apache / apache/polaris

[feature request] storing additional business-oriented metadata

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#3,222 4 comments 4 reactions 1 assignee Claimed by @flyrain View on GitHub
enhancement stale
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Description

### Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Hey folks,

I want to see if there's interest from the community to use Polaris also as a metadata catalog for storing additional business-oriented metadata.

Examples of such metadata include:
- Table description
- Column desciption
- Owner information
- Creation date
- Tags and classifications
- Lineage details
- Data quality scores

This type of metadata differs from traditional Iceberg metadata, as it is primarily intended for business users, rather than query engines.

In some ways, [Polaris Policies](https://polaris.apache.org/in-dev/unreleased/policy/) already act as additional metadata since they can reference tables. Extending this concept to include richer metadata could make Polaris more valuable as a unified catalog for both technical and business contexts.

I’d love to start a conversation around this idea and see if there’s interest from the community to pursue it. Thoughts?

### Describe the solution you'd like

_No response_

### Describe alternatives you've considered

_No response_

### Additional context

_No response_

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