---
title: "vastcatalogindexedcolumn add"
slug: "vastcatalogindexedcolumn-add"
tags: ["5.5"]
updated: 2026-10-27T23:00:54Z
published: 2026-10-27T23:00:54Z
canonical: "docs.vastdata.com/vastcatalogindexedcolumn-add"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vastdata.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# vastcatalogindexedcolumn add

This command explicitly adds a user-defined indexed column to VAST Catalog for an S3 tag, S3 metadata attribute, or an NFSv4.2 extended attribute. The added column for an S3 tag is named `tag_&lt;name&gt;`, where <name> is the name you supply for the tag. The added column for an S3 metadata attribute is named `metadata_&lt;name&gt;`, where <name> is the name you supply for the metadata attribute. The added column for an S3 metadata attribute is named `nfs4_xattr_&lt;name&gt;`, where <name> is the name you supply for the NFsv4.2 extended attribute.

> [!TIP]
> **Note**
> 
> VAST Catalog indexes all S3 tags found in objects and buckets as key-pair values in the `user_tags` column, regardless of whether user-defined attributes are specified.

## **Usage**

```plaintext
vastcatalogindexedcolumn add --name NAME
                             --column-type tag|metadata|nfs4_xattr
```

## **Required Parameters**

| `--name NAME` | Specifies the key value of the user-defined attribute. For example, if you have S3 objects tagged with *department=Sales*, *department=Marketing*, and so on, you would supply the key value "department" as the name of the attribute. |
| --- | --- |
| `--column-type tag\|metadata\|nfs4_xattr` | Specifies if the user defined attribute is an S3 tag (`tag`), S3 metadata attribute (`metadata`), or an NFSv4.2 extended attribute (`nfs4_xattr`). |

## **Example**

```plaintext
vcli: admin> vastcatalogindexedcolumn add --name department --column-type tag
```