What probably matters to youSection of the release
What
Authors can attach an arbitrary metadata object to command and skill frontmatter and to plugin manifests; it is preserved through parsing but never interpreted by Claude Code.
Details
Frontmatter parsing keeps metadata when the value is an object; the parsed command shape and its serialization allowlist both include "metadata".
Plugin manifest validation warns with the fragment "'metadata' must be a free-form object" and states the value will be ignored at load time when it is not an object.
Both the plugin manifest schema and the skill schema document the field as a free-form map for the author's own use, for example entitlement or catalog fields.
Metadata keys are no longer folded into the computed declaredFields set.
Evidence
Free-form metadata for the plugin author's own use (e.g. entitlement or catalog fields). Preserved on the parsed manifest but not read by Claude Code., 'metadata' must be a free-form object
Strings lifted out of the shipped bundle, so the claim above can be checked against them.
