1. A method, comprising: receiving from a requestor, at a computer system, an identifier and a request for metadata, the metadata based on an imperative statement of a program executing in a managed runtime environment, the identifier serving as at least a portion of lookup data usable to obtain the metadata, the imperative statement including one or more of: the metadata, code that when executed computes the metadata, or a reference to code that when executed computes the metadata, wherein the metadata does not influence the logical flow of the program but influences the behavior of the managed runtime environment; obtaining, by the computer system, a parameter that indicates how to obtain the metadata; obtaining, by the computer system, the metadata based on the lookup data and the parameter; and providing, by the computer system, the metadata to the requestor.