diff --git a/agent/consul/state/intention.go b/agent/consul/state/intention.go
index ba3871ea56..b737318ee7 100644
--- a/agent/consul/state/intention.go
+++ b/agent/consul/state/intention.go
@@ -125,6 +125,12 @@ func (s *Store) intentionSetTxn(tx *memdb.Txn, idx uint64, ixn *structs.Intentio
 	}
 	ixn.ModifyIndex = idx
 
+	// We always force meta to be non-nil so that we its an empty map.
+	// This makes it easy for API responses to not nil-check this everywhere.
+	if ixn.Meta == nil {
+		ixn.Meta = make(map[string]string)
+	}
+
 	// Insert
 	if err := tx.Insert(intentionsTableName, ixn); err != nil {
 		return err
diff --git a/agent/consul/state/intention_test.go b/agent/consul/state/intention_test.go
index 1bfb6d248e..dd7d9fcdf3 100644
--- a/agent/consul/state/intention_test.go
+++ b/agent/consul/state/intention_test.go
@@ -154,6 +154,53 @@ func TestStore_IntentionSet_updateCreatedAt(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestStore_IntentionSet_metaNil(t *testing.T) {
+	s := testStateStore(t)
+
+	// Build a valid intention
+	ixn := structs.Intention{
+		ID: testUUID(),
+	}
+
+	// Insert
+	if err := s.IntentionSet(1, &ixn); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	// Read it back and verify
+	_, actual, err := s.IntentionGet(nil, ixn.ID)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+	if actual.Meta == nil {
+		t.Fatal("meta should be non-nil")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestStore_IntentionSet_metaSet(t *testing.T) {
+	s := testStateStore(t)
+
+	// Build a valid intention
+	ixn := structs.Intention{
+		ID:   testUUID(),
+		Meta: map[string]string{"foo": "bar"},
+	}
+
+	// Insert
+	if err := s.IntentionSet(1, &ixn); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	// Read it back and verify
+	_, actual, err := s.IntentionGet(nil, ixn.ID)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("err: %s", err)
+	}
+	if !reflect.DeepEqual(actual.Meta, ixn.Meta) {
+		t.Fatalf("bad: %#v", actual)
+	}
+}
+
 func TestStore_IntentionDelete(t *testing.T) {
 	s := testStateStore(t)
 
diff --git a/agent/structs/intention.go b/agent/structs/intention.go
index b60c366255..0a7d8c5d4a 100644
--- a/agent/structs/intention.go
+++ b/agent/structs/intention.go
@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ type Intention struct {
 	// ID is the UUID-based ID for the intention, always generated by Consul.
 	ID string
 
+	// Description is a human-friendly description of this intention.
+	// It is opaque to Consul and is only stored and transferred in API
+	// requests.
+	Description string
+
 	// SourceNS, SourceName are the namespace and name, respectively, of
 	// the source service. Either of these may be the wildcard "*", but only
 	// the full value can be a wildcard. Partial wildcards are not allowed.