diff --git a/src/cli/commands/files/add.js b/src/cli/commands/files/add.js
index ebd4c7035b..61b849ff06 100644
--- a/src/cli/commands/files/add.js
+++ b/src/cli/commands/files/add.js
@@ -183,6 +183,18 @@ module.exports = {
       throw new Error('Implied argument raw-leaves must be passed and set to false when cid-version is > 0')
     }
 
+    // Temporary restriction on raw-leaves:
+    // When hash != undefined then raw-leaves MUST be present and false.
+    //
+    // This is because raw-leaves is not yet implemented in js-ipfs,
+    // and go-ipfs changes the value of raw-leaves to true when
+    // hash != undefined unless explicitly set to false.
+    //
+    // This retains feature parity without having to implement raw-leaves.
+    if (argv.hash && argv.rawLeaves !== false) {
+      throw new Error('Implied argument raw-leaves must be passed and set to false when hash argument is specified')
+    }
+
     if (argv.rawLeaves) {
       throw new Error('Not implemented: raw-leaves')
     }
diff --git a/src/core/components/files.js b/src/core/components/files.js
index 8bd2f8e1b2..754bce6d76 100644
--- a/src/core/components/files.js
+++ b/src/core/components/files.js
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ module.exports = function files (self) {
       shardSplitThreshold: self._options.EXPERIMENTAL.sharding ? 1000 : Infinity
     }, options)
 
-    // CID v0 is for multihashes encoded with sha2-256
-    if (opts.hashAlg && opts.hashAlg !== 'sha2-256' && opts.cidVersion !== 1) {
+    if (opts.hashAlg && opts.cidVersion !== 1) {
       opts.cidVersion = 1
     }
 
@@ -70,8 +69,10 @@ module.exports = function files (self) {
         return callback(new Error('Invalid arguments, data must be an object, Buffer or readable stream'))
       }
 
+      options = options || {}
+
       // CID v0 is for multihashes encoded with sha2-256
-      if (options && options.hashAlg && options.hashAlg !== 'sha2-256' && options.cidVersion !== 1) {
+      if (options.hashAlg && options.cidVersion !== 1) {
         options.cidVersion = 1
       }
 
@@ -127,15 +128,15 @@ module.exports = function files (self) {
 function prepareFile (self, opts, file, callback) {
   opts = opts || {}
 
-  waterfall([
-    (cb) => self.object.get(file.multihash, cb),
-    (node, cb) => {
-      let cid = new CID(file.multihash)
+  let cid = new CID(file.multihash)
 
-      if (opts.cidVersion === 1) {
-        cid = cid.toV1()
-      }
+  if (opts.cidVersion === 1) {
+    cid = cid.toV1()
+  }
 
+  waterfall([
+    (cb) => self.object.get(cid, cb),
+    (node, cb) => {
       const b58Hash = cid.toBaseEncodedString()
 
       cb(null, {
diff --git a/src/core/components/object.js b/src/core/components/object.js
index 4c716c4504..67ce5c6be8 100644
--- a/src/core/components/object.js
+++ b/src/core/components/object.js
@@ -10,20 +10,6 @@ const mh = require('multihashes')
 const Unixfs = require('ipfs-unixfs')
 const assert = require('assert')
 
-function normalizeMultihash (multihash, enc) {
-  if (typeof multihash === 'string') {
-    if (enc === 'base58' || !enc) {
-      return multihash
-    }
-
-    return new Buffer(multihash, enc)
-  } else if (Buffer.isBuffer(multihash)) {
-    return multihash
-  } else {
-    throw new Error('unsupported multihash')
-  }
-}
-
 function parseBuffer (buf, encoding, callback) {
   switch (encoding) {
     case 'json':
@@ -178,20 +164,19 @@ module.exports = function object (self) {
       }
     }),
 
-    get: promisify((multihash, options, callback) => {
+    get: promisify((hash, options, callback) => {
       if (typeof options === 'function') {
         callback = options
         options = {}
       }
 
-      let mh
+      let cid
 
       try {
-        mh = normalizeMultihash(multihash, options.enc)
+        cid = new CID(hash)
       } catch (err) {
         return callback(err)
       }
-      const cid = new CID(mh)
 
       self._ipldResolver.get(cid, (err, result) => {
         if (err) {
@@ -204,13 +189,21 @@ module.exports = function object (self) {
       })
     }),
 
-    data: promisify((multihash, options, callback) => {
+    data: promisify((hash, options, callback) => {
       if (typeof options === 'function') {
         callback = options
         options = {}
       }
 
-      self.object.get(multihash, options, (err, node) => {
+      let cid
+
+      try {
+        cid = new CID(hash)
+      } catch (err) {
+        return callback(err)
+      }
+
+      self.object.get(cid, options, (err, node) => {
         if (err) {
           return callback(err)
         }
diff --git a/src/http-api/resources/files.js b/src/http-api/resources/files.js
index 43cd2f0950..5b4b7fd7c4 100644
--- a/src/http-api/resources/files.js
+++ b/src/http-api/resources/files.js
@@ -145,20 +145,19 @@ exports.add = {
     query: Joi.object()
       .keys({
         'cid-version': Joi.number().integer().min(0).max(1),
+        hash: Joi.string().valid(Object.keys(mh.names)),
         // Temporary restriction on raw-leaves:
-        // When cid-version=1 then raw-leaves MUST be present and false.
+        // When cid-version > 0 or hash != undefined then raw-leaves MUST be
+        // present and false.
         //
         // This is because raw-leaves is not yet implemented in js-ipfs,
         // and go-ipfs changes the value of raw-leaves to true when
-        // cid-version > 0 unless explicitly set to false.
+        // cid-version > 0 or hash != undefined unless explicitly set to false.
         //
         // This retains feature parity without having to implement raw-leaves.
-        'raw-leaves': Joi.any().when('cid-version', {
-          is: 1,
-          then: Joi.boolean().valid(false).required(),
-          otherwise: Joi.boolean().valid(false)
-        }),
-        hash: Joi.string().valid(Object.keys(mh.names))
+        'raw-leaves': Joi.boolean().valid(false)
+          .when('cid-version', { is: 1, then: Joi.required() })
+          .when('hash', { is: Joi.string(), then: Joi.required() })
       })
       // TODO: Necessary until validate "recursive", "stream-channels" etc.
       .options({ allowUnknown: true })
diff --git a/src/http-api/resources/object.js b/src/http-api/resources/object.js
index 4a366f4e60..091312b682 100644
--- a/src/http-api/resources/object.js
+++ b/src/http-api/resources/object.js
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ const DAGLink = dagPB.DAGLink
 const DAGNode = dagPB.DAGNode
 const waterfall = require('async/waterfall')
 const series = require('async/series')
+const CID = require('cids')
 const debug = require('debug')
 const log = debug('jsipfs:http-api:object')
 log.error = debug('jsipfs:http-api:object:error')
@@ -20,9 +21,7 @@ exports.parseKey = (request, reply) => {
   }
 
   try {
-    return reply({
-      key: mh.fromB58String(request.query.arg)
-    })
+    return reply({ key: new CID(request.query.arg) })
   } catch (err) {
     log.error(err)
     return reply({
diff --git a/test/cli/files.js b/test/cli/files.js
index 9a9c4e3d66..599868dc0c 100644
--- a/test/cli/files.js
+++ b/test/cli/files.js
@@ -10,6 +10,18 @@ const CID = require('cids')
 const mh = require('multihashes')
 const runOnAndOff = require('../utils/on-and-off')
 
+// TODO: Test against all algorithms Object.keys(mh.names)
+// This subset is known to work with both go-ipfs and js-ipfs as of 2017-09-05
+const HASH_ALGS = [
+  'sha1',
+  'sha2-256',
+  'sha2-512',
+  'keccak-224',
+  'keccak-256',
+  'keccak-384',
+  'keccak-512'
+]
+
 describe('files', () => runOnAndOff((thing) => {
   let ipfs
   const readme = fs.readFileSync(path.join(process.cwd(), '/src/init-files/init-docs/readme'))
@@ -224,9 +236,9 @@ describe('files', () => runOnAndOff((thing) => {
       })
   })
 
-  Object.keys(mh.names).forEach((name) => {
-    it('add with hash=' + name, () => {
-      return ipfs('add src/init-files/init-docs/readme --hash=' + name)
+  HASH_ALGS.forEach((name) => {
+    it(`add with hash=${name} and raw-leaves=false`, () => {
+      return ipfs(`add src/init-files/init-docs/readme --hash=${name} --raw-leaves=false`)
         .then((out) => {
           const hash = out.split(' ')[1]
           const cid = new CID(hash)