Mechanisms are provided to implement an auto-propagation tagging engine. For a selected first content item in a content item ontology, an auto-propagation metadata tag is retrieved. For the auto-propagation metadata tag a corresponding auto-propagation distance property stored in a corresponding entry, associated with the auto-propagation metadata tag, in an auto-propagation metadata tag mapping data structure is identified. The auto-propagation metadata tag is propagated to a related second content item based on a traversal of the content item ontology. The related second content item is within a distance, in the content item ontology, of the selected first content item corresponding to the auto-propagation distance property. The related second content item is modified to include the auto-propagation metadata tag in content of metadata associated with the related second content item to generate an updated content item which is output to a publishing tool of a content management system for publication.