# Which Problems Are Solved
Since #10666 (v4.1+, backported to v4.x), metadata values set through
actions v1 (`api.metadata.push` and `api.v1.user.appendMetadata`) are
always JSON-encoded via `json.Marshal`. This made the write path
consistent with the JSON-based read path, but removed the ability to
store raw (unencoded) metadata values:
- A scalar string is now always stored quoted (`"de"` instead of `de`).
- The previous byte-array convention (mapping a string to an integer
array in the script, handled by `mapBytesToByteArray` introduced in
#5526) now stores the literal integer-array text (e.g. `[100,101]`)
instead of the raw bytes.
Customers migrating from v3.x whose downstream systems base64-decode
metadata values from tokens and expect raw bytes have no way to produce
them anymore — changing the consuming system is not always possible.
Reverting the default is not an option either, as clients that adopted
actions v1 on v4.x now rely on the JSON encoding.
# How the Problems Are Solved
- Adds a new, opt-in function `api.v1.user.appendMetadataRaw(key,
value)` to the actions v1 login flows (external / internal
authentication post authentication and pre creation), next to the
existing `appendMetadata`.
- The value is stored as raw bytes without JSON encoding:
- a string is stored as its plain UTF-8 bytes (`de`, not `"de"`)
- byte arrays (`Uint8Array` or a plain array of integers 0-255, the old
convention) are stored as-is, so existing v3 scripts using a
string-to-byte-array helper only need to switch the function name
- other types (and empty values) throw an error
- The existing `appendMetadata` and `api.metadata.push` behavior remains
byte-for-byte unchanged.
# Additional Changes
- Documented `appendMetadataRaw` (and the JSON encoding behavior of
`appendMetadata`) in the external and internal authentication actions
docs.
- Added unit tests for the new function (through a real goja runtime)
and a test locking in the existing `appendMetadata` JSON-encoding
behavior.
# Additional Context
- Regression introduced as a side effect of #10666 (which fixed#10470);
the raw byte handling was originally introduced in #5526.
- Reported by a customer upgrading from v3.4.x to v4.16.x, whose
PostAuthentication action maps token payload claims into user metadata.
- Requires backport to v4.x.
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <[email protected]>
# Which Problems Are Solved
This PR fixes the self-management of users for metadata and own removal
and improves the corresponding permission checks.
While looking into the problems, I also noticed that there's a bug in
the metadata mapping when using `api.metadata.push` in actions v1 and
that re-adding a previously existing key after its removal was not
possible.
# How the Problems Are Solved
- Added a parameter `allowSelfManagement` to checkPermissionOnUser to
not require a permission if a user is changing its own data.
- Updated use of `NewPermissionCheckUserWrite` including prevention of
self-management for metadata.
- Pass permission check to the command side (for metadata functions) to
allow it implicitly for login v1 and actions v1.
- Use of json.Marshal for the metadata mapping (as with
`AppendMetadata`)
- Check the metadata state when comparing the value.
# Additional Changes
- added a variadic `roles` parameter to the `CreateOrgMembership`
integration test helper function to allow defining specific roles.
# Additional Context
- noted internally while testing v4.1.x
- requires backport to v4.x
- closes https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/issues/10470
- relates to https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/pull/10426
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