Update a Glossary Term

Update glossary term properties using JSON Patch

PATCH /v1/glossaryTerms/{id}

PATCH /v1/glossaryTerms/{id}

Python

from metadata.sdk import configure
from metadata.sdk.entities import GlossaryTerms

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

# Retrieve, modify, and update
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve("d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4")
term.description = "Updated: Total income from all business operations before deductions"
term.synonyms = ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales", "Turnover"]
updated = GlossaryTerms.update(term)

print(f"Updated to version {updated.version}")

Response

{
  "id": "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "name": "Revenue",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
  "displayName": "Revenue",
  "description": "Updated: Total income from all business operations before deductions",
  "synonyms": ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales", "Turnover"],
  "glossary": {
    "id": "c2940a98-f147-6g46-cdef-31f0c4406dc3",
    "type": "glossary",
    "name": "BusinessGlossary",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary",
    "deleted": false
  },
  "version": 0.2,
  "updatedAt": 1769984330261,
  "updatedBy": "admin",
  "href": "http://localhost:8585/api/v1/glossaryTerms/d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "deleted": false,
  "owners": [],
  "tags": [],
  "children": [],
  "relatedTerms": []
}

Update a Glossary Term

Update a glossary term’s properties using JSON Merge Patch. You can update by ID or by fully qualified name.

Update by ID

id · string · required

UUID of the glossary term to update.

Update by Name

Use PATCH /v1/glossaryTerms/name/{fqn} to update by fully qualified name.

fqn · string · required

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

Body Parameters

Send a JSON object with the fields to update. Only provided fields are changed.

description · string

Updated description in Markdown format.

displayName · string

Updated display name.

synonyms · array

Updated list of synonym strings.

relatedTerms · array

Updated list of related term FQNs.

owners · array

Updated list of owner references.

Show properties

id · string

UUID of the owner entity.

type · string

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

tags · array

Updated classification tags.

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).

style · object

Updated visual styling.

Show properties

color · string

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

iconURL · string

URL to a custom icon.

domain · string

Updated domain FQN.

PATCH /v1/glossaryTerms/{id}

Python

from metadata.sdk import configure
from metadata.sdk.entities import GlossaryTerms

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

# Retrieve, modify, and update
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve("d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4")
term.description = "Updated: Total income from all business operations before deductions"
term.synonyms = ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales", "Turnover"]
updated = GlossaryTerms.update(term)

print(f"Updated to version {updated.version}")

Response

{
  "id": "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "name": "Revenue",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
  "displayName": "Revenue",
  "description": "Updated: Total income from all business operations before deductions",
  "synonyms": ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales", "Turnover"],
  "glossary": {
    "id": "c2940a98-f147-6g46-cdef-31f0c4406dc3",
    "type": "glossary",
    "name": "BusinessGlossary",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary",
    "deleted": false
  },
  "version": 0.2,
  "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 updated glossary term object with the new version number.

Response

id · string

Unique identifier for the glossary term (UUID format).

name · string

Glossary term name.

fullyQualifiedName · string

Fully qualified name of the glossary term.

description · string

Updated description.

version · number

Incremented version number.

---

Error Handling

Code	Error Type	Description
400	BAD_REQUEST	Invalid JSON patch or malformed request
401	UNAUTHORIZED	Invalid or missing authentication token
403	FORBIDDEN	User lacks permission to update this glossary term
404	NOT_FOUND	Glossary term with given ID or FQN does not exist
409	CONFLICT	Concurrent modification detected