> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Request metadata > Attach app name, identity, thread ID, and custom metadata to AI Gateway requests to segment cost, latency, and traces in observability. **Use Cases** Name each request so cost and performance slice by product, feature, or environment. Attach an **Identity** so spend, latency, and error rates attribute to a user, team, or client, with optional per-identity budgets. Tag each turn with a **Thread** ID so the full conversation groups together in observability. Attach key-value metadata, such as tier, channel, or feature flag, and filter traces by those fields. ## Overview Every **AI Gateway** request can carry context through several mechanisms: * `name`: marks the app or service * `identity`: marks the end user or tenant * `thread`: groups a conversation * `metadata`: carries business context Each mechanism answers one question and surfaces through its own channel. Use the decision table below to pick the mechanism for a given question. `variables` also travel with the request, but fill prompt templates instead of describing the request. The how-to for each mechanism lives in [App Tracking](/ai-gateway/app-tracking), [Identities](/ai-studio/observability/identities), and [Thread Management](/ai-gateway/thread-management); the span attribute reference is in [Metadata](/ai-studio/observability/span-attributes). ## Which mechanism to use | Mechanism | Answers the question | Use when | | - | - | - | | `name` | Which app, service, or feature made this call? | Cost and performance per product line, with a fixed set of known surfaces | | `identity` | Which end user, team, or client is this request for? | Per-user attribution, tenant billing, per-identity budgets | | `thread` | Which conversation or workflow does this request belong to? | Multi-turn chats, multi-step agent workflows, support tickets | | `metadata` | What business context applies to this request? | Key-value slicing by tier, channel, region, or feature flag | ## Quick Start Send one request with all four mechanisms attached. ```bash cURL theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} curl -X POST https://my.orq.ai/v3/router/responses \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORQ_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "model": "openai/gpt-5.4-mini", "input": "Refund my order", "name": "SupportAssistant-Production", "metadata": { "customer_tier": "premium", "channel": "email" }, "thread": { "id": "conversation-abc123", "tags": ["user-123"] }, "identity": { "id": "user_123" } }' ``` ```typescript TypeScript theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} import OpenAI from "openai"; const client = new OpenAI({ apiKey: process.env.ORQ_API_KEY, baseURL: "https://my.orq.ai/v3/router", }); const response = await client.responses.create({ model: "openai/gpt-5.4-mini", input: "Refund my order", name: "SupportAssistant-Production", metadata: { customer_tier: "premium", channel: "email" }, thread: { id: "conversation-abc123", tags: ["user-123"] }, identity: { id: "user_123" }, }); console.log(response.output_text); ``` ```python Python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} from openai import OpenAI import os client = OpenAI( api_key=os.environ.get("ORQ_API_KEY"), base_url="https://my.orq.ai/v3/router", ) response = client.responses.create( model="openai/gpt-5.4-mini", input="Refund my order", extra_body={ "name": "SupportAssistant-Production", "metadata": {"customer_tier": "premium", "channel": "email"}, "thread": {"id": "conversation-abc123", "tags": ["user-123"]}, "identity": {"id": "user_123"}, }, ) print(response.output_text) ``` ## Configuration | Parameter | Type | Trace filter | Description | | - | - | - | - | | `name` | string | Name | Display name on the trace. Recommended: alphanumeric and hyphens only, under 50 characters, no timestamps or dynamic values. | | `metadata` | object | `metadata.` | Key-value pairs with string values. On the **Responses API**, non-string values are rejected with a 400. | | `thread` | object | Thread ID | Groups related requests: `id` (required) plus optional `tags`. | | `identity` | object | Identity | Attributes the request to an end user: `id` (required) plus optional `display_name`, `email`, `metadata`, and `tags`. | | `variables` | object | — | Template variables for prompt substitution. Pass secrets as `{"secret": true, "value": "..."}` so they are redacted from traces. | On `/v3/router/chat/completions`: * `metadata` is limited to 16 key-value pairs with keys up to 64 characters and values up to 512 characters * `thread` and `identity` are passed under the `orq` object (`orq.thread`, `orq.identity`) * `name` is passed at the top level ## Headers Clients that cannot modify the request body, such as coding agents, attach metadata, identity, and thread context through headers instead. `X-ORQ-IDENTITY-ID` and `X-ORQ-THREAD-ID` are read on every AI Gateway request. `X-ORQ-METADATA-` and `X-ORQ-METADATA` are read on the inference endpoints: `/v3/router/responses`, `/v3/anthropic/v1/messages`, `/v3/google/v1beta/models/*` and `/v3/google/v1beta/interactions`, and the `/v3/router/*` completions, embeddings, image, audio, moderation, OCR, and rerank endpoints. | Header | Sets | Example | | - | - | - | | `X-ORQ-METADATA-` | One metadata key per header. The key is the lowercased header suffix. | `X-ORQ-METADATA-REPO: acme-api` sets `metadata.repo` to `acme-api`. | | `X-ORQ-METADATA` | Several metadata keys in one header: a comma-separated `key=value` list, or a JSON object. | `X-ORQ-METADATA: repo=acme-api,ticket=PROJ-123` | | `X-ORQ-IDENTITY-ID` | The identity ID. See [Identities](/ai-studio/observability/identities). | `X-ORQ-IDENTITY-ID: user_123` | | `X-ORQ-THREAD-ID` | The thread ID. | `X-ORQ-THREAD-ID: conversation-abc123` | When the `X-ORQ-METADATA` value starts with `{`, it is parsed as a JSON object instead of the comma-separated form. String, number, and boolean values are kept; object, array, and null values are skipped. On the Anthropic Messages and Google endpoints only, a fixed allowlist of headers (`user-agent`, `originator`, `session-id`, `session_id`, `thread-id`, `x-app`, `x-claude-code-session-id`, `x-codex-beta-features`, `anthropic-beta`, `anthropic-version`, `anthropic-dangerous-direct-browser-access`) is captured into metadata automatically, when present, to identify the calling coding assistant. No other endpoint captures these headers automatically. Precedence when the same metadata key is set more than once: the body `metadata` object wins, then `X-ORQ-METADATA-` headers, then the `X-ORQ-METADATA` header, then, on the Anthropic Messages and Google endpoints only, the automatically-captured allowlist above. **Limits**: up to 20 metadata keys per request from `X-ORQ-METADATA` and `X-ORQ-METADATA-` combined. On those endpoints, the automatically-captured allowlist headers do not count against this limit. Keys must be 64 characters or fewer and match `[a-z0-9._-]+`. Values longer than 256 characters are truncated. Entries that fail these rules are dropped silently; the request still succeeds. Header-derived metadata reaches [Traces](/ai-studio/observability/traces) as `metadata.` span attributes on every endpoint listed above, filterable the same way as body metadata. It is never forwarded to the model provider. On endpoints that take a JSON body, `X-ORQ-METADATA` and `X-ORQ-METADATA-` are also available to routing rules, guardrail rules, and budgets, so a caller able to set headers on a request can influence which of those rules match. Endpoints that take multipart uploads (transcription, translation, image edit, image variation) put header metadata on traces only. The automatically-captured allowlist above never reaches rule matching, on any endpoint. ```bash cURL theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark"}} curl -X POST https://my.orq.ai/v3/router/responses \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $ORQ_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "X-ORQ-METADATA-REPO: acme-api" \ -H "X-ORQ-METADATA-TICKET: PROJ-123" \ -H "X-ORQ-THREAD-ID: conversation-abc123" \ -d '{ "model": "openai/gpt-5.4-mini", "input": "Refund my order" }' ``` ## Best Practices * **Keep app names low-cardinality**: Use a small fixed set of app names (around 50 per workspace) with consistent patterns such as `Service-Environment`. Avoid timestamps or dynamic values, which fragment analytics. * **Use a fixed metadata key set**: Define a small set of keys (`customer_tier`, `channel`, `region`) and reuse them. High-cardinality keys, such as request IDs or timestamps, defeat filtering and increase storage. * **Thread IDs**: Use UUIDs or composite keys such as `user-{userId}-{sessionId}` to avoid collisions across sessions. * **Identity IDs**: Use predictable patterns such as `user-{userId}` or `tenant-{tenantId}` so identities stay consistent across requests. * **One mechanism per question**: If the value describes the app, use `name`; if it describes the user, use `identity`; if it is business context, use `metadata`. ## What not to store in request metadata * **PII**: Do not put emails, phone numbers, or personal data in `metadata`, `name`, or `thread.tags`; they persist on stored traces. To keep sensitive values out of stored traces, include `"metadata"` in [`security.mask`](/ai-gateway/features/security), or enable [PII Redaction](/ai-gateway/features/plugins/pii-redaction). * **Secrets**: Pass tokens and keys as template variables with `{"secret": true, "value": "..."}` so they are redacted from traces. See [Run Agents](/ai-studio/ai-engineering/run-agents) for the variable reference. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.