diff --git a/cli/server/convertJsonSchemas.js b/cli/server/convertJsonSchemas.js
index ccd8ec32d..3941196cb 100644
--- a/cli/server/convertJsonSchemas.js
+++ b/cli/server/convertJsonSchemas.js
@@ -88,8 +88,6 @@ const setAuthorInfo = (v2, meta, tree) => {
 const setMiscMetaProperties = (v2, meta) => {
   // TITLE (required)
   v2.title = meta.title;
-  // VERSION (not required)
-  v2.version = "2.0-alpha.0";
   // UPDATED (required)
   v2.updated = meta.updated;
   if (!v2.updated) {
@@ -271,14 +269,17 @@ const storeTreeAsV2 = (v2, tree) => {
 
 
 const convertFromV1 = ({tree, meta, treeName}) => {
-  const v2 = {};
-  setColorings(v2, meta);
-  setMiscMetaProperties(v2, meta);
-  setAuthorInfo(v2, meta, tree);
+  const v2 = {
+    "version": "2.0",
+    "meta": {}
+  };
+  setColorings(v2["meta"], meta);
+  setMiscMetaProperties(v2["meta"], meta);
+  setAuthorInfo(v2["meta"], meta, tree);
   setVaccineChoicesOnNodes(meta, tree);
   storeTreeAsV2(v2, tree);
   if (treeName) {
-    v2.tree_name = treeName;
+    v2["meta"].tree_name = treeName;
   }
   return v2;
 };
diff --git a/examples/minimal.json b/examples/minimal.json
index 5669c26b3..0e754452e 100644
--- a/examples/minimal.json
+++ b/examples/minimal.json
@@ -1,120 +1,122 @@
 {
-  "title": "Minimal (v2) auspice spec based on Zika pipeline",
-  "updated": "02 Apr 2019",
   "version": "2.0",
-  "maintainers": [
-    {
-      "url": "http://bedford.io/team/trevor-bedford/",
-      "name": "Trevor Bedford"
-    }
-  ],
-  "panels": [
-    "tree",
-    "map"
-  ],
-  "filters": [
-    "country",
-    "region"
-  ],
-  "display_defaults": {
-    "color_by": "country"
-  },
-  "geographic_info": {
-    "country": {
-      "american_samoa": {
-        "latitude": -14.27806,
-        "longitude": -170.7025
-      },
-      "brazil": {
-        "latitude": -10.3333332,
-        "longitude": -53.1999999
-      },
-      "honduras": {
-        "latitude": 15.0610686,
-        "longitude": -84.5978533
-      },
-      "dominican_republic": {
-        "latitude": 18.50012,
-        "longitude": -69.98857
-      },
-      "usa": {
-        "latitude": 39.7837304,
-        "longitude": -100.4458824
-      },
-      "singapore": {
-        "latitude": 1.2904527,
-        "longitude": 103.852038
-      },
-      "venezuela": {
-        "latitude": 8,
-        "longitude": -66
-      },
-      "panama": {
-        "latitude": 8.3096067,
-        "longitude": -81.3066245
-      },
-      "puerto_rico": {
-        "latitude": 18.2459121,
-        "longitude": -66.4164147
-      },
-      "guatemala": {
-        "latitude": 15.6356088,
-        "longitude": -89.8988086
-      },
-      "colombia": {
-        "latitude": 2.893108,
-        "longitude": -73.7845142
-      },
-      "french_polynesia": {
-        "latitude": -17.6797,
-        "longitude": -149.4068
-      },
-      "thailand": {
-        "latitude": 14.8971921,
-        "longitude": 100.83273
-      },
-      "nicaragua": {
-        "latitude": 13,
-        "longitude": -85
-      },
-      "ecuador": {
-        "latitude": -1.3397667,
-        "longitude": -79.3666964
+  "meta":{
+    "title": "Minimal (v2) auspice spec based on Zika pipeline",
+    "updated": "02 Apr 2019",
+    "maintainers": [
+      {
+        "url": "http://bedford.io/team/trevor-bedford/",
+        "name": "Trevor Bedford"
       }
+    ],
+    "panels": [
+      "tree",
+      "map"
+    ],
+    "filters": [
+      "country",
+      "region"
+    ],
+    "display_defaults": {
+      "color_by": "country"
     },
-    "region": {
-      "southeast_asia": {
-        "latitude": 3.020567,
-        "longitude": 112.390683
+    "geographic_info": {
+      "country": {
+        "american_samoa": {
+          "latitude": -14.27806,
+          "longitude": -170.7025
+        },
+        "brazil": {
+          "latitude": -10.3333332,
+          "longitude": -53.1999999
+        },
+        "honduras": {
+          "latitude": 15.0610686,
+          "longitude": -84.5978533
+        },
+        "dominican_republic": {
+          "latitude": 18.50012,
+          "longitude": -69.98857
+        },
+        "usa": {
+          "latitude": 39.7837304,
+          "longitude": -100.4458824
+        },
+        "singapore": {
+          "latitude": 1.2904527,
+          "longitude": 103.852038
+        },
+        "venezuela": {
+          "latitude": 8,
+          "longitude": -66
+        },
+        "panama": {
+          "latitude": 8.3096067,
+          "longitude": -81.3066245
+        },
+        "puerto_rico": {
+          "latitude": 18.2459121,
+          "longitude": -66.4164147
+        },
+        "guatemala": {
+          "latitude": 15.6356088,
+          "longitude": -89.8988086
+        },
+        "colombia": {
+          "latitude": 2.893108,
+          "longitude": -73.7845142
+        },
+        "french_polynesia": {
+          "latitude": -17.6797,
+          "longitude": -149.4068
+        },
+        "thailand": {
+          "latitude": 14.8971921,
+          "longitude": 100.83273
+        },
+        "nicaragua": {
+          "latitude": 13,
+          "longitude": -85
+        },
+        "ecuador": {
+          "latitude": -1.3397667,
+          "longitude": -79.3666964
+        }
       },
-      "oceania": {
-        "latitude": -25.0562891,
-        "longitude": 152.008576
+      "region": {
+        "southeast_asia": {
+          "latitude": 3.020567,
+          "longitude": 112.390683
+        },
+        "oceania": {
+          "latitude": -25.0562891,
+          "longitude": 152.008576
+        },
+        "north_america": {
+          "latitude": 28.2367447,
+          "longitude": -97.738017
+        },
+        "south_america": {
+          "latitude": -13.083583,
+          "longitude": -58.470721
+        }
+      }
+    },
+    "colorings": {
+      "country": {
+        "type": "categorical",
+        "title": "country"
       },
-      "north_america": {
-        "latitude": 28.2367447,
-        "longitude": -97.738017
+      "region": {
+        "type": "categorical",
+        "title": "region"
       },
-      "south_america": {
-        "latitude": -13.083583,
-        "longitude": -58.470721
+      "num_date": {
+        "type": "continuous",
+        "title": "Sampling date"
       }
     }
   },
-  "colorings": {
-    "country": {
-      "type": "categorical",
-      "title": "country"
-    },
-    "region": {
-      "type": "categorical",
-      "title": "region"
-    },
-    "num_date": {
-      "type": "continuous",
-      "title": "Sampling date"
-    }
-  },
   "tree": {
     "name": "NODE_0000031",
     "div": 0,
diff --git a/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js b/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js
index 8352f22d5..7bd7b9cce 100644
--- a/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js
+++ b/src/actions/recomputeReduxState.js
@@ -489,29 +489,29 @@ const modifyControlsViaTreeToo = (controls, name) => {
 };
 
 /**
- * TODO -- this will change with https://github.com/nextstrain/auspice/issues/755
+ *
  * A lot of this is simply changing augur's snake_case to auspice's camelCase
  */
 const createMetadataStateFromJSON = (json) => {
   const metadata = {};
-  if (json.colorings) {
-    metadata.colorings = json.colorings;
+  if (json.meta.colorings) {
+    metadata.colorings = json.meta.colorings;
   }
-  metadata.title = json.title;
-  metadata.updated = json.updated;
+  metadata.title = json.meta.title;
+  metadata.updated = json.meta.updated;
   if (json.version) {
     metadata.version = json.version;
   }
-  if (json.genome_annotations) {
-    metadata.genomeAnnotations = json.genome_annotations;
+  if (json.meta.genome_annotations) {
+    metadata.genomeAnnotations = json.meta.genome_annotations;
   }
-  if (json.filters) {
-    metadata.filters = json.filters;
+  if (json.meta.filters) {
+    metadata.filters = json.meta.filters;
   }
-  if (json.panels) {
-    metadata.panels = json.panels;
+  if (json.meta.panels) {
+    metadata.panels = json.meta.panels;
   }
-  if (json.display_defaults) {
+  if (json.meta.display_defaults) {
     metadata.displayDefaults = {};
     const jsonKeyToAuspiceKey = {
       color_by: "colorBy",
@@ -521,13 +521,13 @@ const createMetadataStateFromJSON = (json) => {
       layout: "layout"
     };
     for (const [jsonKey, auspiceKey] of Object.entries(jsonKeyToAuspiceKey)) {
-      if (json.display_defaults[jsonKey]) {
-        metadata.displayDefaults[auspiceKey] = json.display_defaults[jsonKey];
+      if (json.meta.display_defaults[jsonKey]) {
+        metadata.displayDefaults[auspiceKey] = json.meta.display_defaults[jsonKey];
       }
     }
   }
-  if (json.geographic_info) {
-    metadata.geographicInfo = json.geographic_info;
+  if (json.meta.geographic_info) {
+    metadata.geographicInfo = json.meta.geographic_info;
   }