Create a Glossary Term

Create a new glossary term within a glossary

POST /v1/glossaryTerms

POST /v1/glossaryTerms

Python

from metadata.sdk import configure
from metadata.sdk.entities import GlossaryTerms
from metadata.generated.schema.api.data.createGlossaryTerm import CreateGlossaryTermRequest

configure(
    host="https://your-company.open-metadata.org/api",
    jwt_token="your-jwt-token"
)

request = CreateGlossaryTermRequest(
    name="Revenue",
    glossary="BusinessGlossary",
    displayName="Revenue",
    description="Total income generated from business operations",
    synonyms=["Income", "Earnings", "Sales"]
)

term = GlossaryTerms.create(request)
print(f"Created: {term.fullyQualifiedName}")

Response

{
  "id": "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "name": "Revenue",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
  "displayName": "Revenue",
  "description": "Total income generated from business operations",
  "synonyms": ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales"],
  "glossary": {
    "id": "c2940a98-f147-6g46-cdef-31f0c4406dc3",
    "type": "glossary",
    "name": "BusinessGlossary",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary",
    "deleted": false
  },
  "version": 0.1,
  "updatedAt": 1769984330261,
  "updatedBy": "admin",
  "href": "http://localhost:8585/api/v1/glossaryTerms/d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "deleted": false,
  "owners": [],
  "tags": [],
  "children": [],
  "relatedTerms": []
}

Create a Glossary Term

Create a new glossary term within a glossary.

Body Parameters

name · string · required

Name of the glossary term. Must be unique within the parent glossary or parent term.

glossary · string · required

Fully qualified name of the parent glossary (e.g., BusinessGlossary).

displayName · string

Human-readable display name for the glossary term.

description · string

Description of the glossary term in Markdown format.

parent · string

Fully qualified name of the parent glossary term for creating nested terms (e.g., BusinessGlossary.Revenue).

synonyms · array

Array of synonym strings for this term.

relatedTerms · array

Array of fully qualified names of related glossary terms.

owners · array

Array of owner references (users or teams) to assign to the glossary term.

Show properties

id · string

UUID of the owner entity.

type · string

Type of owner entity (e.g., user, team).

name · string

Name of the owner entity.

tags · array

Array of classification tags to apply.

Show properties

tagFQN · string · required

Fully qualified name of the tag.

labelType · string

Type of label (e.g., Manual, Derived, Propagated).

state · string

State of the tag (e.g., Suggested, Confirmed).

domain · string

Fully qualified name of the domain to assign for governance purposes.

style · object

Visual styling for the glossary term.

Show properties

color · string

Hex color code (e.g., #FF5733).

iconURL · string

URL to a custom icon for the term.

POST /v1/glossaryTerms

Python

from metadata.sdk import configure
from metadata.sdk.entities import GlossaryTerms
from metadata.generated.schema.api.data.createGlossaryTerm import CreateGlossaryTermRequest

configure(
    host="https://your-company.open-metadata.org/api",
    jwt_token="your-jwt-token"
)

request = CreateGlossaryTermRequest(
    name="Revenue",
    glossary="BusinessGlossary",
    displayName="Revenue",
    description="Total income generated from business operations",
    synonyms=["Income", "Earnings", "Sales"]
)

term = GlossaryTerms.create(request)
print(f"Created: {term.fullyQualifiedName}")

Response

{
  "id": "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "name": "Revenue",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
  "displayName": "Revenue",
  "description": "Total income generated from business operations",
  "synonyms": ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales"],
  "glossary": {
    "id": "c2940a98-f147-6g46-cdef-31f0c4406dc3",
    "type": "glossary",
    "name": "BusinessGlossary",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary",
    "deleted": false
  },
  "version": 0.1,
  "updatedAt": 1769984330261,
  "updatedBy": "admin",
  "href": "http://localhost:8585/api/v1/glossaryTerms/d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "deleted": false,
  "owners": [],
  "tags": [],
  "children": [],
  "relatedTerms": []
}

---

Returns

Returns the created glossary term object with all specified properties and system-generated fields.

Response

id · string

Unique identifier for the glossary term (UUID format).

name · string

Glossary term name.

fullyQualifiedName · string

Fully qualified name in format glossary.termName or glossary.parent.child.

displayName · string

Human-readable display name.

description · string

Description of the glossary term in Markdown format.

synonyms · array

List of synonym strings for this term.

glossary · object

Reference to the parent glossary.

Show properties

id · string

UUID of the glossary.

type · string

Type of entity (always glossary).

name · string

Name of the glossary.

fullyQualifiedName · string

Fully qualified name of the glossary.

children · array

Child glossary term references.

relatedTerms · array

Related glossary term references.

owners · array

List of owners assigned to the glossary term.

tags · array

Classification tags applied to the glossary term.

style · object

Visual styling for the term.

version · number

Version number for the entity (starts at 0.1).

---

Create or Update (PUT)

Use PUT /v1/glossaryTerms instead of POST to perform an upsert. If a glossary term with the same fullyQualifiedName already exists, it will be updated; otherwise, a new glossary term is created. The request body is the same as POST.

curl -X PUT "{base_url}/api/v1/glossaryTerms" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {access_token}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ ... same body as POST ... }'

PUT will not return a 409 conflict error if the entity already exists — it will update the existing entity instead.

---

Error Handling

Code	Error Type	Description
400	BAD_REQUEST	Invalid request body or missing required fields
401	UNAUTHORIZED	Invalid or missing authentication token
403	FORBIDDEN	User lacks permission to create glossary terms
409	ENTITY_ALREADY_EXISTS	Glossary term with same name already exists in glossary (POST only)