diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/buildEntitySearch.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/buildEntitySearch.ts
index bbee57c84f..341420655d 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/buildEntitySearch.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/buildEntitySearch.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import { DEFAULT_NAMESPACE, Entity } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
 import { InputError } from '@backstage/errors';
 import { DbSearchRow } from '../../tables';
+import { NULL_SENTINEL } from './util';
 
 // These are excluded in the generic loop, either because they do not make sense
 // to index, or because they are special-case always inserted whether they are
@@ -235,7 +236,7 @@ export function buildEntitySearch(
   // violate the unique constraint on (entity_id, key, value).
   const seen = new Set<string>();
   return rows.filter(row => {
-    const k = `${row.key}\0${row.value === null ? '\x01' : row.value}`;
+    const k = `${row.key}\0${row.value === null ? NULL_SENTINEL : row.value}`;
     if (seen.has(k)) return false;
     seen.add(k);
     return true;
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/syncSearchRows.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/syncSearchRows.ts
index dce65b4109..1dde84c017 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/syncSearchRows.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/syncSearchRows.ts
@@ -16,15 +16,7 @@
 
 import { Knex } from 'knex';
 import { DbSearchRow } from '../../tables';
-import { BATCH_SIZE } from './util';
-
-// The Postgres sync uses COALESCE(x, NULL_SENTINEL) to allow Postgres to
-// include nullable columns in the Hash Cond of anti-joins (IS NOT DISTINCT
-// FROM prevents this). As a consequence, values that are exactly this
-// sentinel character are not searchable — they would be treated as NULL.
-// This is the SOH (Start of Heading) control character which does not
-// appear in real entity metadata.
-const NULL_SENTINEL = '\x01';
+import { BATCH_SIZE, NULL_SENTINEL } from './util';
 
 function filterSentinelValues(entries: DbSearchRow[]): DbSearchRow[] {
   return entries.filter(
@@ -55,7 +47,9 @@ export async function syncSearchRows(
   // consistently pick the same original_value for a given input order.
   const dedupMap = new Map<string, DbSearchRow>();
   for (const entry of searchEntries) {
-    const k = `${entry.key}\0${entry.value === null ? '\x01' : entry.value}`;
+    const k = `${entry.key}\0${
+      entry.value === null ? NULL_SENTINEL : entry.value
+    }`;
     if (!dedupMap.has(k)) {
       dedupMap.set(k, entry);
     }
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/util.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/util.ts
index 4a2dabcfa6..bac099514a 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/util.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/database/operations/stitcher/util.ts
@@ -24,6 +24,12 @@ import stableStringify from 'fast-json-stable-stringify';
 // enough to get the speed benefits.
 export const BATCH_SIZE = 50;
 
+// The SOH (Start of Heading) control character, used as a stand-in for NULL
+// in contexts where NULL cannot participate in equality comparisons (SQL
+// COALESCE, JS dedup keys). It cannot appear in real entity metadata values
+// since they are human-readable strings.
+export const NULL_SENTINEL = '\x01';
+
 export function generateStableHash(entity: Entity) {
   return createHash('sha1')
     .update(stableStringify({ ...entity }))