Post Commands - Pidgeon Health

generate, validate, and deident are in the free CLI (dotnet tool install --global Pidgeon.CLI). diff and workflow ship with the Post desktop app and the licensed CLI, not the free dotnet tool build. Each Pro command below says so.

pidgeon generate

Generate synthetic healthcare messages.

pidgeon generate <message-type> [options]

The standard is auto-detected from the message type: ADT^A01 → HL7, Patient → FHIR, NewRx → NCPDP.

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`<message-type>`	positional	Required	Message type (e.g., `ADT^A01`, `Patient`, `NewRx`)
`--count, -c <n>`	int	`1`	Number of messages to generate
`--seed, -s <n>`	int	Random	Reproducible seed value
`--vendor, -v <name>`	string	—	Vendor profile for realistic patterns
`--mode, -m <mode>`	string	`procedural`	Generation mode: `procedural`, `model` (on-device AI), `api` (cloud AI)
`--hl7-version`	string	`2.3`	HL7 version: `2.3`, `2.3.1`, `2.4`, `2.5`, `2.5.1`, `2.6`, `2.7`, `2.8`
`--output, -o <path>`	string	stdout	Output file or directory
`--format, -f <fmt>`	string	`auto`	Output format: `auto`, `hl7`, `json`, `ndjson`

Generation modes model (on-device) and api (cloud, BYOK) are Pro features requiring a Pidgeon account with Post Pro entitlement. The AI modes ship with the desktop app and the licensed CLI, not the free dotnet tool build.

# Generate 10 HL7 admission messages
pidgeon generate ADT^A01 --count 10

# Generate FHIR patients
pidgeon generate Patient --count 5 --format json

# Reproducible output
pidgeon generate ORU^R01 --count 20 --seed 42

# Vendor-specific patterns
pidgeon generate ADT^A01 --vendor epic_er --count 10

pidgeon validate

Validate messages against standard specifications.

pidgeon validate <files...> [options]
pidgeon validate --file <path> [options]

Files can be passed as positional arguments (with wildcard support) or via --file/--folder.

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`<files...>`	positional	—	Files to validate (supports wildcards)
`--file, -f <path>`	string	—	Single file to validate
`--folder <path>`	string	—	Directory to validate
`--mode, -m <mode>`	string	`strict`	`strict` or `compatibility`
`--standard, -s <name>`	string	auto-detect	Force a standard: `hl7`, `fhir`, `ncpdp`
`--ig <profile>`	string	—	FHIR implementation guide
`--profile, -p <name>`	string	—	Vendor profile for validation
`--report <path>`	string	—	Write an HTML report, or JSON when the path ends in `.json`

# Strict validation
pidgeon validate --file message.hl7 --mode strict

# Vendor-tolerant validation
pidgeon validate --folder ./inbox --mode compatibility

# FHIR with US Core profile
pidgeon validate --file bundle.json --standard fhir --ig us-core

pidgeon deident

De-identify real messages on-device. No data leaves your machine.

pidgeon deident <input> <output> [options]
pidgeon deident --in <path> --out <path> [options]

Input and output can be passed as positional arguments or via --in/--out.

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`<input>`	positional	—	Input file or directory
`<output>`	positional	—	Output file or directory
`--in, -i <path>`	string	—	Input file or directory (alternative)
`--out, -o <path>`	string	—	Output file or directory (alternative)
`--date-shift <dur>`	string	`30d`	Date shift amount (e.g., `30d`, `90d`, `1y`)
`--keep-ids`	flag	off	Preserve message control IDs
`--salt <string>`	string	Random	Salt for deterministic hashing

# Basic de-identification
pidgeon deident --in ./real --out ./safe --date-shift 30d

# Deterministic output for team sharing
pidgeon deident --in ./real --out ./safe --date-shift 90d --salt "project-x"

pidgeon diff

Pro feature. Requires a Pidgeon account with Post Pro entitlement, and ships with the Post desktop app and the licensed CLI, not the free dotnet tool build.

Compare messages or directories with field-level analysis. Field-aware for HL7, JSON-tree for FHIR.

pidgeon diff <left> <right> [options]
pidgeon diff --left <path> --right <path> [options]

Paths can be passed as positional arguments or via --left/--right.

Flag	Type	Default	Description
`<left> <right>`	positional	—	Files or directories to compare
`--left, -l <path>`	string	—	Left file or directory
`--right, -r <path>`	string	—	Right file or directory
`--report, -o <path>`	string	—	Write an HTML or JSON diff report
`--ignore, -i <fields>`	string	—	Comma-list of fields/segments to skip (for example `MSH-7,PID-3`)
`--severity, -s <level>`	string	`hint`	Minimum severity to report: `hint`, `warn`, `error`
`--ai, -a`	flag	off	Turn on AI hints (coming in a future release)
`--no-ai`	flag	—	Force algorithmic-only analysis

# Compare two messages
pidgeon diff env-a/admit.hl7 env-b/admit.hl7

# Ignore volatile header fields
pidgeon diff env-a/admit.hl7 env-b/admit.hl7 --ignore MSH-7,MSH-10

# Generate HTML diff report
pidgeon diff ./dev ./staging --report diff-report.html

AI-assisted diff hints are not yet available. The --ai flag is reserved for a future release; today diff runs constraint-aware field analysis without a model.

pidgeon workflow

Pro feature. Requires a Pidgeon account with Post Pro entitlement, and ships with the Post desktop app and the licensed CLI, not the free dotnet tool build.

Create and run multi-step clinical test scenarios.

pidgeon workflow wizard
pidgeon workflow run <file> [options]

# Interactive scenario builder
pidgeon workflow wizard

# Run a YAML scenario
pidgeon workflow run ed-visit.yaml --output ./results

# Run with vendor profile
pidgeon workflow run ed-visit.yaml --output ./results --vendor epic_er

​pidgeon generate

​pidgeon validate

​pidgeon deident

​pidgeon diff

​pidgeon workflow

pidgeon generate

pidgeon validate

pidgeon deident

pidgeon diff

pidgeon workflow