all default MII IGs baked in at build time. This includes all IG dependencies. No internet access is required at runtime when using the default configuration.

SNOMED CT release files must still be present in snomed-ct-release/ for Blaze to start (see snomed-ct-release/README.md).

Custom IGs

If you add IGs beyond the defaults via IG_PARAMS, their dependencies will be resolved at startup and may require internet access. To pre-cache them, run the validator once while online:

docker compose --profile blaze up -d
# Wait for the validator to finish downloading packages:
docker compose logs -f validator
# Once ready:
docker compose down

The fhir-package-cache Docker volume persists the cache across container restarts and will be available for subsequent offline use.