There is a collection of metadata classes that describe the management interface of an MBean. Users can obtain a common metadata view of any of the four MBean types by querying the MBean server with which the MBeans are registered. The metadata classes cover an MBean's attributes, operations, notifications, and constructors. For each of these, the metadata includes a name, a description, and its particular characteristics. For example, one characteristic of an attribute is whether it is readable, writable, or both. The metadata for an operation contains the signature of its parameter and return types.

The different types of MBeans extend the metadata classes to be able to provide additional information as required. This common inheritance makes the standard information available regardless of the type of MBean. A management application that knows how to access the extended information of a particular type of MBean is able to do so.