Shepherd API
Shepherd is a cloud-based veterinary practice management system (PIMS) built by veterinarians, where an accurate medical record automatically produces an accurate invoice. An unofficial API lets you programmatically pull patients, clients, appointments, SOAP medical records, invoices, inventory, and reminders—and push updates like new appointments, charges, and prescription refills back into Shepherd.
What is Shepherd?
Shepherd is a cloud-based veterinary practice management system (PIMS) built by veterinarians to simplify running a clinic. Its core promise is that an accurate medical record produces an accurate invoice—"if it's in the medical record, it's on the invoice"—so practices stop losing charges. Clinics use Shepherd to run SOAP-based medical records, schedule appointments, capture charges, manage inventory, send client reminders, process payments through Shepherd Pay, and run end-of-day reporting, with AI tools (TranscribeAI, DiagnoseAI, SummarizeAI) layered on top.
Core product areas include:
- SOAP-based medical records with vital comparison charts, autosave, activity logs, and AI-generated notes (TranscribeAI, DiagnoseAI)
- Invoicing and charge capture, where charges flow automatically from the medical record, plus Shepherd Pay payment processing
- Scheduling and appointments with customizable appointment types, provider availability, and a digital whiteboard
- Inventory management with automatic updates after product administration and automated reorder scheduling
- Reminders and client communication—messaging center, pet portal, Rx refill requests, and vaccine certificates
- Reporting for end-of-day, commissions, treatments, patients, and practice-health analytics
Common data entities:
- Clients, Patients, Pet Portal accounts
- Appointments, Appointment Types, Provider Availability, Whiteboard entries
- SOAP Medical Records, Vitals, Diagnoses, Treatments, Prescriptions
- Invoices, Line Items, Payments (Shepherd Pay), Estimates
- Inventory Items, Stock Levels, Reorder Rules, Lab Results
- Reminders, Tasks, Reports, Commissions
The Shepherd Integration Challenge
Clinics run Shepherd as the system of record for every patient visit, but turning its portal-driven workflows into reliable API-driven automation is non-trivial:
- Limited public API: Shepherd exposes a REST API only for select endpoints, so much of the patient, invoice, and inventory data lives behind the authenticated web app
- Partner-gated integrations: Most connectivity flows through Shepherd's pre-built integration partners (IDEXX, Antech, Greenline, Talkatoo), not a self-serve developer portal
- Record-to-invoice coupling: Charges are auto-derived from SOAP entries, so pulling clean financial data requires understanding the medical-record-to-line-item mapping
- Authentication and session handling: Cloud login sessions expire and must be maintained for headless automation
- Inventory state drift: Stock levels update automatically on product administration, so reads must reflect near-real-time inventory movement
- Client-facing workflows: Pet portal requests, Rx refills, and vaccine certificates span multiple surfaces that need careful orchestration
How Supergood Creates Shepherd APIs
Supergood reverse-engineers Shepherd's authenticated browser flows and its select REST endpoints to deliver a resilient, complete API layer for your Shepherd practice—covering patients, scheduling, medical records, invoicing, and inventory in one normalized surface.
- Handles username/password login and session continuity with automated refresh and change detection
- Normalizes responses across clients, patients, appointments, SOAP records, invoices, and inventory so you integrate once
- Preserves the medical-record-to-invoice mapping so financial data stays accurate and auditable
- Tracks near-real-time inventory movement as products are administered and reordered
Use Shepherd with AI agents: Shepherd MCP Server →
Getting Started
- Schedule Integration Assessment
Book a 30-minute session to confirm your modules, workflows, and authentication model.
- Supergood Generates and Validates Your API
We deliver a production-ready Shepherd adapter tailored to your practice configuration.
- Deploy with Monitoring
Go live with continuous monitoring and automatic adjustments as Shepherd evolves.
API Endpoints
Authentication
/authenticateAuthenticate to a Shepherd practice account using username/password and obtain a session token for downstream calls.
Patient Operations
/patientsList patients with their owners, species, breed, and medical history, filterable by client, status, and last-visit date.
Scheduling
/appointmentsRetrieve appointments with type, provider, status, and room assignment across the practice calendar and whiteboard.
Scheduling
/create_appointmentBook a new appointment for a patient with appointment type, provider, and time slot.
Medical Records
/medical_recordsPull SOAP medical records, vitals, diagnoses, treatments, and prescriptions for a patient.
Billing
/invoicesPull invoices, line items, estimates, and Shepherd Pay payment activity, with the medical-record-to-charge mapping preserved.
Use Cases
Sync patient and medical record data to your warehouse
- Pull clients, patients, and SOAP medical records into a central data warehouse - Stream vitals, diagnoses, and prescription events to analytics and recall tools - Reconcile patient and owner records across locations for a unified client 360
Automate scheduling and reminder workflows
- Create and update appointments from external booking and CRM systems - Pull provider availability and whiteboard status to power dashboards - Trigger follow-up reminders, vaccine recalls, and Rx refill requests without portal clicks
Reconcile invoicing and payments
- Sync invoices, line items, and Shepherd Pay payments into accounting and AR systems - Match charges back to the originating SOAP medical record for audit and missed-charge analysis - Surface end-of-day totals and commission data to reporting pipelines
Keep inventory and lab data in sync
- Pull inventory items, stock levels, and reorder rules as products are administered - Push lab results and diagnostic charges back onto the patient record - Trigger automated reorder workflows when stock falls below threshold
Technical Specifications
Authentication
Username/password login handled in a managed, encrypted session
Connectivity
Authenticated browser flows plus Shepherd's select REST endpoints surfaced through one API
Response format
Normalized JSON across clients, patients, appointments, medical records, invoices, and inventory
Rate limits
Adaptive throttling tuned to your practice to avoid Shepherd-side limits
Session management
Automatic session refresh and credential rotation
Data freshness
Near real-time pulls for patients, appointments, and inventory with optional scheduled batch syncs
Security
Encrypted credential vault, scoped access tokens, SOC 2-aligned controls, and audit logging
Webhooks
Event-style callbacks for new appointments, invoice changes, prescription refills, and inventory movement
Latency
Sub-second reads on cached entities; multi-second writes when posting through scheduling and invoicing workflows
Throughput
Horizontally scaled workers sized to multi-location practice volume
Reliability
Retry, backoff, and idempotency keys for appointment, charge, and inventory transactions
Adaptation
Continuous monitoring of Shepherd releases and partner-integration changes for configuration drift
Frequently asked questions
Shepherd offers a REST API limited to select endpoints, and most connectivity runs through its pre-built integration partners rather than a self-serve developer portal. Supergood combines those endpoints with authenticated browser flows to give you complete, normalized coverage of patients, scheduling, medical records, invoicing, and inventory.
Yes. Because Shepherd auto-derives charges from SOAP entries, Supergood preserves the medical-record-to-line-item mapping so you can pull both the clinical record and the resulting invoice and reconcile them for missed-charge analysis.
Yes. The API normalizes clients, patients, and appointments across locations so multi-site practices get a unified surface, with workers scaled to combined volume.
Yes. Supergood supports creating and updating appointments and triggering follow-up reminders, vaccine recalls, and Rx refill requests so external booking and CRM systems can drive Shepherd workflows.
Supergood continuously monitors Shepherd releases and partner-integration changes, automatically adjusting the adapter so your integration keeps working without manual intervention.