# How is metadata served "at the edge"?

**Concept**

**TL;DR:** "At the edge" means a small program running on the CDN — a Cloudflare Worker — adds your metadata to each page as it's served, close to the visitor, before it reaches them. No changes to your site's templates, no redeploys.

---

## What it is

Normally, to add structured data you'd edit your site's code and redeploy. Edge injection skips that. Every request already passes through the CDN; a Worker there can read the outgoing page and slot your JSON-LD and Open Graph into it on the way out — and serve files like `robots.txt` and `llms.txt` directly. Your origin server and templates never change.

## Why it matters

- **No code, no redeploys.** Works with any stack — WordPress, a static site, a custom app — because it happens *after* your server responds.
- **Instant.** A change is live on the very next request, not the next deploy.
- **Uniquely capable.** Because it's in the live request path, it can react to each request — something a build-time generator or CMS plugin structurally can't.

## How MetaPilot handles it

MetaPilot installs and manages the Worker for you on your Cloudflare account, then injects your generated metadata and serves your SEO files at the edge.

---

## FAQ

**Does this change my website's files?**
No — injection happens as the page is served; your origin and templates are untouched.

**Does it slow my site down?**
Edge Workers run in milliseconds close to the visitor; the CDN typically makes sites *faster*, not slower.

**What if I turn MetaPilot off?**
Your pages simply serve as they did before — nothing is baked into your code.

---

## Related

- What is Cloudflare?
- What is structured data?
- What is MetaPilot?