diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/migrationsv2/20210302150147_refresh_state.js b/plugins/catalog-backend/migrationsv2/20210302150147_refresh_state.js
index 7b0cf9b2a6..4c03405910 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/migrationsv2/20210302150147_refresh_state.js
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/migrationsv2/20210302150147_refresh_state.js
@@ -83,10 +83,18 @@ exports.up = async function up(knex) {
       .inTable('refresh_state')
       .onDelete('CASCADE')
       .comment(
-        'Entity ID which correspond to the ID in the refresh_state table',
+        'Entity ID which corresponds to the ID in the refresh_state table',
       );
-    table.text('etag').notNullable().comment('Etag to be used for caching');
-    table.text('finalized_entity').notNullable().comment('The final entity');
+    table
+      .text('hash')
+      .notNullable()
+      .comment(
+        'Stable hash of the entity data, to be used for caching and avoiding redundant work',
+      );
+    table
+      .text('final_entity')
+      .notNullable()
+      .comment('The JSON encoded final entity');
     table.index('entity_id', 'final_entities_entity_id_idx');
   });
 
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/NextEntitiesCatalog.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/NextEntitiesCatalog.ts
index 5bddd47f41..e87bb01e1f 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/NextEntitiesCatalog.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/NextEntitiesCatalog.ts
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ export class NextEntitiesCatalog implements EntitiesCatalog {
       'final_entities',
     ).select();
 
-    const entities = dbResponse.map(e => JSON.parse(e.finalized_entity));
+    const entities = dbResponse.map(e => JSON.parse(e.final_entity));
 
     return {
       entities,
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.test.ts
index 327d922c07..f38af384fa 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.test.ts
@@ -74,12 +74,12 @@ describe('Stitcher', () => {
 
     await stitcher.stitch(new Set(['k:ns/n']));
 
-    let firstEtag: string;
+    let firstHash: string;
     await db.transaction(async tx => {
       const entities = await tx<DbFinalEntitiesRow>('final_entities');
 
       expect(entities.length).toBe(1);
-      const entity = JSON.parse(entities[0].finalized_entity);
+      const entity = JSON.parse(entities[0].final_entity);
       expect(entity).toEqual({
         relations: [
           {
@@ -105,12 +105,13 @@ describe('Stitcher', () => {
         },
       });
 
-      firstEtag = entity.metadata.etag;
+      expect(entity.metadata.etag).toEqual(entities[0].hash);
+      firstHash = entities[0].hash;
 
       const search = await tx<DbSearchRow>('search');
       expect(search).toEqual(
         expect.arrayContaining([
-          { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'relations', value: 'looksat:k:ns/other' },
+          { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'relations.looksat', value: 'k:ns/other' },
           { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'apiversion', value: 'a' },
           { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'kind', value: 'k' },
           { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'metadata.name', value: 'n' },
@@ -127,9 +128,9 @@ describe('Stitcher', () => {
     await db.transaction(async tx => {
       const entities = await tx<DbFinalEntitiesRow>('final_entities');
       expect(entities.length).toBe(1);
-      const entity = JSON.parse(entities[0].finalized_entity);
-      expect(entities[0].etag).toEqual(firstEtag);
-      expect(entity.metadata.etag).toEqual(firstEtag);
+      const entity = JSON.parse(entities[0].final_entity);
+      expect(entities[0].hash).toEqual(firstHash);
+      expect(entity.metadata.etag).toEqual(firstHash);
     });
 
     // Now add one more relation and re-stitch
@@ -150,7 +151,7 @@ describe('Stitcher', () => {
       const entities = await tx<DbFinalEntitiesRow>('final_entities');
 
       expect(entities.length).toBe(1);
-      const entity = JSON.parse(entities[0].finalized_entity);
+      const entity = JSON.parse(entities[0].final_entity);
       expect(entity).toEqual({
         relations: expect.arrayContaining([
           {
@@ -184,14 +185,14 @@ describe('Stitcher', () => {
         },
       });
 
-      expect(entities[0].etag).not.toEqual(firstEtag);
-      expect(entities[0].etag).toEqual(entity.metadata.etag);
+      expect(entities[0].hash).not.toEqual(firstHash);
+      expect(entities[0].hash).toEqual(entity.metadata.etag);
 
       const search = await tx<DbSearchRow>('search');
       expect(search).toEqual(
         expect.arrayContaining([
-          { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'relations', value: 'looksat:k:ns/other' },
-          { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'relations', value: 'looksat:k:ns/third' },
+          { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'relations.looksat', value: 'k:ns/other' },
+          { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'relations.looksat', value: 'k:ns/third' },
           { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'apiversion', value: 'a' },
           { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'kind', value: 'k' },
           { entity_id: 'my-id', key: 'metadata.name', value: 'n' },
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.ts
index cd9220e934..bdc028d923 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/Stitcher.ts
@@ -31,11 +31,11 @@ const BATCH_SIZE = 50;
 
 export type DbFinalEntitiesRow = {
   entity_id: string;
-  etag: string;
-  finalized_entity: string;
+  hash: string;
+  final_entity: string;
 };
 
-function generateEntityEtag(entity: Entity) {
+function generateStableHash(entity: Entity) {
   return createHash('sha1')
     .update(stableStringify({ ...entity }))
     .digest('hex');
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ export class Stitcher {
           processedEntity?: string;
           errors: string;
           incomingReferenceCount: string | number;
-          previousEtag?: string;
+          previousHash?: string;
           relationType?: string;
           relationTarget?: string;
         }> = await tx
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ export class Stitcher {
             processedEntity: 'refresh_state.processed_entity',
             errors: 'refresh_state.errors',
             incomingReferenceCount: 'incoming_references.count',
-            previousEtag: 'final_entities.etag',
+            previousHash: 'final_entities.hash',
             relationType: 'relations.type',
             relationTarget: 'relations.target_entity_ref',
           })
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ export class Stitcher {
           processedEntity,
           // errors,
           incomingReferenceCount,
-          previousEtag,
+          previousHash,
         } = result[0];
 
         // If there was no processed entity in place, the target hasn't been
@@ -125,7 +125,8 @@ export class Stitcher {
           return;
         }
 
-        // Grab the processed entity and stitch all of the relevant data into it
+        // Grab the processed entity and stitch all of the relevant data into
+        // it
         const entity = JSON.parse(processedEntity) as Entity;
         const isOrphan = Number(incomingReferenceCount) === 0;
 
@@ -137,33 +138,38 @@ export class Stitcher {
           };
         }
 
-        // TODO: entityRef is lower case and should be uppercase in the final result
+        // TODO: entityRef is lower case and should be uppercase in the final
+        // result
         entity.relations = result
-          .filter(row => row.relationType)
+          .filter(row => row.relationType /* exclude null row, if relevant */)
           .map(row => ({
             type: row.relationType!,
             target: parseEntityRef(row.relationTarget!),
           }));
 
         // If the output entity was actually not changed, just abort
-        const etag = generateEntityEtag(entity);
-        if (etag === previousEtag) {
+        const hash = generateStableHash(entity);
+        if (hash === previousHash) {
           this.logger.debug(`Skipped stitching of ${entityRef}, no changes`);
           return;
         }
 
         entity.metadata.uid = entityId;
         entity.metadata.generation = 1;
-        entity.metadata.etag = etag;
+        if (!entity.metadata.etag) {
+          // If the original data source did not have its own etag handling,
+          // use the hash as a good-quality etag
+          entity.metadata.etag = hash;
+        }
 
         await tx<DbFinalEntitiesRow>('final_entities')
           .insert({
             entity_id: entityId,
-            finalized_entity: JSON.stringify(entity),
-            etag,
+            final_entity: JSON.stringify(entity),
+            hash,
           })
           .onConflict('entity_id')
-          .merge(['finalized_entity', 'etag']);
+          .merge(['final_entity', 'hash']);
 
         const searchEntries = buildEntitySearch(entityId, entity);
         await tx<DbSearchRow>('search').where({ entity_id: entityId }).delete();
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.test.ts
index be9a98fe69..ff1cba01b9 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.test.ts
@@ -152,8 +152,8 @@ describe('search', () => {
           key: 'metadata.namespace',
           value: ENTITY_DEFAULT_NAMESPACE,
         },
-        { entity_id: 'eid', key: 'relations', value: 't1:k:ns/a' },
-        { entity_id: 'eid', key: 'relations', value: 't2:k:ns/b' },
+        { entity_id: 'eid', key: 'relations.t1', value: 'k:ns/a' },
+        { entity_id: 'eid', key: 'relations.t2', value: 'k:ns/b' },
       ]);
     });
   });
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.ts
index 4aa8bae1a8..5ff0721f91 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/search.ts
@@ -182,8 +182,8 @@ export function buildEntitySearch(
   // Visit relations
   for (const relation of entity.relations ?? []) {
     raw.push({
-      key: 'relations',
-      value: `${relation.type}:${stringifyEntityRef(relation.target)}`,
+      key: `relations.${relation.type}`,
+      value: stringifyEntityRef(relation.target),
     });
   }