diff --git a/.mypy.ini b/.mypy.ini
index 1bbe04d2c7..bb9a21c657 100644
--- a/.mypy.ini
+++ b/.mypy.ini
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ ignore_missing_imports = True
 [mypy-bitsandbytes]
 ignore_missing_imports = True
 
+[mypy-requests]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
 [mypy-datasets]
 ignore_missing_imports = True
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0bbba4fc6e..0d86c304fb 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -121,6 +121,10 @@ accelerate launch -m axolotl.cli.inference examples/openllama-3b/lora.yml \
 # gradio
 accelerate launch -m axolotl.cli.inference examples/openllama-3b/lora.yml \
     --lora_model_dir="./lora-out" --gradio
+
+# remote yaml files - the yaml config can be hosted on a public URL
+# Note: the yaml config must directly link to the **raw** yaml
+accelerate launch -m axolotl.cli.train https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenAccess-AI-Collective/axolotl/main/examples/openllama-3b/lora.yml
 ```
 
 ## Installation
@@ -988,6 +992,9 @@ Run
 accelerate launch -m axolotl.cli.train your_config.yml
 ```
 
+> [!TIP]
+> You can also reference a config file that is hosted on a public URL, for example `accelerate launch -m axolotl.cli.train https://yourdomain.com/your_config.yml`
+
 #### Preprocess dataset
 
 You can optionally pre-tokenize dataset with the following before finetuning.
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index df7e312cb1..4b5df167b6 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 pre-commit
 black
 mypy
+types-requests
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 2e978c16da..4d1073500f 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ deepspeed>=0.13.1
 addict
 fire
 PyYAML>=6.0
+requests
 datasets>=2.15.0
 flash-attn==2.3.3
 sentencepiece
diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
index e900fba955..6b3894cb53 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/__init__.py
@@ -1,16 +1,20 @@
 """Prepare and train a model on a dataset. Can also infer from a model or merge lora"""
 
 import importlib
+import json
 import logging
 import math
 import os
 import random
 import sys
+import tempfile
 from pathlib import Path
 from threading import Thread
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Union
+from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
 import gradio as gr
+import requests
 import torch
 import yaml
 
@@ -59,6 +63,52 @@ def print_axolotl_text_art(suffix=None):
         print(ascii_art)
 
 
+def check_remote_config(config: Union[str, Path]):
+    # Check if the config is a valid HTTPS URL to a .yml or .yaml file
+    if not (isinstance(config, str) and config.startswith("https://")):
+        return config  # Return the original value if it's not a valid URL
+
+    filename = os.path.basename(urlparse(config).path)
+    temp_dir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+
+    try:
+        response = requests.get(config, timeout=30)
+        response.raise_for_status()  # Check for HTTP errors
+
+        content = response.content
+        try:
+            # Try parsing as JSON first to catch cases where JSON content is mistakenly considered YAML
+            json.loads(content)
+            # Log a warning but do not raise an error; JSON is technically valid YAML - this can happen when you forget to point to a raw github link
+            LOG.warning(
+                f"Warning: The content of the file at {config} is JSON, which is technically valid YAML but might not be intended."
+            )
+        except json.JSONDecodeError:
+            # If it's not valid JSON, verify it's valid YAML
+            try:
+                yaml.safe_load(content)
+            except yaml.YAMLError as err:
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"Failed to parse the content at {config} as YAML: {err}"
+                ) from err
+
+        # Write the content to a file if it's valid YAML (or JSON treated as YAML)
+        output_path = Path(temp_dir) / filename
+        with open(output_path, "wb") as file:
+            file.write(content)
+        LOG.info(
+            f"Using the following config obtained from {config}:\n\n{content.decode('utf-8')}\n"
+        )
+        return output_path
+
+    except requests.RequestException as err:
+        # This catches all requests-related exceptions including HTTPError
+        raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to download {config}: {err}") from err
+    except Exception as err:
+        # Catch-all for any other exceptions
+        raise err
+
+
 def get_multi_line_input() -> Optional[str]:
     print("Give me an instruction (Ctrl + D to submit): ")
     instruction = ""
@@ -270,9 +320,10 @@ def check_not_in(list1: List[str], list2: Union[Dict[str, Any], List[str]]) -> b
     return not any(el in list2 for el in list1)
 
 
-def load_cfg(config: Path = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
+def load_cfg(config: Union[str, Path] = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
+    config = check_remote_config(config)
     if Path(config).is_dir():
-        config = choose_config(config)
+        config = choose_config(Path(config))
 
     # load the config from the yaml file
     with open(config, encoding="utf-8") as file:
diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/preprocess.py b/src/axolotl/cli/preprocess.py
index e7bc612b7e..89ab023e5f 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/preprocess.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/preprocess.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 """
 import logging
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Union
 
 import fire
 import transformers
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@
 LOG = logging.getLogger("axolotl.cli.preprocess")
 
 
-def do_cli(config: Path = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
+def do_cli(config: Union[Path, str] = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
     # pylint: disable=duplicate-code
     print_axolotl_text_art()
     parsed_cfg = load_cfg(config, **kwargs)
diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/shard.py b/src/axolotl/cli/shard.py
index 85901b0f2a..48f22790ac 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/shard.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/shard.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 """
 import logging
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Union
 
 import fire
 import transformers
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ def shard(
     model.save_pretrained(cfg.output_dir, safe_serialization=safe_serialization)
 
 
-def do_cli(config: Path = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
+def do_cli(config: Union[Path, str] = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
     # pylint: disable=duplicate-code
     print_axolotl_text_art()
     parsed_cfg = load_cfg(config, **kwargs)
diff --git a/src/axolotl/cli/train.py b/src/axolotl/cli/train.py
index 6cbe2c9603..05fd63ae80 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/cli/train.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/cli/train.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 """
 import logging
 from pathlib import Path
-from typing import Tuple
+from typing import Tuple, Union
 
 import fire
 from transformers.hf_argparser import HfArgumentParser
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 LOG = logging.getLogger("axolotl.cli.train")
 
 
-def do_cli(config: Path = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
+def do_cli(config: Union[Path, str] = Path("examples/"), **kwargs):
     # pylint: disable=duplicate-code
     parsed_cfg = load_cfg(config, **kwargs)
     parser = HfArgumentParser((TrainerCliArgs))