About Fire Arrow Server
Fire Arrow Server is a full-featured FHIR backend that combines an integrated data store with modern APIs and powerful access control. It is the opinionated edition of Fire Arrow: rather than connecting to an external FHIR server, it includes its own FHIR data store powered by HAPI FHIR JPA with PostgreSQL.
What You Get
Fire Arrow Server provides a complete, self-contained backend for digital health applications:
- GraphQL API (read) and FHIR REST API (read/write) in a single deployment
- Integrated FHIR data store backed by PostgreSQL - no external FHIR server required
- Authentication via OAuth 2.0 / OIDC with support for multiple identity providers simultaneously
- API tokens for programmatic access without OAuth (durable and one-time tokens)
- Role-based access control with the same validator model as Fire Arrow Core, plus additional validators (CareTeam, identity filters, property filters)
- CarePlan materialization - automatic scheduling of CarePlan activities into Task resources with webhook notifications
- Binary file storage with Azure Blob Storage integration and pre-signed URLs
- FHIR Subscriptions for real-time notifications via REST hook, email, websocket, or Azure Storage Queue
- Authorization debug mode to troubleshoot access control rules during development
- Web administration UI for managing and inspecting your FHIR server
- Enhanced PlanDefinition
$applywith timezone-aware scheduling and extension propagation
Architecture
How It Differs from Fire Arrow Core
| Aspect | Fire Arrow Core | Fire Arrow Server |
|---|---|---|
| FHIR Server | External (e.g., Azure Health Data Services) | Built-in (HAPI FHIR JPA + PostgreSQL) |
| API | GraphQL only | GraphQL + FHIR REST |
| Runtime | Dart | Java 17+ (Spring Boot) |
| Configuration | config.json | application.yaml |
| CarePlan scheduling | -- | Server-side materialization |
| Subscriptions | -- | REST hook, email, websocket, Azure Queue |
| API tokens | -- | Durable (fa_) and one-time (fo_) |
For a full feature comparison, see the Editions page. To get started, see the First Run guide.
Technology Stack
Fire Arrow Server builds on:
- HAPI FHIR - the reference Java implementation of the FHIR specification
- Spring Boot - application framework and dependency injection
- PostgreSQL - primary data store (H2 supported for development)
- Flyway - database migration management