A modern message editor for healthcare integration. Handles 10 MB messages with base64 payloads, speaks MLLP and HTTP in both directions, validates against the HL7 standard and runs on every desktop you use.
SIMD-accelerated streaming parser. Open multi-megabyte ORU^R01 messages with base64 attachments in under two seconds. Long fields are folded into a chip in the editor while the text stays whole: you never scroll through 10 MB of base64, and nothing is cut.
Send via MLLP / HTTP / HTTPS, listen on any port with auto-ACK and a live inbox. Filter the inbox and the send history by ACK outcome — AA, AE, AR, no ACK, failed — with a live count on each, so twelve rejections out of 300 stand out at a glance. Connection profiles are saved per-protocol. Everything works offline against your own test servers.
Structural, field-level and data-type validation out of the box, plus FHIR conformance against the StructureDefinitions of the built-in R4 core and any FHIR package you install on top — cardinality, element types, choice elements, unknown elements, Bundle references. A FHIRPath 2.0 evaluator that passes 91% of the official HL7 test suite. Your own rules drop in as declarative JSON plugin packs — no recompile, no code execution.
89 built-in PHI fields across PID/PV1/MRG/NK1/GT1/IN1/IN2, NTE comments and free-text OBX results, with sensitivity-aware masking. Extend the catalogue with regional PHI via plugin packs. Structure is preserved so anonymized messages remain valid.
Select any field in the editor or the tree and open the
inspector (ⓘ or View → Field Inspector) to see
the HL7 schema-derived name, type, cardinality, length
limits and current value. Coded values are explained
inline from the 394 HL7 value tables that ship with
the app (M — Male), in the tree, on hover
and in auto-completion. Schema-aware tree optionally
shows every possible field, not just the populated ones.
UI in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German. Native installers for Windows (NSIS + MSI), macOS (DMG) and Linux (.deb, .rpm, AppImage) — with .hl7 file association (not for the AppImage, which cannot register one) and a language selector.
Generate a standards-compliant XSD for any HL7 v2 message type in one click. Drop it into Astraia, BizTalk, XMLSpy or any XML-based pipeline that expects a hand-authored schema. Four common messages in v2.5 are free; the full catalogue and other versions come with Pro.
Integration engineers choose between free tools maintained on and off, per-seat subscriptions, and enterprise products sold on quotation. BridgeLab targets the middle: a free core you can use for real work, and a Pro seat at a published price.
| Tool | FHIR | Platforms | XSD export | List price | Latest release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BridgeLab | Yes — edit, validate, FHIRPath | Windows, macOS, Linux | Yes | Free core · Pro €249 / seat / year | 2.0.0 — Sep 2026 |
| HL7 Soup | Yes | Windows (web edition: macOS, Linux) | Not advertised | From $40 / user / month | 4.0 — May 2026 |
| 7Edit | Not advertised | Windows | No (XML export) | $99 Viewer · $249 Professional, per seat | 2.7.2 |
| HL7Spy | Viewer | Windows | Not advertised | Quote on request | v26.2 |
| HL7 Inspector | No | Java (Windows, macOS, Linux) | No | Free (GPL) | 2.7.4 (source tag) — Dec 2021 |
| HAPI TestPanel | No | Java (Windows, macOS, Linux) | No | Free (MPL / GPL) | HAPI 2.6.0 — Feb 2025 |
Figures taken from the vendors’ public websites on 30 September 2026 (HL7 Soup, 7Edit, HL7Spy, HL7 Inspector and its source repository, HAPI); prices are list prices as published there, excluding VAT. “Not advertised” means the vendor’s site does not mention the feature. Product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are used only to identify the products. Tell us at info@techemv.it if something is out of date.
Every hospital has custom ADT quirks, Z-segments, regional PHI fields. BridgeLab reads declarative JSON packs from a user folder and merges them into the validator and the anonymizer. No code execution, no sandbox surprises.
not_empty, regex, one_of, max_length, min_length, containscomponent fieldThe whole mechanism is in every tier. Community keeps up to 3 packs active at once; Pro and Enterprise have no cap. Packs beyond the cap are never deleted — they wait for a free slot.
Read the plugin docs →"rule_id": "ACME-PID-001", "severity": "error", "segment": "PID", "field": 3, "check": { "type": "not_empty" }, "message": "PID-3 must be populated"
Pick your platform. Installers show the license (MIT, and the
BUSL 1.1 of the pro/ directories) and, on
Windows, a language selector. Starts with a 14-day Pro trial; the free
tier stays usable for real work forever.
macOS note: current builds are not yet notarized
with Apple, so Gatekeeper may report the app as damaged on first
launch. Fix: open Terminal and run
xattr -cr /Applications/BridgeLab.app, or allow it
via System Settings → Privacy & Security →
“Open Anyway”. Notarized builds are coming soon.
Prefer the terminal?
brew tap, winget and an AUR package are on the roadmap.
For now, grab the binary or
build from source.
Free core for real work, forever. Pro and Enterprise are annual subscriptions per seat — one seat covers two activations (desktop + laptop). Renewing keeps your activation code: paste it again and you are done.
Launch offer — €50 off the first year of Pro, on licenses bought by 31 December 2026. The checkout window applies it automatically; if a checkout page does not show it, enter the code LAUNCH199. Business customers can enter their VAT ID at checkout (reverse charge).
Order complete — your activation code is on its way by e-mail from noreply@techemv.it (usually within a minute; check spam the first time). Paste it into BridgeLab’s License dialog to activate.
Prices exclude VAT. Quotes are answered within one business day; you receive an activation code by e-mail — paste it into BridgeLab’s License dialog and the seat activates online. Self-serve checkout is coming soon.
Yes. The core is MIT-licensed and stays fully usable for production integration work. Pro unlocks advanced features — MLLP listener, PHI masking and batch tools, FHIRPath, the full XSD catalogue, unlimited saved test cases — and Enterprise adds the SOAP 1.1/1.2 client with WS-Security and priority support, but nothing that blocks day-to-day HL7 work. The test case library is in every tier, and teams share it as pack files (Export… / Import…) that the free CLI runs in CI.
Pro is €249 per seat per year (launch offer: €199 for the first year on licenses bought by 31 December 2026). Enterprise is €499/year and adds priority support plus the SOAP 1.1/1.2 client with WS-Security (WSDL import coming soon). One seat covers two activations, e.g. desktop + laptop. Prices exclude VAT; multi-seat discounts from 3 seats.
You receive an activation code (BL-PRO-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) by e-mail. Paste it into the License dialog: the app makes a single HTTPS call, receives a signed license and from then on everything is verified locally — nothing to keep online. At start-up the app re-checks the code in the background about once a week (it keeps working if the server cannot be reached). When you renew, the same code is extended server-side — no new code to distribute: the app picks the new expiry up on its own within two weeks of expiry, or instantly via Update license in the License dialog. Air-gapped machine? Write to info@techemv.it with your Hardware ID for an offline key.
BridgeLab keeps working: it falls back to the Community tier with a renewal banner. Your files, plugins and test cases stay untouched. Renew and re-paste your code to re-enable Pro features on the spot.
That is the primary use case. Start a listener on port 2575 — set to accept other machines, since it listens on this computer only until you say otherwise — send HL7 via MLLP from your feed, see received messages in the inbox and open any of them in a new editor tab. Auto-ACK is configurable per listener.
The Rust backend uses a streaming zero-copy parser.
The editor holds the full text but shows each long
field folded, as a chip such as
⟨Base64 · 78.1 KB #1⟩,
so Monaco never lays out megabytes of base64. Expand
one field from the context menu, or all of them from
the status bar; saving always writes the whole text.
Fully. Parsing, validation, MLLP and HTTP targeting local hosts, anonymization, export, CLI — none require network access. Activating with an online activation code needs a single HTTPS call; afterwards the license is verified locally via Ed25519 signatures with no license server involved. Fully offline signed keys are available on request for air-gapped sites.
On its own, in three cases only — and never with message content, file names or host names:
license-api.techemv.it when you paste
an activation code (and when you deactivate). A
license activated online repeats that call in the
background at start-up once a week (once a day from
14 days before it expires) to pick up a renewal or
a revoked code. Community, trial and offline keys
never make it.
license-api.techemv.it; the app shows the
exact JSON before you opt in. IT can force it off for
every user with BRIDGELAB_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1
or the same policy.json.
api.github.com for the latest release
number — nothing is downloaded or installed.
The installer (or the app, at first start) asks
before it ever runs; switch it off in Settings
→ Privacy, or for every user of a machine with
BRIDGELAB_DISABLE_UPDATE_CHECK=1 or a
policy.json.
Everything else goes only where you point it: MLLP, HTTP/FHIR and SOAP to the endpoints you type, and Help → Check for updates when you click it. No crash reporting, no analytics, no fonts or scripts from a CDN. On an air-gapped machine an offline key needs no connection at all.
BridgeLab processes every message locally. Nothing
leaves your machine unless you explicitly send it via
the Communication panel. Session tabs, test cases and
the communication history are kept in a local database
(on Windows in the roaming %APPDATA%, which
travels with roaming profiles). The history keeps the
full request and response of the latest 100 exchanges
(up to 256 KB each), messages received by the MLLP
listener included, so it holds the patient data they
carry. Telemetry is off by default
and, when enabled in Settings → Privacy, carries
usage counters, app version, OS, language, license tier,
a random installation ID and, for licenses activated
online, the activation code — never message
content or patient data. The exact JSON payload can be
previewed in the app before opting in; see the
privacy policy.
Drop a JSON file in
<config>/BridgeLab/plugins/validation/,
/fhir/ or
/anonymization/.
The app loads it at startup or on demand via
Settings → Plugins. No code runs — plugins
are declarative rules. Every tier runs every kind of
pack; Community keeps up to 3 active at once, Pro has
no cap. See
PLUGINS.md.
v2.1 through v2.7.1 for segment / field schemas (ten versions, 2,320 selectable message structures) plus the 394 HL7 value tables behind the coded fields. Custom (Z-) segments parse, edit and validate cleanly; the Field Inspector shows their fields as not in the HL7 standard, since it reads the built-in definitions only. Plugin packs can add validation rules and PHI fields for them.
Yes —
bridgelab-cli validate,
info,
anonymize,
to-json,
batch,
test (runs the test case packs you export
from the app), fhirpath,
send (MLLP, fails unless the ACK is AA or CA)
and xsd. Free, no licence; reads files or
standard input and outputs JSON or JUnit XML so you can
wire it into CI. The Linux binary needs glibc 2.34 or
newer (Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, RHEL 9).