# Meta

This section documents the **metadata provider modules** under `providers/metadata/`.

They power **Settings → Metadata** in the UI.

They are separate from auth and sync modules.

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="End users" %}

### What a metadata provider does

Each metadata provider handles:

* looking up stable IDs (TMDb IDs, plus extra IDs when available)
* normalizing titles/years for matching
* building image URLs (posters, backdrops)
* caching results to avoid rate limits

### Where the TMDb key lives

Metadata reads the TMDb API key from:

* `tmdb.api_key` (preferred)
* `metadata.tmdb_api_key` (fallback/compat)

### Common behavior

* cache TTL is controlled by `metadata.ttl_hours`
* cache is **in-memory** (per process)

### Gotchas

* Missing API key causes provider errors.
* Restarts flush the cache.
* TMDb rate limits (HTTP 429) slow lookups and matching.
  {% endtab %}

{% tab title="Power users" %}

### Key files in this section

* [registry](/blueprint-architecture/meta/registry.md)

### Provider modules

* [\_meta\_TMDB](/blueprint-architecture/meta/_meta_tmdb.md)
  {% endtab %}
  {% endtabs %}


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