Manage Metadata with Rules

The End of Life (EOL) date of Rules and Hooks will be November 18, 2024, and they are no longer available to new tenants created as of October 16, 2023. Existing tenants with active Hooks will retain Hooks product access through end of life.

We highly recommend that you use Actions to extend Auth0. With Actions, you have access to rich type information, inline documentation, and public npm packages, and can connect external integrations that enhance your overall extensibility experience. To learn more about what Actions offer, read Understand How Auth0 Actions Work.

To help with your migration, we offer guides that will help you migrate from Rules to Actions and migrate from Hooks to Actions. We also have a dedicated Move to Actions page that highlights feature comparisons, an Actions demo, and other resources to help you on your migration journey.

To read more about the Rules and Hooks deprecation, read our blog post: Preparing for Rules and Hooks End of Life.

You can read, update, and delete metadata using Auth0 Rules. In the following sections, we will refer to this example where the user and their information is represented by the following JSON snippet:

{
  "user_id": "jdoe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "app_metadata": {
    "roles": [ "writer" ]
  },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": {
      "color": "blue"
    }
  }
}

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Read metadata

You can read metadata using rules with the Management API. You can also search for profile-related information in user_metadata, such as:

name
nickname
given_name
family_name

By default, user profile attributes provided by identity providers other than Auth0 (such as Google, Facebook, or X) are not directly editable because they are updated from the identity provider each time the user logs in.

To be able to edit the name, nickname, given_name, family_name, or picture root attributes on the normalized user profile, you must configure your connection sync with Auth0 so that user attributes will be updated from the identity provider only on user profile creation. These root attributes will then be available to be edited individually or by bulk imports

As an example, assume the following metadata is stored for a user with the email address jane.doe@example.com:

{
    "email": "jane.doe@example.com",
    "user_metadata": {
        "hobby": "surfing"
    },
    "app_metadata": {
        "plan": "full"
    }
}

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Using the example metadata above, you can refer to specific items from the dataset in Auth0 Rules or via a call to the Management API as follows:

console.log(user.email); // "jane.doe@example.com"
console.log(user.user_metadata.hobby); // "surfing"
console.log(user.app_metadata.plan); // "full"

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Any valid JSON snippet can be used as metadata, but note that user.app_metadata is Undefined by default.

To read the available metadata, you will need to access the correct user property.

Read app metadata

You can make a decision based on the user's roles:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.app_metadata = user.app_metadata || {};
  if (user.app_metadata.roles.indexOf('writer')){
    // code to be executed
  }
  ...
}

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Read user metadata

You can base decisions on specific preferences, such as a color preference:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.user_metadata = user.user_metadata || {};
  if (user.user_metadata.preferences.color === 'black'){
    // code to be executed
  }
  ...
}

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Read application metadata (clientMetadata)

Application metadata (clientMetadata) is an optional, top-level property of the context object. Existing applications will have no value for this property.

function(user, context, callback){
  context.clientMetadata = context.clientMetadata || {};
  if (context.clientMetadata.usersuppliedkey1 === 'black'){
    // this code would not be executed for the user
  }
  ...
}

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Update metadata

Use Rules to map SAML attributes that Auth0 receives from the IdP into user_metadata or app_metadata.

Update app metadata

To add an administrative role to the user:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.app_metadata = user.app_metadata || {};
  // update the app_metadata that will be part of the response
  user.app_metadata.roles = user.app_metadata.roles || [];
  user.app_metadata.roles.push('administrator');

  // persist the app_metadata update
  auth0.users.updateAppMetadata(user.user_id, user.app_metadata)
    .then(function(){
      callback(null, user, context);
    })
    .catch(function(err){
      callback(err);
    });
}

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This results in the following JSON representation of the user profile details:

{
  "user_id": "jdoe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "app_metadata": {
    "roles": [ "writer", "administrator" ]
  },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": {
      "color": "blue"
    }
  }
}

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Update user metadata

To add the user's fontSize preference to the user profile:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.user_metadata = user.user_metadata || {};
  // update the user_metadata that will be part of the response
  user.user_metadata.preferences = user.user_metadata.preferences || {};
  user.user_metadata.preferences.fontSize = 12;

  // persist the user_metadata update
  auth0.users.updateUserMetadata(user.user_id, user.user_metadata)
    .then(function(){
      callback(null, user, context);
    })
    .catch(function(err){
      callback(err);
    });
}

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This results in the following JSON representation of the user profile details:

{
  "user_id": "jdoe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "app_metadata": {
    "roles": [ "writer" ]
  },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": {
      "color": "blue",
      "fontSize": 12
    }
  }
}

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Update app and user metadata simultaneously

To reduce the rule's processing time, you may update both the app_metadata and user_metadata in the same rule:

function(user, context, callback){

  var q = require('q');

  user.app_metadata = user.app_metadata || {};
  user.user_metadata = user.user_metadata || {};
  // update the user_metadata that will be part of the response
  user.user_metadata.preferences = user.user_metadata.preferences || {};
  user.user_metadata.preferences.fontSize = 12;

  // update the app_metadata that will be part of the response
  user.app_metadata.roles = user.app_metadata.roles || [];
  user.app_metadata.roles.push('admin');

  // persist the app_metadata update
  var appMetadataPromise  = auth0.users.updateAppMetadata(user.user_id, user.app_metadata);

  // persist the user_metadata update
  var userMetadataPromise = auth0.users.updateUserMetadata(user.user_id, user.user_metadata);

  // using q library to wait for all promises to complete
  q.all([userMetadataPromise, appMetadataPromise])
    .then(function(){
      callback(null, user, context);
    })
    .catch(function(err){
      callback(err);
    });
}

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This results in the following JSON representation of the user profile details:

{
  "user_id": "jdoe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "app_metadata": {
    "roles": [ "writer", "admin" ]
  },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": {
      "color": "blue",
      "fontSize": 12
    }
  }
}

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Delete metadata

Delete app metadata properties and values

To delete a property, set the property's value to null.

Delete user's roles example

To delete the user's roles, use the following sample rule:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.app_metadata = user.app_metadata || {};
  // update the app_metadata that will be part of the response
  user.app_metadata.roles = null;

  // persist the app_metadata update
  auth0.users.updateAppMetadata(user.user_id, user.app_metadata)
    .then(function(){
      callback(null, user, context);
    })
    .catch(function(err){
      callback(err);
    });
}

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This results in the following JSON representation of the user profile:

{
  "user_id": "jdoe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "app_metadata": { },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": {
      "color": "blue"
    }
  }
}

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Delete single property value example

To delete a single value of a property, remove that specific value. For example, to remove the writer role from the user profile:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.app_metadata = user.app_metadata || {};
  user.app_metadata.roles = user.app_metadata.roles || [];

  var index = user.app_metadata.roles.indexOf('writer');

  if (index !== -1){
    // update the app_metadata that will be part of the response
    user.app_metadata.roles.splice(index, 1);
  }

  // persist the app_metadata update
  auth0.users.updateAppMetadata(user.user_id, user.app_metadata)
    .then(function(){
      callback(null, user, context);
    })
    .catch(function(err){
      callback(err);
    });
}

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This results in the following JSON representation of the user profile:

{
  "user_id": "google-oauth2|1234",
  "email": "john.doe@gmail.com",
  "app_metadata": {
    "roles": [ ]
  },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": {
      "color": "blue"
    }
  }
}

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Note that the roles property still exists but does not contain any value.

Delete user metadata properties and values

To delete the user's color preference:

function(user, context, callback){
  user.user_metadata = user.user_metadata || {};
  // update the user_metadata that will be part of the response
  user.user_metadata.preferences = user.user_metadata.preferences || {};
  delete user.user_metadata.preferences.color;

  // persist the user_metadata update
  auth0.users.updateUserMetadata(user.user_id, user.user_metadata)
    .then(function(){
      callback(null, user, context);
    })
    .catch(function(err){
      callback(err);
  });
}

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This results in the following JSON representation of the user profile details:

{
  "user_id": "jdoe",
  "email": "john.doe@example.com",
  "app_metadata": {
    "roles": [ "writer" ]
  },
  "user_metadata": {
    "preferences": { }
  }
}

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Manage Users

Manage Metadata with Rules

Read metadata

Read app metadata

Read user metadata

Read application metadata (clientMetadata)

Update metadata

Update app metadata

Update user metadata

Update app and user metadata simultaneously

Delete metadata

Delete app metadata properties and values

Delete user's roles example

Delete single property value example

Delete user metadata properties and values

Learn more