diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 810885d651..3831cea61e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -144,6 +144,7 @@ Nu adheres closely to a set of goals that make up its design philosophy. As feat
 | skip amount | Skip a number of rows |
 | first amount | Show only the first number of rows |
 | str (field) | Apply string function. Optional use the field of a table |
+| tags | Read the tags (metadata) for values |
 | to-array | Collapse rows into a single list |
 | to-json | Convert table into .json text |
 | to-toml | Convert table into .toml text |
diff --git a/src/cli.rs b/src/cli.rs
index 5d282ddffd..e57824fb13 100644
--- a/src/cli.rs
+++ b/src/cli.rs
@@ -175,6 +175,7 @@ pub async fn cli() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
             command("to-toml", Box::new(to_toml::to_toml)),
             command("to-yaml", Box::new(to_yaml::to_yaml)),
             command("sort-by", Box::new(sort_by::sort_by)),
+            command("tags", Box::new(tags::tags)),
             Arc::new(Remove),
             Arc::new(Copycp),
             Arc::new(Open),
@@ -496,7 +497,6 @@ fn classify_command(
                     Ok(ClassifiedCommand::Internal(InternalCommand {
                         command,
                         name_span: Some(head.span().clone()),
-                        source_map: context.source_map.clone(),
                         args,
                     }))
                 }
diff --git a/src/commands.rs b/src/commands.rs
index 6e2d348c30..862458c0bf 100644
--- a/src/commands.rs
+++ b/src/commands.rs
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ crate mod sort_by;
 crate mod split_column;
 crate mod split_row;
 crate mod table;
+crate mod tags;
 crate mod to_array;
 crate mod to_csv;
 crate mod to_json;
diff --git a/src/commands/classified.rs b/src/commands/classified.rs
index 8d51089335..47c7d1fc6c 100644
--- a/src/commands/classified.rs
+++ b/src/commands/classified.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 use crate::commands::command::Sink;
-use crate::context::SourceMap;
 use crate::parser::{registry::Args, TokenNode};
 use crate::prelude::*;
 use bytes::{BufMut, BytesMut};
@@ -113,7 +112,6 @@ impl SinkCommand {
 crate struct InternalCommand {
     crate command: Arc<dyn Command>,
     crate name_span: Option<Span>,
-    crate source_map: SourceMap,
     crate args: Args,
 }
 
@@ -135,7 +133,7 @@ impl InternalCommand {
         let result = context.run_command(
             self.command,
             self.name_span.clone(),
-            self.source_map,
+            context.source_map.clone(),
             self.args,
             objects,
         )?;
diff --git a/src/commands/tags.rs b/src/commands/tags.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c34e458ea9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/commands/tags.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+use crate::errors::ShellError;
+use crate::object::{TaggedDictBuilder, Value};
+use crate::prelude::*;
+
+pub fn tags(args: CommandArgs) -> Result<OutputStream, ShellError> {
+    let source_map = args.call_info.source_map.clone();
+    Ok(args
+        .input
+        .values
+        .map(move |v| {
+            let mut tags = TaggedDictBuilder::new(v.span());
+            {
+                let span = v.span();
+                let mut dict = TaggedDictBuilder::new(v.span());
+                dict.insert("start", Value::int(span.start as i64));
+                dict.insert("end", Value::int(span.end as i64));
+                match span.source.map(|x| source_map.get(&x)).flatten() {
+                    Some(SpanSource::File(source)) => {
+                        dict.insert("source", Value::string(source));
+                    }
+                    Some(SpanSource::Url(source)) => {
+                        dict.insert("source", Value::string(source));
+                    }
+                    _ => {}
+                }
+                tags.insert_tagged("span", dict.into_tagged_value());
+            }
+
+            tags.into_tagged_value()
+        })
+        .to_output_stream())
+}
diff --git a/src/object/meta.rs b/src/object/meta.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8fb815a67f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/object/meta.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,203 @@
+use crate::Text;
+use derive_new::new;
+use getset::Getters;
+use serde::Serialize;
+use serde_derive::Deserialize;
+use uuid::Uuid;
+
+#[derive(
+    new, Debug, Clone, Copy, Eq, PartialEq, Ord, PartialOrd, Serialize, Deserialize, Hash, Getters,
+)]
+#[get = "crate"]
+pub struct Tagged<T> {
+    pub tag: Tag,
+    pub item: T,
+}
+
+pub trait TaggedItem: Sized {
+    fn tagged(self, span: impl Into<Span>) -> Tagged<Self> {
+        Tagged::from_item(self, span.into())
+    }
+
+    // For now, this is a temporary facility. In many cases, there are other useful spans that we
+    // could be using, such as the original source spans of JSON or Toml files, but we don't yet
+    // have the infrastructure to make that work.
+    fn tagged_unknown(self) -> Tagged<Self> {
+        Tagged::from_item(self, (0, 0))
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> TaggedItem for T {}
+
+impl<T> std::ops::Deref for Tagged<T> {
+    type Target = T;
+
+    fn deref(&self) -> &T {
+        &self.item
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> Tagged<T> {
+    pub fn tagged(self, span: impl Into<Span>) -> Tagged<T> {
+        Tagged::from_item(self.item, span.into())
+    }
+
+    pub fn from_item(item: T, span: impl Into<Span>) -> Tagged<T> {
+        Tagged {
+            item,
+            tag: Tag { span: span.into() },
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn map<U>(self, input: impl FnOnce(T) -> U) -> Tagged<U> {
+        let span = self.span();
+
+        let mapped = input(self.item);
+        Tagged::from_item(mapped, span)
+    }
+
+    crate fn copy_span<U>(&self, output: U) -> Tagged<U> {
+        let span = self.span();
+
+        Tagged::from_item(output, span)
+    }
+
+    pub fn source(&self, source: &Text) -> Text {
+        Text::from(self.span().slice(source))
+    }
+
+    pub fn span(&self) -> Span {
+        self.tag.span
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> From<&Tagged<T>> for Span {
+    fn from(input: &Tagged<T>) -> Span {
+        input.span()
+    }
+}
+
+impl From<&Span> for Span {
+    fn from(input: &Span) -> Span {
+        *input
+    }
+}
+
+impl From<nom5_locate::LocatedSpan<&str>> for Span {
+    fn from(input: nom5_locate::LocatedSpan<&str>) -> Span {
+        Span {
+            start: input.offset,
+            end: input.offset + input.fragment.len(),
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T> From<(nom5_locate::LocatedSpan<T>, nom5_locate::LocatedSpan<T>)> for Span {
+    fn from(input: (nom5_locate::LocatedSpan<T>, nom5_locate::LocatedSpan<T>)) -> Span {
+        Span {
+            start: input.0.offset,
+            end: input.1.offset,
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl From<(usize, usize)> for Span {
+    fn from(input: (usize, usize)) -> Span {
+        Span {
+            start: input.0,
+            end: input.1,
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl From<&std::ops::Range<usize>> for Span {
+    fn from(input: &std::ops::Range<usize>) -> Span {
+        Span {
+            start: input.start,
+            end: input.end,
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[derive(
+    Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Ord, PartialOrd, Serialize, Deserialize, Hash, Getters,
+)]
+pub struct Tag {
+    pub span: Span,
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Ord, PartialOrd, Serialize, Deserialize, Hash)]
+pub struct Span {
+    crate start: usize,
+    crate end: usize,
+    pub source: Option<Uuid>,
+}
+
+impl From<Option<Span>> for Span {
+    fn from(input: Option<Span>) -> Span {
+        match input {
+            None => Span {
+                start: 0,
+                end: 0,
+                source: None,
+            },
+            Some(span) => span,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl Span {
+    pub fn unknown() -> Span {
+        Span {
+            start: 0,
+            end: 0,
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn unknown_with_uuid(uuid: Uuid) -> Span {
+        Span {
+            start: 0,
+            end: 0,
+            source: Some(uuid),
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn is_unknown(&self) -> bool {
+        self.start == 0 && self.end == 0
+    }
+
+    pub fn slice(&self, source: &'a str) -> &'a str {
+        &source[self.start..self.end]
+    }
+}
+
+impl language_reporting::ReportingSpan for Span {
+    fn with_start(&self, start: usize) -> Self {
+        Span {
+            start,
+            end: self.end,
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    fn with_end(&self, end: usize) -> Self {
+        Span {
+            start: self.start,
+            end,
+            source: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    fn start(&self) -> usize {
+        self.start
+    }
+
+    fn end(&self) -> usize {
+        self.end
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/prelude.rs b/src/prelude.rs
index d1110050db..56a655beac 100644
--- a/src/prelude.rs
+++ b/src/prelude.rs
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ crate use crate::cli::MaybeOwned;
 crate use crate::commands::command::{
     Command, CommandAction, CommandArgs, ReturnSuccess, ReturnValue, Sink, SinkCommandArgs,
 };
-crate use crate::context::Context;
+crate use crate::context::{Context, SpanSource};
 crate use crate::env::host::handle_unexpected;
 crate use crate::env::{Environment, Host};
 crate use crate::errors::ShellError;