Classify the tools of a registered MCP server by adding metadata to their AI Agent Tool asset, so that you can write rules based on what a tool does. The metadata of a tool is shown in the Metadata column of the Tools view on the MCP governance tab of an AI Agent asset page.
Metadata is a set of key and value pairs. Each key can appear once per tool, and you can use any key and value. For example, you can describe a tool by:
- Access type: Whether the tool only reads information, or can change or delete it.
- Surface: Whether the tool stays inside your systems, or reaches external services such as the public internet.
When you discover the tools of an MCP server, Collibra fills in the access type and surface of a tool if they aren't already set.
Prerequisites
- The tools of the MCP server have been discovered, so that they exist as AI Agent Tool assets.
- You have a resource role with the Asset > Update resource permission on the AI Agent Tool asset. Without it, you can't add, edit, or delete metadata. No global permission is required.
Steps
- Open the asset page of the MCP server, and in the groups Technology Asset section, click the tool.
- In the Metadata section, which shows a table of keys and values, click Add.
The Add metadata dialog box opens. - Enter a key and a value, and then click Add.
The metadata is saved with the tool and is shown in the Metadata column of the Tools view for every AI agent that uses the tool.
To change metadata, click the edit icon of an entry, make your changes in the Edit metadata dialog box, and then click Save. To remove metadata, click the delete icon of an entry, and then confirm the deletion.
A tool can have up to 50 metadata keys, including the keys that are set when you discover the tools. When a tool reaches the limit, the Add button is disabled. A key can have up to 100 characters: letters, numbers, periods, underscores, and hyphens. A value can have up to 100,000 characters. You can't use the keys title, inputSchema, outputSchema, annotations, available, and lastSeenOn, because they are set when you discover the tools.