[feature request] storing additional business-oriented metadata

[kevinjqliu]

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 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

[dimas-b]

Hi @kevinjqliu : as for me, this idea sounds useful and interesting in terms of opening new use cases. My only concern is ensuring that the new feature does not interfere with existing code paths. For example, storing new information in current Polaris entity properties will affect all table operations (more data to process) and may not be desirable.

Would you mind opening a corresponding discussion thread on dev? I believe email is easier for discussing new feature design than GH comments 🙂

[rishii-19-works]

Hi @kevinjqliu I would like to contribute to this issue as part of my open-source learning journey

Before I begin working I want to confirm the expected scope of the change:-

1. Add a new enum value "ORDINAL" to "PolarisEventType"
2. Update all related usages and serialization/deserialization logic
3. Add or update unit tests to cover the new event type
4. Update any related documentation if needed

Please let me know if this understanding is correct or if there are additional requirements
If approved I'll start working on the implementation and submit a PR

Thank you!!