How should equals and hashCode be implemented for JPA entities?

I first ask whether entities need value-style equality at all. Within one persistence context, identity-map behavior already provides the same managed instance, and DTOs or value objects often belong in sets more naturally. If equality is required across contexts, I test transient entities, assigned identifiers, post-persist state, detached reloads, proxies, subclasses if allowed, and hash collections. I exclude lazy associations and mutable collections from equality because comparison must not trigger database access or recursion.