CLI Quickstart

The CLI is one binary that generates, validates, and de-identifies test messages from a terminal. It follows the Unix convention (0 success, non-zero failure), so every command below drops into a CI pipeline as-is.

The free CLI (the community NuGet build) ships 12 commands: generate, validate, deident, data, artifacts, lookup, find, path, run, session, completions, and capabilities. conform, flock, loft, migrate, ai, diff, and config are delivered through the desktop apps. If you run only dotnet tool install and then type pidgeon conform, it won’t be there; run those from the CLI bundled with the desktop apps, or from the matching app panel.

Prerequisites

.NET 8 runtime or SDK for the dotnet tool install below
The public NuGet package is the cross-platform beta install path. The current GitHub release also includes a signed Windows ZIP.

Install the CLI

dotnet tool install --global Pidgeon.CLI --version 0.1.0-beta.2

Verify the installation:

pidgeon --version

Generate your first message

Generate a synthetic HL7 ADT admission message:

pidgeon generate ADT^A01

Example output:

MSH|^~\&|PIDGEON|FACILITY|RECEIVING|DEST|20260222143021||ADT^A01|MSG00001|P|2.3
EVN|A01|20260222143021
PID|1||PAT98234^^^MRN||JOHNSON^MARIA^A||19870415|F||2106-3|123 OAK AVE^^AUSTIN^TX^78701
PV1|1|I|ER^101^A|||||||ER||||||A0||V0001^^^VISIT
DG1|1||J18.9^Pneumonia, unspecified organism^I10||20260222|A

The standard is inferred from the message type: ADT^A01 is HL7 v2, Patient is FHIR R4. Generate multiple messages to a folder:

pidgeon generate ADT^A01 --count 10 --output ./test-data/

Validate a message

pidgeon validate --file ./test-data/msg_001.hl7 --mode strict

Example output:

Validating msg_001.hl7 with Strict mode...
Validation passed!
Warnings: 1
  HL7-REQ-002: Field EVN.1 (Event Type Code) is empty
    Location: EVN.1
    Tip:      pidgeon lookup EVN.1

Summary: 42 fields checked, 42 of 42 rules passed (100.0% conformance) in 2ms

Each issue includes expected/actual values, a fix suggestion, and a pidgeon lookup tip that opens the built-in standards reference. --mode strict checks against the published spec; --mode compatibility tolerates common real-world deviations.

De-identify real messages

If you have real messages to work with, de-identify them first:

pidgeon deident --in ./real-messages --out ./safe-messages --date-shift 30d

All processing happens on your machine; nothing is uploaded.

Discover the rest

Help is built in at every level:

pidgeon help
pidgeon help generate
pidgeon validate --help

Running a conformance check

pidgeon conform probes a live FHIR endpoint against a published Implementation Guide (US Core and Da Vinci PAS 2.1 today) and returns a pass/fail with a non-zero CI exit code. It’s delivered through the desktop apps, not the free dotnet tool package, so run it from the CLI bundled with an app or from Post’s Conformance panel. See Get started with Conform.

Exit codes

The free CLI emits exactly two exit codes, suitable for CI gates and shell scripting:

Code	Meaning	Examples
`0`	Success	Message generated; validation passed
`1`	Failure	Validation issues found in strict mode; missing required argument; unknown command

A minimal CI gate:

pidgeon validate --folder ./messages --mode strict || exit 1

Next steps

Explore the full CLI Reference
Try FHIR and NCPDP generation
Get started with Post for the desktop experience

Getting Started

Install

Desktop Apps

Post (Testing Tool)

Conform (Conformance)

Flock (Population Engine)

Loft (Observability)

Migrate (Bulk Data Migration)

Guides & Tutorials

Support

Prerequisites

Running a conformance check

Exit codes

Next steps

​Prerequisites

​Running a conformance check

​Exit codes

​Next steps

Prerequisites

Running a conformance check

Exit codes

Next steps