Metadata
Metadata is "information about information." The prefix meta comes from Greek and can mean "about," "after," or "beyond."
On this page
Source content checked . English translation published 2026-10-27.
In business automation
Metadata is information about information: date, owner, file type, and permission. In automation, it determines what can be retrieved, how long it is kept, and how results can be filtered without reading all the content.
Examples
These examples illustrate a possible workflow. Adapt the connections and rules to your own systems.
Filtering documents by role
A knowledge agent searches guides. Each passage carries a department tag and an effective date. A sales employee does not receive an internal finance section, even if its text closely matches their question.
Relevant tools
- n8n
- You can pass accompanying fields with a file; preserving permission tags requires explicit mapping at every step.
What to check
- A document without permission metadata can be pulled into the general repository without the team noticing.