diff --git a/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMeta.java b/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMeta.java
index 0bcb35f7ca..6ed8075b6d 100644
--- a/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMeta.java
+++ b/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMeta.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ package org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.annotation;
 
 import org.antlr.v4.runtime.RecognitionException;
 import org.antlr.v4.runtime.Recognizer;
+import org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.Context;
 import org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.model.MetaAttribute;
 import org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.model.Metamodel;
 import org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.util.Constants;
@@ -18,6 +19,7 @@ import org.hibernate.query.sqm.tree.select.SqmSelectStatement;
 
 import javax.lang.model.element.AnnotationMirror;
 import javax.lang.model.element.AnnotationValue;
+import javax.lang.model.element.Element;
 import java.util.List;
 
 import static java.util.Collections.emptySet;
@@ -94,7 +96,8 @@ public abstract class AnnotationMeta implements Metamodel {
 									// If we are in the scope of @CheckHQL, semantic errors in the
 									// query result in compilation errors. Otherwise, they only
 									// result in warnings, so we don't break working code.
-									new WarningErrorHandler( mirror, value, hql, reportErrors, checkHql ),
+									new WarningErrorHandler( getContext(), getElement(), mirror, value, hql,
+											reportErrors, checkHql ),
 									ProcessorSessionFactory.create( getContext().getProcessingEnvironment() )
 							);
 					if ( statement instanceof SqmSelectStatement
@@ -158,12 +161,29 @@ public abstract class AnnotationMeta implements Metamodel {
 
 	abstract void putMember(String name, MetaAttribute nameMetaAttribute);
 
-	private class WarningErrorHandler extends ErrorHandler {
+	/**
+	 * Adjusts the severity of validation errors that occur type-checking
+	 * a named HQL query, depending on whether we are within the scope
+	 * of a {@link org.hibernate.annotations.processing.CheckHQL} annotation.
+	 * <p>
+	 * We always type-check; but when there's no {@code CheckHQL} in scope,
+	 * we report problems as warnings only. This is necessary, since we don't
+	 * yet accept absolutely everything that is legal: we don't know about
+	 * XML, we don't handle converters, and we don't handle {@code enum}
+	 * types very well.
+	 */
+	private static class WarningErrorHandler extends ErrorHandler {
 		private final boolean reportErrors;
 		private final boolean checkHql;
 
-		public WarningErrorHandler(AnnotationMirror mirror, AnnotationValue value, String hql, boolean reportErrors, boolean checkHql) {
-			super( AnnotationMeta.this.getElement(), mirror, value, hql, AnnotationMeta.this.getContext() );
+		private WarningErrorHandler(
+				Context context,
+				Element element,
+				AnnotationMirror mirror,
+				AnnotationValue value, String hql,
+				boolean reportErrors,
+				boolean checkHql) {
+			super(context, element, mirror, value, hql);
 			this.reportErrors = reportErrors;
 			this.checkHql = checkHql;
 		}
@@ -188,7 +208,9 @@ public abstract class AnnotationMeta implements Metamodel {
 		}
 
 		@Override
-		public void syntaxError(Recognizer<?, ?> recognizer, Object offendingSymbol, int line, int charPositionInLine, String message, RecognitionException e) {
+		public void syntaxError(
+				Recognizer<?, ?> recognizer, Object offendingSymbol, int line, int charPositionInLine,
+				String message, RecognitionException e) {
 			if (reportErrors) {
 				super.syntaxError( recognizer, offendingSymbol, line, charPositionInLine, message, e );
 			}
diff --git a/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMetaEntity.java b/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMetaEntity.java
index bdca68e837..042a527caf 100644
--- a/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMetaEntity.java
+++ b/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/AnnotationMetaEntity.java
@@ -56,6 +56,10 @@ import static org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.util.TypeUtils.getAnnotationValueRef;
 
 /**
  * Class used to collect meta information about an annotated type (entity, embeddable or mapped superclass).
+ * Also repurposed for any type with "auxiliary" annotations like {@code @NamedQuery}, {@code @FetchProfile},
+ * {@code @Find}, or {@code @HQL}. We do not distinguish these two kinds of thing, since an entity class may
+ * {@code @NamedQuery} or {@code @FetchProfile} annotations. Entities may not, however, have methods annotated
+ * {@code @Find} or {@code @HQL}, since entity classes are usually concrete classes.
  *
  * @author Max Andersen
  * @author Hardy Ferentschik
@@ -74,19 +78,19 @@ public class AnnotationMetaEntity extends AnnotationMeta {
 	/**
 	 * Whether the members of this type have already been initialized or not.
 	 * <p>
-	 * Embeddables and mapped superclasses need to be lazily initialized since the access type may be determined by
-	 * the class which is embedding or subclassing the entity or superclass. This might not be known until
+	 * Embeddables and mapped superclasses need to be lazily initialized since the access type may be determined
+	 * by the class which is embedding or subclassing the entity or superclass. This might not be known until
 	 * annotations are processed.
 	 * <p>
 	 * Also note, that if two different classes with different access types embed this entity or extend this mapped
-	 * super-class, the access type of the embeddable/superclass will be the one of the last embedding/subclassing
+	 * superclass, the access type of the embeddable/superclass will be the one of the last embedding/subclassing
 	 * entity processed. The result is not determined (that's ok according to the spec).
 	 */
 	private boolean initialized;
 
 	/**
 	 * Another meta entity for the same type which should be merged lazily with this meta entity. Doing the merge
-	 * lazily is required for embeddedables and mapped supertypes to only pull in those members matching the access
+	 * lazily is required for embeddables and mapped supertypes, to only pull in those members matching the access
 	 * type as configured via the embedding entity or subclass (also see METAGEN-85).
 	 */
 	private Metamodel entityToMerge;
@@ -95,6 +99,10 @@ public class AnnotationMetaEntity extends AnnotationMeta {
 	 * True if this "metamodel class" is actually an instantiable DAO-style repository.
 	 */
 	private boolean dao = false;
+
+	/**
+	 * The type of the "session getter" method of a DAO-style repository.
+	 */
 	private String sessionType = Constants.ENTITY_MANAGER;
 
 	public AnnotationMetaEntity(TypeElement element, Context context) {
@@ -235,23 +243,16 @@ public class AnnotationMetaEntity extends AnnotationMeta {
 		final List<ExecutableElement> methodsOfClass = methodsIn( element.getEnclosedElements() );
 		final List<ExecutableElement> gettersAndSettersOfClass = new ArrayList<>();
 		final List<ExecutableElement> queryMethods = new ArrayList<>();
-		for ( ExecutableElement rawMethodOfClass: methodsOfClass ) {
-			if ( isGetterOrSetter( rawMethodOfClass ) ) {
-				gettersAndSettersOfClass.add( rawMethodOfClass );
+		for ( ExecutableElement method: methodsOfClass ) {
+			if ( isGetterOrSetter( method ) ) {
+				gettersAndSettersOfClass.add( method );
 			}
-			else if ( containsAnnotation( rawMethodOfClass, Constants.HQL, Constants.SQL, Constants.FIND ) ) {
-				queryMethods.add( rawMethodOfClass );
+			else if ( containsAnnotation( method, Constants.HQL, Constants.SQL, Constants.FIND ) ) {
+				queryMethods.add( method );
 			}
 		}
 
-		if ( !containsAnnotation( element, Constants.ENTITY ) ) {
-			for ( ExecutableElement getterOrSetter : gettersAndSettersOfClass ) {
-				if ( isSessionGetter( getterOrSetter ) ) {
-					dao = true;
-					sessionType = addDaoConstructor( getterOrSetter );
-				}
-			}
-		}
+		findSessionGetter( methodsOfClass );
 
 		addPersistentMembers( fieldsOfClass, AccessType.FIELD );
 		addPersistentMembers( gettersAndSettersOfClass, AccessType.PROPERTY );
@@ -265,6 +266,22 @@ public class AnnotationMetaEntity extends AnnotationMeta {
 		initialized = true;
 	}
 
+	private void findSessionGetter(List<ExecutableElement> methodsOfClass) {
+		if ( !containsAnnotation( element, Constants.ENTITY ) ) {
+			for ( ExecutableElement method : methodsOfClass ) {
+				if ( isSessionGetter( method ) ) {
+					dao = true;
+					sessionType = addDaoConstructor( method );
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * If there is a session getter method, we generate an instance
+	 * variable backing it, together with a constructor that initializes
+	 * it.
+	 */
 	private String addDaoConstructor(ExecutableElement getterOrSetter) {
 		String name = getterOrSetter.getSimpleName().toString();
 		String typeName = element.getSimpleName().toString() + '_';
@@ -274,16 +291,23 @@ public class AnnotationMetaEntity extends AnnotationMeta {
 		return sessionType;
 	}
 
-	private static boolean isSessionGetter(ExecutableElement getterOrSetter) {
-		final TypeMirror type = getterOrSetter.getReturnType();
-		if ( type.getKind() == TypeKind.DECLARED ) {
-			final DeclaredType declaredType = (DeclaredType) type;
-			final Element element = declaredType.asElement();
-			if ( element.getKind() == ElementKind.INTERFACE ) {
-				final Name name = ((TypeElement) element).getQualifiedName();
-				return name.contentEquals(Constants.HIB_SESSION)
-					|| name.contentEquals(Constants.HIB_STATELESS_SESSION)
-					|| name.contentEquals(Constants.ENTITY_MANAGER);
+	/**
+	 * The session getter method doesn't have to be a JavaBeans-style
+	 * getter. It can be any method with no parameters and one of the
+	 * needed return types.
+	 */
+	private static boolean isSessionGetter(ExecutableElement method) {
+		if ( method.getParameters().isEmpty() ) {
+			final TypeMirror type = method.getReturnType();
+			if ( type.getKind() == TypeKind.DECLARED ) {
+				final DeclaredType declaredType = (DeclaredType) type;
+				final Element element = declaredType.asElement();
+				if ( element.getKind() == ElementKind.INTERFACE ) {
+					final Name name = ((TypeElement) element).getQualifiedName();
+					return name.contentEquals(Constants.HIB_SESSION)
+						|| name.contentEquals(Constants.HIB_STATELESS_SESSION)
+						|| name.contentEquals(Constants.ENTITY_MANAGER);
+				}
 			}
 		}
 		return false;
@@ -684,7 +708,7 @@ public class AnnotationMetaEntity extends AnnotationMeta {
 							hql,
 							false, true,
 							emptySet(), emptySet(),
-							new ErrorHandler( method, mirror, value, hql, context ),
+							new ErrorHandler(context, method, mirror, value, hql),
 							ProcessorSessionFactory.create( context.getProcessingEnvironment() )
 					);
 				}
diff --git a/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/ErrorHandler.java b/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/ErrorHandler.java
index cadeebaac5..ce43b7cddb 100644
--- a/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/ErrorHandler.java
+++ b/tooling/metamodel-generator/src/main/java/org/hibernate/jpamodelgen/annotation/ErrorHandler.java
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ import java.util.BitSet;
 import static org.hibernate.query.hql.internal.StandardHqlTranslator.prettifyAntlrError;
 
 /**
+ * Responsible for forwarding errors from the HQL typechecker to the Java compiler,
+ * via {@link Context#message}.
+ *
  * @author Gavin King
  */
 class ErrorHandler implements Validation.Handler {
@@ -33,11 +36,11 @@ class ErrorHandler implements Validation.Handler {
 	private final Context context;
 	private int errorCount;
 
-	public ErrorHandler(Element element, AnnotationMirror mirror, AnnotationValue value, String queryString, Context context) {
+	public ErrorHandler(Context context, Element element, AnnotationMirror mirror, AnnotationValue value, String hql) {
 		this.element = element;
 		this.mirror = mirror;
 		this.value = value;
-		this.queryString = queryString;
+		this.queryString = hql;
 		this.context = context;
 	}