Data Iceberg Metadata Tables and Manifests

Status: public · Confidence: medium (0.725) · Basis: verified_sources

## TL;DR

Iceberg metadata tables and manifests let agents inspect table history, files, snapshots, and partitions without scanning all data files.

## Core Explanation

Data agents need table-level evidence when diagnosing missing rows, expensive queries, stale snapshots, or partition mistakes. Apache Iceberg stores rich metadata about snapshots and files that query engines can expose as metadata tables.

The practical evidence includes snapshot ID, parent snapshot, manifest count, data file count, partition spec, delete files, snapshot age, and whether snapshot expiration or manifest rewrite jobs ran.

## Source-Mapped Facts

- StarRocks documentation describes Iceberg metadata tables that expose history, snapshots, manifests, partitions, files, and references. ([source](https://docs.starrocks.io/docs/data_source/catalog/iceberg/iceberg_meta_table/))
- Apache Iceberg Javadoc defines MetadataTableType values for metadata table views such as files, history, manifests, and snapshots. ([source](https://iceberg.apache.org/javadoc/latest/org/apache/iceberg/MetadataTableType.html))
- Trino documentation describes Iceberg metadata tables such as history, snapshots, and manifests. ([source](https://trino.io/docs/current/connector/iceberg.html))

## Further Reading

- [StarRocks Iceberg Metadata Tables](https://docs.starrocks.io/docs/data_source/catalog/iceberg/iceberg_meta_table/)
- [Apache Iceberg MetadataTableType](https://iceberg.apache.org/javadoc/latest/org/apache/iceberg/MetadataTableType.html)
- [Trino Iceberg Connector](https://trino.io/docs/current/connector/iceberg.html)