Built-in skill: Orion metadata

The orion-metadata built-in is Orion's reference for notebook and cell metadata under metadata.orion. The assistant loads it when editing App View layouts, sub-agent options, cell visibility, or any notebook JSON that must stay compatible with Orion.

Load it with /orion-metadata or ask the assistant to update App View schema, cell state, or sub-agent metadata.

Why metadata matters

Orion notebooks carry structured data beside cell source code:

• Notebook-level metadata.orion — App View layout, sub-agent options
• Cell-level cells[i].metadata.orion — stable cell ids, visibility, execution UI state

The assistant edits these fields through notebook tools. This skill keeps keys valid and prevents accidental damage to protected fields.

Notebook-level fields

metadata.orion.appView

Controls App View rendering.

Key	Purpose
appView.schema	Declarative layout tree (version 1, built-in primitives only)
appView.css	Optional scoped CSS for semantic className hooks

App View is layout and composition. Interactive sliders, buttons, and forms belong in Python orion_ui cells; App View references their outputs with Output.

Legacy keys appView.grid, appView.layout, and cell.metadata.orion.app may exist in old notebooks but are ignored by the current renderer.

metadata.orion.subagent

Options for sub-agent notebooks:

Key	Type	Purpose
subagent.model	string	Pin a model catalog id for this sub-agent
subagent.disable-model-invocation	boolean	When true, slash command works but parent won't auto-delegate

Do not write legacy subagent.autoDiscover.

Cell-level fields

cells[i].metadata.orion.id (protected)

Stable Orion cell identifier. Never edit manually — the assistant refuses to set, replace, or delete this field. Orion may generate ids during editor flows.

When you need a cell id for App View or orion_ui button actions, ask the assistant to read existing ids from metadata.

cells[i].metadata.orion.cellState

UI and execution presentation for a cell:

Visibility flags (boolean):

• isInputHidden, isOutputHidden, isWholeCellHidden
• isMuted, isInputCollapsed, isOutputCollapsed

Execution info under cellState.executionInfo:

• status: idle | running | success | error
• Timing fields: startTime, endTime, lastExecuted, duration
• Optional statistics: wallTime, cpuTime, memoryUsage, etc.

App View schema primitives (v1)

Supported node type values include:

Layout: Page, Stack, Grid, Section, Card, Tabs, Accordion, Collapsible, Carousel, Separator

Notebook content: MarkdownCell, Output

Static controls (local-only): Input, Select, Slider, Button, and others — display compatibility only; real interactivity uses orion_ui.

Each node may have props (no inline style) and children. Notebook references use cellId and outputIndex.

See Create app and App View for user-facing layout workflows.

Legacy and internal keys

Do not author these in new notebooks:

• cell.metadata.orion.app — use appView.schema instead
• cell.metadata.orion.cellType = "raw" — prefer cellState
• Old top-level visibility flags under cell.metadata.orion
• cell.metadata.orion._parseError — internal recovery marker

What you can ask the assistant

• "Add this chart output to App View in a two-column grid."
• "Hide input for all setup cells in presentation mode."
• "Set this sub-agent to use Claude and only run when I slash-invoke it."
• "Show me the Orion cell id for the plot cell."

Invalid schema values render a non-crashing error panel in App View — see Fix App View schema errors.

Related

• App View
• Create app
• Orion UI
• Built-in skills hub

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Last updated May 2026.