diff --git a/oteapi_dlite/strategies/filter.py b/oteapi_dlite/strategies/filter.py
index 9c48a707..7dc0eceb 100644
--- a/oteapi_dlite/strategies/filter.py
+++ b/oteapi_dlite/strategies/filter.py
@@ -1,63 +1,155 @@
-"""Trivial filter that adds an empty collection to the session."""
+"""Filter that removes all but specified instances in the collection."""
 # pylint: disable=unused-argument
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Dict
+import re
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
-import dlite
-from oteapi.datacache import DataCache
-from oteapi.models import FilterConfig
+from dlite.utils import get_referred_instances
+from oteapi.models import AttrDict, FilterConfig
 from pydantic import Field
 from pydantic.dataclasses import dataclass
 
 from oteapi_dlite.models import DLiteSessionUpdate
+from oteapi_dlite.utils import get_collection, update_collection
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from typing import Optional
+    from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
 
 
-@dataclass
-class CreateCollectionStrategy:
-    """Trivial filter that adds an empty collection to the session.
+class DLiteQueryConfig(AttrDict):
+    """Configuration for the DLite filter strategy.
 
-    **Registers strategies**:
+    First the `remove_label` and `remove_datamodel` configurations are
+    used to mark matching instances for removal.  If neither
+    `remove_label` or `remove_datamodel` are given, all instances are
+    marked for removal.
+
+    Then instances matching `keep_label` and `keep_datamodel` are unmarked
+    for removal.
 
-    - `("filterType", "dlite/create-collection")`
+    If `keep_referred` is true, any instance that is referred to by
+    an instance not marked for removal is also unmarked for removal.
 
+    Finally, the instances that are still marked for removal are removed
+    from the collection.
     """
 
-    filter_config: FilterConfig
+    remove_label: str = Field(
+        None, description="Regular expression matching labels to remove."
+    )
+    remove_datamodel: str = Field(
+        None,
+        description="Regular expression matching datamodel URIs to remove.",
+    )
+    keep_label: str = Field(
+        None,
+        description="Regular expression matching labels to keep."
+        "This configuration overrides `remove_label` and `remove_datamodel`.  "
+        "Alias for the FilterStrategy `query` configuration, that is "
+        "inherited from the oteapi-core Filter data model.",
+    )
+    keep_datamodel: str = Field(
+        None,
+        description="Regular expression matching datamodel URIs to keep in "
+        "collection.  "
+        "This configuration overrides `remove_label` and `remove_datamodel`.",
+    )
+    keep_referred: bool = Field(
+        True,
+        description="Whether to keep all instances in the collection that are "
+        "directly or indirectly referred to (via ref-types or collections) "
+        "by kept instances.",
+    )
+
 
-    # Find a better way to keep collections alive!!!
-    # Need to be `Any`, because otherwise `pydantic` complains.
-    collection_refs: Dict[str, Any] = Field(
-        {},
-        description="A dictionary of DLite Collections.",
+class DLiteFilterConfig(FilterConfig):
+    """DLite generate strategy config."""
+
+    configuration: DLiteQueryConfig = Field(
+        ..., description="DLite filter strategy-specific configuration."
     )
 
-    def initialize(
-        self, session: "Optional[Dict[str, Any]]" = None
-    ) -> DLiteSessionUpdate:
-        """Initialize."""
-        if session is None:
-            raise ValueError("Missing session")
-        if "collection_id" in session:
-            raise KeyError("`collection_id` already exists in session.")
 
-        coll = dlite.Collection()
+@dataclass
+class DLiteFilterStrategy:
+    """Filter that removes all but specified instances in the collection.
+
+    The `query` configuration should be a regular expression matching labels
+    to keep in the collection.  All other labels will be removed.
 
-        # Make sure that collection stays alive
-        # It will never be deallocated...
-        coll._incref()  # pylint: disable=protected-access
+    **Registers strategies**:
 
-        # Store the collection in the data cache
-        cache = DataCache()
-        cache.add(value=coll.asjson(), key=coll.uuid)
+    - `("filterType", "dlite/filter")`
 
-        return DLiteSessionUpdate(collection_id=coll.uuid)
+    """
+
+    filter_config: DLiteFilterConfig
+
+    def initialize(
+        self,
+        session: "Optional[Dict[str, Any]]" = None,
+    ) -> DLiteSessionUpdate:
+        """Initialize."""
+        return DLiteSessionUpdate(collection_id=get_collection(session).uuid)
 
     def get(
         self, session: "Optional[Dict[str, Any]]" = None
     ) -> DLiteSessionUpdate:
         """Execute the strategy."""
-        if session is None:
-            raise ValueError("Missing session")
-        return DLiteSessionUpdate(collection_id=session["collection_id"])
+        # pylint: disable=too-many-branches
+        config = self.filter_config.configuration
+
+        # Alias for query configuration
+        keep_label = (
+            config.keep_label if config.keep_label else self.filter_config.query
+        )
+
+        instdict = {}  # Map instance labels to [uuid, metaURI]
+        coll = get_collection(session)
+        for s, _, o in coll.get_relations(p="_has-uuid"):
+            instdict[s] = [o]
+        for s, _, o in coll.get_relations(p="_has-meta"):
+            instdict[s].append(o)
+
+        removal = set()  # Labels marked for removal
+
+        # 1: remove_label, remove_datamodel
+        if config.remove_label or config.remove_datamodel:
+            for label, (uuid, metauri) in instdict.items():
+                if config.remove_label and re.match(config.remove_label, label):
+                    removal.add(label)
+
+                if config.remove_datamodel and re.match(
+                    config.remove_datamodel, metauri
+                ):
+                    removal.add(label)
+        else:
+            removal.update(instdict.keys())
+
+        # 2: keep_label, keep_datamodel
+        for label in set(removal):
+            if keep_label and re.match(keep_label, label):
+                removal.remove(label)
+
+            uuid, metauri = instdict[label]
+            if config.keep_datamodel and re.match(
+                config.keep_datamodel, metauri
+            ):
+                removal.remove(label)
+
+        # 3: keep_referred
+        if config.keep_referred:
+            labels = {uuid: label for label, (uuid, _) in instdict.items()}
+            kept = set(instdict.keys()).difference(removal)
+            for label in kept:
+                removal.difference_update(
+                    labels[inst.uuid]
+                    for inst in get_referred_instances(coll.get(label))
+                    if inst.uuid in labels
+                )
+
+        # 4: remove from collection
+        for label in removal:
+            coll.remove(label)
+
+        update_collection(coll)
+        return DLiteSessionUpdate(collection_id=get_collection(session).uuid)
diff --git a/oteapi_dlite/strategies/parse.py b/oteapi_dlite/strategies/parse.py
index cb93c16b..9b5945e3 100644
--- a/oteapi_dlite/strategies/parse.py
+++ b/oteapi_dlite/strategies/parse.py
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ def get(
                 key = session["key"]
             else:
                 raise ValueError(
-                    "either `location` or `cacheconfig.accessKey` must be "
+                    "either `location` or `datacache_config.accessKey` must be "
                     "provided"
                 )
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 49b8bd59..96c2153a 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-DLite-Python>=0.3.3,<1.0
+DLite-Python>=0.4.5,<1.0
 numpy>=1.21,<2
 oteapi-core>=0.1.2,<0.6.0
 Pillow>=9.0.1,<11
diff --git a/requirements_dev.txt b/requirements_dev.txt
index 1f0623aa..a277cf65 100644
--- a/requirements_dev.txt
+++ b/requirements_dev.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+invoke~=2.2
 otelib>=0.3,<0.4.0
 pre-commit~=3.5
 pylint~=3.0
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 14c10d1f..b21d8503 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -38,4 +38,4 @@ oteapi.mapping =
   oteapi_dlite.mappings = oteapi_dlite.strategies.mapping:DLiteMappingStrategy
 
 oteapi.filter =
-  oteapi_dlite.dlite/create-collection = oteapi_dlite.strategies.filter:CreateCollectionStrategy
+  oteapi_dlite.dlite/filter = oteapi_dlite.strategies.filter:DLiteFilterStrategy
diff --git a/tests/strategies/test_filter.py b/tests/strategies/test_filter.py
index f28ee035..497cd4c0 100644
--- a/tests/strategies/test_filter.py
+++ b/tests/strategies/test_filter.py
@@ -1,29 +1,137 @@
 """Tests filter strategies."""
-from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+from pathlib import Path
 
-if TYPE_CHECKING:
-    from oteapi.interfaces import IFilterStrategy
+import dlite
 
+from oteapi_dlite.strategies.filter import (
+    DLiteFilterConfig,
+    DLiteFilterStrategy,
+)
+from oteapi_dlite.utils import get_meta
 
-def test_create_collection() -> None:
-    """Test the create_collection filter."""
-    import dlite
+thisdir = Path(__file__).resolve().parent
+entitydir = thisdir / ".." / "entities"
+outdir = thisdir / ".." / "output"
 
-    from oteapi_dlite.strategies.filter import CreateCollectionStrategy
+Image = get_meta("http://onto-ns.com/meta/1.0/Image")
+image1 = Image([2, 2, 1])
+image2 = Image([2, 2, 1])
+image3 = Image([2, 2, 1])
+image4 = Image([2, 2, 1])
+innercoll = dlite.Collection()
+innercoll.add("im1", image1)
+innercoll.add("im2", image2)
 
-    config = {"filterType": "dlite/create_collection"}
+coll = dlite.Collection()
+coll.add("innercoll", innercoll)
+coll.add("image1", image1)
+coll.add("image2", image2)
+coll.add("image3", image3)
+coll.add("image4", image4)
 
-    session = {}
 
-    collfilter: "IFilterStrategy" = CreateCollectionStrategy(config)
-    session.update(collfilter.initialize(session))
+# Test simple use of query
+# Here keeping all instances with label containing "im" in the collection
+config = DLiteFilterConfig(
+    filterType="dlite/filter",
+    query="^im",
+    configuration={},
+)
+coll0 = coll.copy()
+session = {"collection_id": coll0.uuid}
 
-    assert "collection_id" in session
-    coll_id = session["collection_id"]
-    coll = dlite.get_instance(coll_id)
-    assert isinstance(coll, dlite.Collection)
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.initialize(session))
 
-    collfilter = CreateCollectionStrategy(config)
-    session.update(collfilter.get(session))
-    assert "collection_id" in session
-    assert session["collection_id"] == coll_id
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.get(session))
+
+assert set(coll0.get_labels()) == set(
+    [
+        "image1",
+        "image2",
+        "image3",
+        "image4",
+    ]
+)
+
+
+# Same test as above, but use use `keep_label` instead of `query`
+config = DLiteFilterConfig(
+    filterType="dlite/filter",
+    configuration={
+        "keep_label": "^im",
+    },
+)
+coll1 = coll.copy()
+session = {"collection_id": coll1.uuid}
+
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.initialize(session))
+
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.get(session))
+
+assert set(coll1.get_labels()) == set(
+    [
+        "image1",
+        "image2",
+        "image3",
+        "image4",
+    ]
+)
+
+
+# Test combining remove and keep
+config = DLiteFilterConfig(
+    filterType="dlite/filter",
+    configuration={
+        "remove_datamodel": Image.uri,
+        "keep_label": "(image2)|(image4)",
+        "keep_referred": False,
+    },
+)
+coll2 = coll.copy()
+session = {"collection_id": coll2.uuid}
+
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.initialize(session))
+
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.get(session))
+
+assert set(coll2.get_labels()) == set(
+    [
+        "innercoll",
+        "image2",
+        "image4",
+    ]
+)
+
+
+# Test with keep_referred=True
+config = DLiteFilterConfig(
+    filterType="dlite/filter",
+    configuration={
+        "remove_datamodel": Image.uri,
+        "keep_label": "(image2)|(image4)",
+        "keep_referred": True,
+    },
+)
+coll3 = coll.copy()
+session = {"collection_id": coll3.uuid}
+
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.initialize(session))
+
+strategy = DLiteFilterStrategy(config)
+session.update(strategy.get(session))
+
+assert set(coll3.get_labels()) == set(
+    [
+        "innercoll",
+        "image1",
+        "image2",
+        "image4",
+    ]
+)