diff --git a/bin/fetch-cache-version b/bin/fetch-cache-version
index debd4662..cb8a03e2 100755
--- a/bin/fetch-cache-version
+++ b/bin/fetch-cache-version
@@ -1,20 +1,21 @@
 #!/bin/bash
+set -euo pipefail
 
-# this script intentionally doesn't `set -euo pipefail`
-# because otherwise the `head -n 2` step triggers SIGPIPE
-# causing the script to exit before it is done.
+nextclade_version="${1:?An S3 URL for the Nextclade version JSON is required as the first argument}"
+nextclade_tsv="${2:?An S3 URL for the Nextclade TSV is requried as the second argument}"
 
-s3_url="${1:?An S3 URL is required as the first argument}"
+no_hash=0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
+s3path="${nextclade_tsv#s3://}"
+bucket="${s3path%%/*}"
+key="${s3path#*/}"
 
+nextclade_tsv_sha256sum="$(aws s3api head-object --bucket "$bucket" --key "$key" --query Metadata.sha256sum --output text 2>/dev/null || echo "$no_hash")"
+nextclade_version_json="$(aws s3 cp "$nextclade_version" -)"
+version_json_sha256sum="$(echo nextclade_version_json | jq '.nextclade_tsv_sha256sum')"
 
-trap '' SIGPIPE
-
-(aws s3 cp "$s3_url" - \
-    | zstd -T0 -dcq \
-    | head -n 2 \
-    | tsv-select -H -f 'nextclade_version,dataset_version' \
-    | tail -n 1 \
-    | jq --raw-input -c '
-        split("\t")
-        | { "nextclade_version": .[0], "nextclade_dataset_version": .[1] }') \
-     2> /dev/null
+if [[ "$nextclade_tsv_sha256sum" != "$version_json_sha256sum" ]]; then
+    echo "[INFO] Ignoring version JSON because the Nextclade TSV sha256sum values do not match" >&2
+    echo "{}"
+else
+    echo "$nextclade_version_json"
+fi
diff --git a/bin/use-nextclade-cache b/bin/use-nextclade-cache
index 068b4c8b..543aaafb 100755
--- a/bin/use-nextclade-cache
+++ b/bin/use-nextclade-cache
@@ -47,13 +47,15 @@ renew-flag-exists() {
 }
 
 get-cache-version-info() {
-    # TODO: Update check a separate file for version info
-    # Currently just checks the first row of the nextclade.tsv file
-    local version_file="nextclade$reference.tsv.zst"
+    local version_file="nextclade${reference}_version.json"
+    local nextclade_tsv="nextclade$reference.tsv.zst"
     local dst_version_file="$s3_dst/$version_file"
+    local dst_nextclade_tsv="$s3_dst/$nextclade_tsv"
     local src_version_file="$s3_src/$version_file"
+    local src_nextclade_tsv="$s3_src/$nextclade_tsv"
 
-    "$bin"/fetch-cache-version "$dst_version_file" || "$bin"/cache-version "$src_version_file"
+    "$bin"/fetch-cache-version "$dst_version_file" "$dst_nextclade_tsv" \
+        || "$bin"/cache-version "$src_version_file" "$src_nextclade_tsv"
 }
 
 main "$@"
diff --git a/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk b/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk
index 1fe637d8..800a89bc 100644
--- a/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk
+++ b/workflow/snakemake_rules/nextclade.smk
@@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ rule run_wuhan_nextclade:
             f"--output-translations=data/{database}/nextclade.translation_{{cds}}.upd.fasta"
         ),
     output:
-        info=f"data/{database}/nextclade_new_raw.tsv",
+        info=f"data/{database}/nextclade_new.tsv",
         alignment=temp(f"data/{database}/nextclade.aligned.upd.fasta"),
         translations=[
             temp(f"data/{database}/nextclade.translation_{gene}.upd.fasta")
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ rule run_21L_nextclade:
         dataset=lambda w: f"data/nextclade_data/sars-cov-2-21L.zip",
         sequences=f"data/{database}/nextclade_21L.sequences.fasta",
     output:
-        info=f"data/{database}/nextclade_21L_new_raw.tsv",
+        info=f"data/{database}/nextclade_21L_new.tsv",
     threads:
         workflow.cores * 0.5
     benchmark:
@@ -264,47 +264,13 @@ rule run_21L_nextclade:
         """
 
 
-rule nextclade_tsv_concat_versions:
-    input:
-        nextclade="data/nextclade",
-        tsv=f"data/{database}/nextclade{{reference}}_new_raw.tsv",
-        dataset=lambda w: f"data/nextclade_data/sars-cov-2{w.reference.replace('_','-')}.zip",
-    output:
-        tsv=f"data/{database}/nextclade{{reference}}_new.tsv",
-    benchmark:
-        f"benchmarks/nextclade_tsv_concat_versions_{database}{{reference}}.txt"
-    shell:
-        """
-        if [ -s {input.tsv} ]; then
-            # Get version numbers
-            nextclade_version="$({input.nextclade:q} --version)"
-            dataset_version="$(unzip -p {input.dataset} pathogen.json | jq -r '.version.tag')"
-            timestamp="$(date -u +"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")"
-
-            # Combine input file with version numbers and write to output
-            printf "%s\tnextclade_version\tdataset_version\trun_timestamp\n" \
-                "$(head -n 1 {input.tsv})" \
-                > {output.tsv}
-
-            tail -n +2 {input.tsv} | \
-            awk -v v1="$nextclade_version" \
-                -v v2="$dataset_version" \
-                -v v3="$timestamp" \
-                -v OFS='\t' '{{print $0, v1, v2, v3}}' \
-                >> {output.tsv}
-        else
-            cp {input.tsv} {output.tsv}
-        fi
-        """
-
-
 rule nextclade_info:
     """
     Generates nextclade info TSV for all sequences (new + old)
     """
     input:
         old_info=f"data/{database}/nextclade{{reference}}_old.tsv",
-        new_info=rules.nextclade_tsv_concat_versions.output.tsv,
+        new_info=f"data/{database}/nextclade{{reference}}_new.tsv",
     output:
         nextclade_info=f"data/{database}/nextclade{{reference}}.tsv",
     benchmark: