diff --git a/generate/definitions/03_metadata b/generate/definitions/03_metadata
index 9397761e..12518601 100644
--- a/generate/definitions/03_metadata
+++ b/generate/definitions/03_metadata
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // MetadataRequest requests metadata from Kafka.
-MetadataRequest => key 3, max version 11, flexible v9+
+MetadataRequest => key 3, max version 12, flexible v9+
   // Topics is a list of topics to return metadata about. If this is null
   // in v1+, all topics are included. If this is empty, no topics are.
   // For v0 (<Kafka 0.10.0.0), if this is empty, all topics are included.
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ MetadataResponse =>
     // There can be a myriad of other errors for unsuccessful topic creation.
     ErrorCode: int16
     // Topic is the topic this metadata corresponds to.
-    Topic: string
+    Topic: nullable-string
     // The topic ID.
     TopicID: uuid // v10+
     // IsInternal signifies whether this topic is a Kafka internal topic.
diff --git a/pkg/kmsg/generated.go b/pkg/kmsg/generated.go
index f8b5a070..d1ef54ac 100644
--- a/pkg/kmsg/generated.go
+++ b/pkg/kmsg/generated.go
@@ -5189,7 +5189,7 @@ type MetadataRequest struct {
 }
 
 func (*MetadataRequest) Key() int16                 { return 3 }
-func (*MetadataRequest) MaxVersion() int16          { return 11 }
+func (*MetadataRequest) MaxVersion() int16          { return 12 }
 func (v *MetadataRequest) SetVersion(version int16) { v.Version = version }
 func (v *MetadataRequest) GetVersion() int16        { return v.Version }
 func (v *MetadataRequest) IsFlexible() bool         { return v.Version >= 9 }
@@ -5484,7 +5484,7 @@ type MetadataResponseTopic struct {
 	ErrorCode int16
 
 	// Topic is the topic this metadata corresponds to.
-	Topic string
+	Topic *string
 
 	// The topic ID.
 	TopicID [16]byte // v10+
@@ -5563,7 +5563,7 @@ type MetadataResponse struct {
 }
 
 func (*MetadataResponse) Key() int16                 { return 3 }
-func (*MetadataResponse) MaxVersion() int16          { return 11 }
+func (*MetadataResponse) MaxVersion() int16          { return 12 }
 func (v *MetadataResponse) SetVersion(version int16) { v.Version = version }
 func (v *MetadataResponse) GetVersion() int16        { return v.Version }
 func (v *MetadataResponse) IsFlexible() bool         { return v.Version >= 9 }
@@ -5646,9 +5646,9 @@ func (v *MetadataResponse) AppendTo(dst []byte) []byte {
 			{
 				v := v.Topic
 				if isFlexible {
-					dst = kbin.AppendCompactString(dst, v)
+					dst = kbin.AppendCompactNullableString(dst, v)
 				} else {
-					dst = kbin.AppendString(dst, v)
+					dst = kbin.AppendNullableString(dst, v)
 				}
 			}
 			if version >= 10 {
@@ -5848,11 +5848,11 @@ func (v *MetadataResponse) ReadFrom(src []byte) error {
 				s.ErrorCode = v
 			}
 			{
-				var v string
+				var v *string
 				if isFlexible {
-					v = b.CompactString()
+					v = b.CompactNullableString()
 				} else {
-					v = b.String()
+					v = b.NullableString()
 				}
 				s.Topic = v
 			}
diff --git a/pkg/kversion/kversion.go b/pkg/kversion/kversion.go
index ee4de385..a51d9973 100644
--- a/pkg/kversion/kversion.go
+++ b/pkg/kversion/kversion.go
@@ -868,8 +868,8 @@ var maxTip = nextMax(max280, func(v listenerKeys) listenerKeys {
 	// KAFKA-10580 2b8aff58b575c199ee8372e5689420c9d77357a5 KIP-516
 	v[1].inc() // 13 fetch
 
+	// KAFKA-10744 1d22b0d70686aef5689b775ea2ea7610a37f3e8c KIP-516
+	v[3].inc() // 12 metadata
+
 	return v
 })
-
-// NOTE when adding to this, be sure to update any raw usages of requests in
-// kgo (because we do not go through NewXyzRequest() to set fields).