Headless CMS > Date/Time and Identity Meta Fields

Date/Time and Identity Meta Fields

Learn about the date/time and identity-related meta fields that are automatically available on all content entries.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

What are meta fields and where do they come from?
What is the difference between revision-level and entry-level meta fields?
What is the difference between modified and saved fields?

Overview

Apart from the fields defined in a content model, all content entries automatically have a set of date/time and identity-related meta fields. For example:

createdOn — the date/time when an entry was first created
lastPublishedOn — the date/time when an entry was last published
revisionCreatedOn — the date/time when a specific revision was created
revisionFirstPublishedOn — the date/time when a specific revision was first published

These fields are populated automatically by the system. You can use them when querying entries via the SDK or when implementing event handlers.

Revision-Level vs. Entry-Level Fields

Meta fields exist at two levels.

Revision-level fields carry the revision prefix and describe a specific revision of an entry. They change each time a new revision is created, modified, or published.

Entry-level fields have no prefix and describe the entry as a whole. They reflect the state of the entry across all revisions — for example, createdOn is set when the entry is first created and never changes, regardless of how many revisions are added later.

Meta Fields Reference

Revision-Level Meta Fields

Field	Description	Can be `null`
`revisionCreatedOn`	When this revision was created.	No
`revisionModifiedOn`	When this revision was last modified.	Yes
`revisionSavedOn`	When this revision was last saved.	No
`revisionFirstPublishedOn`	When this revision was first published.	Yes
`revisionLastPublishedOn`	When this revision was last published.	Yes
`revisionDeletedOn`	When this revision was moved to the trash.	Yes
`revisionRestoredOn`	When this revision was restored from the trash.	Yes
`revisionCreatedBy`	The user who created this revision.	No
`revisionModifiedBy`	The user who last modified this revision.	Yes
`revisionSavedBy`	The user who last saved this revision.	No
`revisionFirstPublishedBy`	The user who first published this revision.	Yes
`revisionLastPublishedBy`	The user who last published this revision.	Yes
`revisionDeletedBy`	The user who moved this revision to the trash.	Yes
`revisionRestoredBy`	The user who restored this revision from the trash.	Yes

Entry-Level Meta Fields

Field	Description	Can be `null`
`createdOn`	When the entry was first created.	No
`modifiedOn`	When the entry was last modified.	Yes
`savedOn`	When the entry was last saved.	No
`firstPublishedOn`	When the entry was first published.	Yes
`lastPublishedOn`	When the entry was last published.	Yes
`deletedOn`	When the entry was moved to the trash.	Yes
`restoredOn`	When the entry was restored from the trash.	Yes
`createdBy`	The user who created the entry.	No
`modifiedBy`	The user who last modified the entry.	Yes
`savedBy`	The user who last saved the entry.	No
`firstPublishedBy`	The user who first published the entry.	Yes
`lastPublishedBy`	The user who last published the entry.	Yes
`deletedBy`	The user who moved the entry to the trash.	Yes
`restoredBy`	The user who restored the entry from the trash.	Yes

Using Meta Fields

Meta fields are available as top-level fields (no values. prefix) when querying via the SDK:

You can also filter by them:

FAQ

What Is the Difference Between`modified`and`saved`?

savedOn / savedBy are set on every write — including the initial create. They are never null.

modifiedOn / modifiedBy are only set after the first update. If an entry has never been updated, modifiedOn is null. After the first update, modifiedOn and savedOn will always have the same value.