FHIR versions (R4 / R4B / R5)

fhir-resource-diff supports FHIR R4, R4B, and R5 — auto-detected or explicit.

Supported versions

Version	Status	Spec URL
R4 (4.0.1)	Default, fully supported	https://hl7.org/fhir/R4/
R4B (4.3.0)	Supported	https://hl7.org/fhir/R4B/
R5 (5.0.0)	Supported	https://hl7.org/fhir/R5/

Auto-detection

When --fhir-version is not specified, the tool tries to detect the version from meta.fhirVersion:

{
  "resourceType": "Patient",
  "meta": {
    "fhirVersion": "4.3.0"
  }
}

If meta.fhirVersion is not present, R4 is the default. Always specify --fhir-version explicitly in CI and automation to avoid relying on auto-detection.

Explicit version flag

# R4 (default)
fhir-resource-diff validate patient.json --fhir-version R4

# R4B
fhir-resource-diff validate patient.json --fhir-version R4B

# R5
fhir-resource-diff validate patient.json --fhir-version R5

The --fhir-version flag is accepted by all commands: validate, compare, normalize, info, list-resources.

What the version flag affects

Validation: The resourceType is checked against the resource registry for the specified version. Some resource types are R5-only or have different names across versions.

Documentation links: The info command and --envelope output link to the correct version of the HL7 specification. Without --fhir-version, links for all versions are shown.

Normalization: Version-aware normalization where applicable.

Resource registry: list-resources --fhir-version R5 returns only types present in R5.

R4 vs R4B vs R5 differences

R4 (4.0.1) is the most widely deployed version and the baseline for most EHR integrations.

R4B (4.3.0) is a backport of targeted improvements from R5 — primarily affecting a small set of resource types (Evidence, EvidenceVariable, Citation, etc.). If you're not working with those types, R4B is functionally equivalent to R4 for most purposes.

R5 (5.0.0) is the current published specification with structural changes across several resource types. Notable changes:

• MedicationRequest structure updated
• DeviceRequest/DeviceUseStatement merged into DeviceRequest/DeviceUsage
• Subscription model redesigned
• Several new resource types added

Checking which types are version-specific

# List all R5 resource types
fhir-resource-diff list-resources --fhir-version R5

# Compare against R4
fhir-resource-diff list-resources --fhir-version R4

Version string map

The tool accepts these version strings (case-insensitive):

Input	Resolved as
R4, r4, 4.0.1	R4
R4B, r4b, 4.3.0	R4B
R5, r5, 5.0.0	R5

See also

• Info & list-resources — exploring the resource registry by version
• CLI reference — --fhir-version flag across all commands