diff --git a/packages/catalog-model/src/entity/policies/FieldFormatEntityPolicy.ts b/packages/catalog-model/src/entity/policies/FieldFormatEntityPolicy.ts
index 20a3724079..7193c1a89b 100644
--- a/packages/catalog-model/src/entity/policies/FieldFormatEntityPolicy.ts
+++ b/packages/catalog-model/src/entity/policies/FieldFormatEntityPolicy.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,12 @@
  */
 
 import { EntityPolicy } from '../../types';
-import { makeValidator, Validators } from '../../validation';
+import {
+  CommonValidatorFunctions,
+  KubernetesValidatorFunctions,
+  makeValidator,
+  Validators,
+} from '../../validation';
 import { Entity } from '../Entity';
 
 /**
@@ -50,7 +55,47 @@ export class FieldFormatEntityPolicy implements EntityPolicy {
       }
 
       if (!isValid) {
-        throw new Error(`${field} "${value}" is not valid`);
+        let expectation;
+        switch (
+          validator.name as
+            | keyof typeof KubernetesValidatorFunctions
+            | keyof typeof CommonValidatorFunctions
+        ) {
+          case 'isValidLabelValue':
+          case 'isValidObjectName':
+            expectation =
+              'a string that is sequences of [a-zA-Z0-9] separated by any of [-_.], at most 63 characters in total';
+            break;
+          case 'isValidLabelKey':
+          case 'isValidApiVersion':
+          case 'isValidAnnotationKey':
+            expectation = 'a valid prefix and/or suffix';
+            break;
+          case 'isValidNamespace':
+          case 'isValidDnsLabel':
+            expectation =
+              'a string that is sequences of [a-zA-Z0-9] separated by [-], at most 63 characters in total';
+            break;
+          case 'isValidAnnotationValue':
+            expectation = 'a string';
+            break;
+          case 'isValidKind':
+            expectation =
+              'a string that is a sequence of [a-zA-Z][a-z0-9A-Z], at most 63 characters in total';
+            break;
+          default:
+            expectation = undefined;
+            break;
+        }
+
+        // ensure that if there are other/future validators, the error message defaults to a general "is not valid, visit link"
+        const message = expectation
+          ? ` expected ${expectation} but found "${value}".`
+          : '';
+
+        throw new Error(
+          `"${field}" is not valid;${message} To learn more about catalog file format, visit: https://github.com/spotify/backstage/blob/master/docs/architecture-decisions/adr002-default-catalog-file-format.md`,
+        );
       }
     }
 
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/HigherOrderOperations.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/HigherOrderOperations.ts
index 23f35a4945..cb161d1ccf 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/HigherOrderOperations.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/HigherOrderOperations.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-import { InputError } from '@backstage/backend-common';
 import { Location, LocationSpec } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
 import { v4 as uuidv4 } from 'uuid';
 import { Logger } from 'winston';
@@ -81,9 +80,7 @@ export class HigherOrderOperations implements HigherOrderOperation {
     const readerOutput = await this.locationReader.read(spec);
     if (!(spec.presence === 'optional') && readerOutput.errors.length) {
       const item = readerOutput.errors[0];
-      throw new InputError(
-        `Failed to read location ${item.location.type}:${item.location.target}, ${item.error}`,
-      );
+      throw item.error;
     }
 
     // TODO(freben): At this point, we could detect orphaned entities, by way
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/LocationReaders.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/LocationReaders.ts
index 215bfc9dc1..11ae45cae9 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/LocationReaders.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/ingestion/LocationReaders.ts
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ export class LocationReaders implements LocationReader {
           );
         } catch (e) {
           const message = `Processor ${processor.constructor.name} threw an error while preprocessing entity ${kind}:${namespace}/${name} at ${item.location.type} ${item.location.target}, ${e}`;
-          emit(result.generalError(item.location, message));
+          emit(result.generalError(item.location, e.message));
           logger.warn(message);
           return undefined;
         }
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ export class LocationReaders implements LocationReader {
       current = next;
     } catch (e) {
       const message = `Policy check failed while analyzing entity ${kind}:${namespace}/${name} at ${item.location.type} ${item.location.target}, ${e}`;
-      emit(result.inputError(item.location, message));
+      emit(result.inputError(item.location, e.message));
       logger.warn(message);
       return undefined;
     }