diff --git a/go/ql/lib/semmle/go/Overlay.qll b/go/ql/lib/semmle/go/Overlay.qll
index f4aa6b88a557..c3f27a15e52f 100644
--- a/go/ql/lib/semmle/go/Overlay.qll
+++ b/go/ql/lib/semmle/go/Overlay.qll
@@ -54,3 +54,39 @@ private predicate discardLocatable(@locatable locatable) {
     discardableLocatable(file, locatable) and discardableFile(path)
   )
 }
+
+/**
+ * Holds if the given `structtype` should be discarded, because it is part of
+ * the overlay base and is only defined in files that were extracted as part of
+ * the overlay database.
+ *
+ * Note that struct types use structural typing. In other words, two different
+ * files can define defined types whose underlying types are struct types with
+ * the same fields (names, types and tags), and they will be considered to be
+ * the exact same struct type.
+ */
+private predicate discardableStructType(@structtype structtype) {
+  not isOverlay() and
+  forex(@definedtype dt, @typeobject to, @ident declIdent, string path |
+    underlying_type(dt, structtype) and
+    type_objects(dt, to) and
+    defs(declIdent, to) and
+    files(getFile(declIdent), path)
+  |
+    discardableFile(path)
+  )
+}
+
+overlay[discard_entity]
+private predicate discardStructType(@structtype structtype) { discardableStructType(structtype) }
+
+/**
+ * Holds if the given `field` should be discarded, because it is defined in a
+ * struct type which should be discarded.
+ */
+overlay[discard_entity]
+private predicate discardField(@varobject field) {
+  exists(@structtype structtype | fieldstructs(field, structtype) |
+    discardableStructType(structtype)
+  )
+}