The FIX Trading Community today announced the adoption of an automated development workflow for the FIX Standard based on the Orchestra Domain Specific Language (DSL), supported by tooling from Atomic Wire Technology.
The initiative modernises the way changes to the FIX Standard are authored, validated and published, providing a more structured and transparent approach to standards development while preserving the collaborative governance that has underpinned FIX for more than three decades.
Rather than manually maintaining repository artefacts, the Orchestra DSL enables proposed changes to be expressed in a structured, machine-readable form. These changes can then be automatically validated, combined and used to generate updated repository artefacts, providing greater consistency, traceability and confidence throughout the standards development lifecycle.
The automated workflow introduces validation throughout the build process, helping identify issues such as incompatible changes and repository inconsistencies earlier in the development cycle. It also creates a complete audit trail of how the standard evolves over time and supports parallel development, enabling multiple working groups to contribute more efficiently.
In addition to producing the authoritative repository, the build process automatically generates a range of derived artefacts, including FIXML schemas and implementation reports, ensuring consistency across all published outputs.
Jim Kaye, Executive Director of the FIX Trading Community, said:
"The FIX Standard continues to evolve alongside increasingly sophisticated global markets. By
adopting an automated development workflow based on the Orchestra DSL, we are modernising the way the standard is developed and published, improving efficiency for our contributors while strengthening the quality and consistency of our releases."
Martin Swanson, Founder of Atomic Wire, said:
"This is about applying modern software engineering principles to standards development. The Orchestra DSL provides a structured way to describe the evolution of the standard, while automation ensures those changes can be validated, managed and published consistently. It creates a stronger foundation for the future evolution of FIX and for the tooling and services that will build upon it."
This announcement represents the first step in a broader programme to modernise the infrastructure supporting the FIX Standard. By establishing an automated standards
development pipeline, the FIX Trading Community is creating a foundation for future improvements in how the standard is published, consumed and integrated into the wider financial technology ecosystem.
