Metadata Enrichment

Metadata Enrichment adds context to every Build Scan about where a build ran and what triggered it. Two mechanisms contribute: automatic origin detection through the Common Custom User Data Plugins, and organization-specific annotations added through the Build Scan API.

Automatic Enrichment

The Common Custom User Data Plugins are applied alongside the Develocity plugin and detect and attach origin context automatically. They record:

  • The CI system, pipeline, and run that produced a build

  • The IDE or AI coding agent that triggered it

  • Git context: repository, branch, commit, and whether the working tree is dirty

See Common Custom User Data Plugins for installation instructions and the complete list of supported CI systems, IDEs, and agents.

Organization-Specific Annotations

The Build Scan API lets you annotate builds with context specific to your organization: team ownership, release identifiers, environment names, feature flags, or any structured data your workflow produces. Annotations are added through your build logic.

Custom Tags

Custom tags are free-text labels attached to a Build Scan. Use them to mark the type of a build, or any characteristic you want to filter on later.

Common uses:

  • Mark CI builds with a CI tag to separate them from local builds in dashboards and filters.

  • Tag builds by team (platform, frontend) for cross-team attribution.

  • Mark release builds (release, nightly) to track performance or failure rates for specific build types.

Tags appear prominently in the Build Scan header and are searchable and filterable across all Build Scan records in your Develocity instance.

Custom Values

Custom values are key-value pairs attached to a Build Scan. Use them for structured metadata where the value changes between builds.

Common uses:

  • Capture the deployment environment (environment=staging).

  • Record a release identifier (release=2.3.1) or build number (build.number=1234).

  • Attach a feature flag state (feature.flag.xyz=enabled).

  • Record team attribution (team=platform).

Custom values appear on the Custom Values tab of every Build Scan and are searchable and filterable across your Develocity instance.

Custom links are named URLs attached to a Build Scan. Use them to connect a build record to related systems.

Common uses:

  • Link to the source commit or pull request in GitHub or GitLab.

  • Link to the CI pipeline run that triggered the build.

  • Link to the deployment artifact or release page.

  • Link to the issue or ticket that prompted the change.

Custom links appear in the Build Scan header alongside other build metadata.

Adding Custom Data

The Build Scan API provides the methods for adding tags, values, and links from your build logic. See the per-tool documentation for the API and examples:

Next Steps