---
title: "Sync metadata across environments - Atlan MCP Cookbook"
url: "https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/sync-metadata-across-environments/"
description: "Keep descriptions, tags, and custom metadata aligned across dev, staging, and prod."
---

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Recipe 19 in [The Atlan MCP Cookbook](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/). Keep descriptions, tags, and custom metadata aligned across dev, staging, and prod.

Use case: Govern & keep trusted / Action: Make changes / Persona: Data Governance Lead, Data Engineer / Effort: Moderate / Runs in: any AI tool

Requires Atlan MCP connected to your AI tool: [set up Atlan MCP](https://docs.atlan.com/product/capabilities/atlan-ai/how-tos/remote-mcp-overview).

## 1. The task

**Scenario.** orders_fact exists in both production and staging, and their metadata has drifted apart: production has a good description and tags, staging is half-blank, and nobody remembers which is right. You want them aligned, with one environment clearly the one that wins.

The ask:
- orders_fact in both production and staging
- A side-by-side of their descriptions, tags, and custom metadata
- The production metadata synced onto staging where staging is missing fields

Hero prompt: "Find the orders_fact table in both production and staging. Compare their descriptions, tags, and custom metadata, then sync the production metadata to staging where staging is missing fields."

Step by step:

1. Find the asset and its counterpart in the other environment. Prompt: "Find [table] in both [prod] and [staging]."
2. Compare the metadata fields side by side. Prompt: "Compare their descriptions, tags, and custom metadata."
3. Apply the more complete metadata to the environment that's missing it. Prompt: "Sync the [prod] metadata to [staging] where [staging] is missing fields."

## 2. What you'll give it

Required context:
- The asset and its two environments (orders_fact in prod and staging)
- Which environment wins (production, here)
- Permission to update metadata in the target environment

Optional context:
- Which fields to sync and which to leave environment-specific (a staging-only note, say)
- A direction rule, if some fields should flow staging to prod instead

## 3. What Atlan creates

Outputs:
- The two copies of orders_fact, matched across environments
- A field-by-field comparison of descriptions, tags, and custom metadata
- The production values written onto staging wherever staging was missing them

**Summary.** The same asset now reads the same way in both places, so a developer in staging sees the context production already has, and governance does not depend on which environment you opened.

**Writes to Atlan.** Changed: the missing fields on the staging copy. Left untouched: the production copy, and any staging field that already had a value; nothing is overwritten.

## 4. Follow-up prompts

- **Do the whole schema:** "Run the same comparison for every table in the orders schema and sync the gaps."
- **Show the conflicts:** "Where prod and staging both have a value but they disagree, list them for me instead of syncing."
- **Check dev too:** "Add dev to the comparison and show which environment is furthest behind."

## 5. Tips & troubleshooting

**Cook's note.** Decide which environment wins before you run it, or you'll ping-pong edits.

- Match the tool to the work. Run it where you can see the comparison before the sync, so you can catch a field that should stay environment-specific.
- Automate or chain it. Once the winning environment is fixed, schedule the sync so staging never drifts far from production again.
- Ask what it changed. Add "list every staging field you wrote and its new value." That is your diff for the sync.

## Related recipes

- [Keep asset metadata fresh](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/keep-asset-metadata-fresh/): Catch stale certifications, missing owners, and outdated descriptions early.
- [Enrich assets with your context](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/enrich-assets-with-your-context/): Bring context that lives outside Atlan, like a spreadsheet or a Confluence page, onto your assets as owners, tags, and richer descriptions.
- [Triage assets for migration](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/triage-assets-for-migration/): Classify every asset by consumer count, ownership, and certification before migrating.

[Browse all recipes](https://atlan.com/mcp-cookbook/) / [Set up Atlan MCP](https://docs.atlan.com/product/capabilities/atlan-ai/how-tos/remote-mcp-overview)