$meta-add

Introduction

The $meta-add operation adds new profile, tag, and security labels to a resource's metadata. See http://hl7.org/fhir/resource-operation-meta-add.html for the official documentation.

POST /fhir/<resourceType>/<id>/$meta-add

The operation accepts a Parameters resource containing the metadata to add:

By FHIR spec it receives a Parameters resource as a body:
POST /fhir/<resourceType>/<id>/$meta-add

resourceType: Parameters
parameter:
  - name: meta
    valueMeta:
      profile:
        - <profile.url>
      security:
        - system: <system.url>
          code: <code>
          display: <displayText>
      tag:
        - system: <system.url>
          code: <code>
          display: <displayText>

The profile, tag, and security fields are treated as sets, so duplicates are not created. The identity of a tag or security label is based on the combination of system and code, other fields are ignored. For profile entries, matching is based on the full URL.

Returned value is the current resource metadata.

Examples

Adding metadata

Adding profile, security, and tag metadata to Patient.
# Request:
POST /fhir/Patient/pt-1/$meta-add
content-type: text/yaml
accept: text/yaml

resourceType: Parameters
parameter:
  - name: meta
    valueMeta:
      profile:
        - http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/daf-patient
        - http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/uslab-patient
      security:
        - system: http://hl7.org/fhir/v3/ActCode
          code: EMP
          display: employee information sensitivity
      tag:
        - system: http://example.org/codes/tags
          code: current
          display: Current Inpatient

Response
HTTP 200 OK

resourceType: Parameters
parameter:
  - name: return
    valueMeta:
      tag:
        - code: current
          system: http://example.org/codes/tags
          display: Current Inpatient
      profile:
        - http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/daf-patient
        - http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/uslab-patient
      security:
        - code: EMP
          system: http://hl7.org/fhir/v3/ActCode
          display: employee information sensitivity
      lastUpdated: '2025-10-27T09:41:07.455313Z'
      versionId: '331'

Adding metadata with partially existing fields

Adding two tags, one already present to Patient.
# Request:
POST /fhir/Patient/pt-1/$meta-add
content-type: text/yaml
accept: text/yaml

resourceType: Parameters
parameter:
  - name: meta
    valueMeta:
      tag:
        - system: http://example.org/codes/tags
          code: current
          display: Current Inpatient
        - system: http://example.org/codes/tags
          code: record-lost
          display: Patient File Lost

Response
HTTP 200 OK

resourceType: Parameters
parameter:
  - name: return
    valueMeta:
      tag:
        - code: current
          system: http://example.org/codes/tags
          display: Current Inpatient
        - code: record-lost
          system: http://example.org/codes/tags
          display: Patient File Lost
      profile:
        - http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/daf-patient
        - http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/uslab-patient
      security:
        - code: EMP
          system: http://hl7.org/fhir/v3/ActCode
          display: employee information sensitivity
      lastUpdated: '2025-10-27T10:21:22.813834Z'
      versionId: '338'