OWID Metadata Generation

Practical guidelines for writing high-quality metadata in *.meta.yml files.

Core principle: Metadata is for the public. Every field should help someone understand the data. Write in plain language -- if a layperson can't understand it, rewrite it.

When to Use

• New garden/grapher datasets needing metadata
• Enriching incomplete or sparse metadata files
• Updating existing metadata for dataset refreshes

Don't use for: Snapshot metadata (different process) or quick single-field edits.

Canonical YAML Structure