diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
index b73159f..1dd0e6b 100644
--- a/RELEASE.md
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -2,6 +2,11 @@
 
 All major changes in each released version of the archfx-cloud plugin are listed here.
 
+## 0.17.0
+
+- Made `ArchFxCloudSlug` (and all its derived classes) usable as a mapping key by overriding the `__hash__()` method.
+- Made `ArchFxCloudSlug` (and all its derived classes) considered equal if their `slug` attributes are equal by overriding the `__eq__()` method.
+
 ## 0.16.0
 
 - Updated `dev` domain in `BaseMain` class to be `http://localhost`.
diff --git a/archfx_cloud/utils/slugs.py b/archfx_cloud/utils/slugs.py
index 7cad4fd..357b38f 100644
--- a/archfx_cloud/utils/slugs.py
+++ b/archfx_cloud/utils/slugs.py
@@ -36,7 +36,15 @@ class ArchFxCloudSlug(object):
     _slug = None
 
     def __str__(self):
-        return self._slug
+        return self._slug or ''
+
+    def __hash__(self):
+        return hash(self._slug)
+
+    def __eq__(self, other):
+        if isinstance(other, ArchFxCloudSlug):
+            return self._slug == other._slug
+        return super().__eq__(other)
 
     def formatted_id(self):
         parts = gid_split(self._slug)
diff --git a/tests/test_slugs.py b/tests/test_slugs.py
index 1bae9db..b2b26b2 100644
--- a/tests/test_slugs.py
+++ b/tests/test_slugs.py
@@ -33,6 +33,21 @@ def test_ArchFxVariableID(name, input, formatted, scope, var):
     assert result.scope == scope
     assert result.scope_hex == f"{scope:04x}"
 
+    other = ArchFxVariableID(input)
+    assert str(result) == str(other)
+    assert hash(result) == hash(other)
+    assert result == other
+
+    other2 = ArchFxVariableID('9999-9999')
+    assert str(result) != str(other2)
+    assert hash(result) != hash(other2)
+    assert result != other2
+
+    mapping = {result: 'value'}
+    assert mapping[result] == 'value'
+    assert mapping[other] == 'value'
+    assert mapping.get(other2) is None
+
 
 class SlugTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
 
diff --git a/version.py b/version.py
index 6e61e44..0631519 100644
--- a/version.py
+++ b/version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-version = '0.16.0'
+version = '0.17.0'