DocsGetting started
Getting started
Before you write any code, internalize the responsibility split. SoFaaS™ is the runtime; your app is the product. Most onboarding mistakes come from missing that line.
The mental model
SoFaaS™ hosts a runtime that sits between your app and Epic. When a clinician opens your app from inside Epic, Epic launches the SoFaaS™ runtime, which in turn launches your app with patient and encounter context already resolved. Your app talks to a stable, vendor-agnostic API surface; the runtime translates that into Epic's FHIR endpoints and back.
That means three things you don't have to build:
- The OAuth dance with Epic and the SMART App Launch handshake.
- HIPAA-compliant hosting, BAA coverage, and a SOC 2 Type II posture.
- Maintenance when Epic ships breaking changes — typically each quarter.
Responsibility split
Your app owns
- • Product behavior, UI, clinical UX
- • Your code and your IP
- • Any model providers, vendors, or sub-processors specific to your product
- • How you respond to FHIR data and what you write back
SoFaaS™ owns
- • Hosting environment + BAA
- • SMART App Launch + OAuth with the EHR
- • FHIR resource handling and write-back contracts
- • Epic Showroom listing and per-hospital deployment
- • Audit logging the hospital ingests
- • Quarterly Epic compatibility maintenance
App lifecycle
- Sign up + scope. You talk to us, we confirm fit, and you get an account in the SoFaaS™ console.
- Configure your app. Declare the FHIR resources you need to read and write, the SMART scopes you'll request, and the launch context you depend on (patient, encounter, user).
- Build against the sandbox. Develop locally against a SoFaaS™-hosted Epic sandbox. Same API surface as production.
- Submit for Showroom. We package your app's security, integration, and metadata documentation and submit it to Epic on your behalf.
- Hospital deployment. When a hospital wants to deploy you, they contract on the SoFaaS™ BAA, complete the standardized security packet, and provision the app inside their Epic instance. SoFaaS™ handles the integration; you don't re-do the runtime each time.
What to read next
- Auth & SMART App Launch — how launch context reaches your app.
- FHIR resources — the resource surface you'll read and write.
- Epic Showroom submission — what we file on your behalf.