Techniques are provided for inlining data in inodes of a file system. In an example, data (e.g., a file) is to be written to storage. Where the data is small enough to fit in an inode, it can be written to a dynamic area of the inode. Where dynamic attributes of the inode conflict with storing the data, the dynamic attributes can be spilled to a metadata block. Where the inlined data becomes too large to be stored in the inode, it can be spilled to a data block, and a metadata tree can be written to the inode. Where data that was previously too large to inline is truncated so that now it can be written to the inode, the data is inlined in the inode from a data block.