diff --git a/src/commands/basemaps-mapsheet/create-mapsheet.ts b/src/commands/basemaps-mapsheet/create-mapsheet.ts
index 3c7793e1a..1b019dd3f 100644
--- a/src/commands/basemaps-mapsheet/create-mapsheet.ts
+++ b/src/commands/basemaps-mapsheet/create-mapsheet.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ import { gunzip } from 'zlib';
 
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 
 const gunzipProm = promisify(gunzip);
@@ -22,7 +24,7 @@ export function isGzip(b: Buffer): boolean {
  *
  * If the file ends with .gz or is a GZIP like {@link isGzip} file it will automatically be decompressed.
  */
-async function readConfig(config: string): Promise<ConfigBundled> {
+async function readConfig(config: PathString | UrlString): Promise<ConfigBundled> {
   const obj = await fsa.read(config);
   if (config.endsWith('.gz') || isGzip(obj)) {
     const data = await gunzipProm(obj);
@@ -39,17 +41,17 @@ interface Output {
 export const CommandCreateMapSheetArgs = {
   verbose,
   path: option({
-    type: string,
+    type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
     long: 'path',
     description: 'Path of flatgeobuf, this can be both a local path or s3 location',
   }),
   bmConfig: option({
-    type: string,
+    type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
     long: 'bm-config',
     description: 'Path of basemaps config json, this can be both a local path or s3 location',
   }),
   output: option({
-    type: string,
+    type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
     long: 'output',
     description: 'Output of the mapsheet file',
   }),
diff --git a/src/commands/copy/__test__/copy.test.ts b/src/commands/copy/__test__/copy.test.ts
index 864c9f83c..895ecc7fe 100644
--- a/src/commands/copy/__test__/copy.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/copy/__test__/copy.test.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { beforeEach, describe, it } from 'node:test';
 import { fsa } from '@chunkd/fs';
 import { FsMemory } from '@chunkd/source-memory';
 
+import { UrlString } from '../../../utils/types.js';
 import { worker } from '../copy-worker.js';
 
 describe('copyFiles', () => {
@@ -26,12 +27,12 @@ describe('copyFiles', () => {
       id: '1',
       manifest: [
         {
-          source: 'memory://source/topographic.json',
-          target: 'memory://target/topographic.json',
+          source: 'memory://source/topographic.json' as UrlString,
+          target: 'memory://target/topographic.json' as UrlString,
         },
         {
-          source: 'memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.png',
-          target: 'memory://target/topographic.png',
+          source: 'memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.png' as UrlString,
+          target: 'memory://target/topographic.png' as UrlString,
         },
       ],
       start: 0,
@@ -77,12 +78,12 @@ describe('copyFiles', () => {
       id: '1',
       manifest: [
         {
-          source: 'memory://source/topographic.json',
-          target: 'memory://target/topographic.json',
+          source: 'memory://source/topographic.json' as UrlString,
+          target: 'memory://target/topographic.json' as UrlString,
         },
         {
-          source: 'memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.tiff',
-          target: 'memory://target/topographic.tiff',
+          source: 'memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.tiff' as UrlString,
+          target: 'memory://target/topographic.tiff' as UrlString,
         },
       ],
       start: 0,
@@ -121,12 +122,12 @@ describe('copyFiles', () => {
       id: '1',
       manifest: [
         {
-          source: 'memory://source/topographic.json',
-          target: 'memory://target/topographic.json',
+          source: 'memory://source/topographic.json' as UrlString,
+          target: 'memory://target/topographic.json' as UrlString,
         },
         {
-          source: 'memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.tiff',
-          target: 'memory://target/topographic.tiff',
+          source: 'memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.tiff' as UrlString,
+          target: 'memory://target/topographic.tiff' as UrlString,
         },
       ],
       start: 0,
diff --git a/src/commands/copy/copy-rpc.ts b/src/commands/copy/copy-rpc.ts
index 58de0d844..3f10d9aec 100644
--- a/src/commands/copy/copy-rpc.ts
+++ b/src/commands/copy/copy-rpc.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
+
 export type CopyContract = {
   copy(args: CopyContractArgs): Promise<CopyStats>;
 };
@@ -6,7 +8,7 @@ export interface CopyContractArgs {
   /** Copy ID for tracing */
   id: string;
   /** List of files that need to be copied */
-  manifest: { source: string; target: string }[];
+  manifest: { source: PathString | UrlString; target: PathString | UrlString }[];
   /** Offset into the manifest to start at */
   start: number;
   /** Number of records to copy */
diff --git a/src/commands/copy/copy-worker.ts b/src/commands/copy/copy-worker.ts
index 32dbc3621..161c4c85f 100644
--- a/src/commands/copy/copy-worker.ts
+++ b/src/commands/copy/copy-worker.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { WorkerRpc } from '@wtrpc/core';
 
 import { baseLogger } from '../../log.js';
 import { ConcurrentQueue } from '../../utils/concurrent.queue.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { registerCli } from '../common.js';
 import { isTiff } from '../tileindex-validate/tileindex.validate.js';
 import { CopyContract, CopyContractArgs, CopyStats } from './copy-rpc.js';
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ export const FixableContentType = new Set(['binary/octet-stream', 'application/o
  * @param meta File metadata
  * @returns New fixed file metadata if fixed other wise source file metadata
  */
-export function fixFileMetadata(path: string, meta: FileInfo): FileInfo {
+export function fixFileMetadata(path: PathString | UrlString, meta: FileInfo): FileInfo {
   // If the content is encoded we do not know what the content-type should be
   if (meta.contentEncoding != null) return meta;
   if (!FixableContentType.has(meta.contentType ?? 'binary/octet-stream')) return meta;
@@ -46,7 +47,7 @@ export function fixFileMetadata(path: string, meta: FileInfo): FileInfo {
  * @param retryCount number of times to retry
  * @returns file size if it exists or null
  */
-async function tryHead(filePath: string, retryCount = 3): Promise<number | null> {
+async function tryHead(filePath: PathString | UrlString, retryCount = 3): Promise<number | null> {
   for (let i = 0; i < retryCount; i++) {
     const ret = await fsa.head(filePath);
     if (ret?.size) return ret.size;
diff --git a/src/commands/copy/copy.ts b/src/commands/copy/copy.ts
index 4378d1b25..8852f8277 100644
--- a/src/commands/copy/copy.ts
+++ b/src/commands/copy/copy.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import { fsa } from '@chunkd/fs';
 import { WorkerRpcPool } from '@wtrpc/core';
-import { boolean, command, flag, number, option, restPositionals, string } from 'cmd-ts';
+import { boolean, command, flag, number, option, restPositionals } from 'cmd-ts';
 import { performance } from 'perf_hooks';
 import { gunzipSync } from 'zlib';
 import * as z from 'zod';
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import * as z from 'zod';
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger, logId } from '../../log.js';
 import { ActionCopy } from '../../utils/actions.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
+import { JSONString, PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 import { CopyContract } from './copy-rpc.js';
 
@@ -20,14 +22,14 @@ const CopyManifest = z.array(CopyValidator);
  * - Could be a JSON document "[{}]"
  * - Could be a Base64'd Gzipped document
  */
-async function tryParse(x: string): Promise<unknown> {
-  if (x.startsWith('s3://') || x.startsWith('./') || x.startsWith('/')) {
-    const json = await fsa.readJson<ActionCopy>(x);
-    if (json.action !== 'copy') throw new Error('Invalid action: ' + json.action + ' from:' + x);
+async function tryParse(input: PathString | UrlString | JSONString): Promise<unknown> {
+  if (input.startsWith('s3://') || input.startsWith('./') || input.startsWith('/')) {
+    const json = await fsa.readJson<ActionCopy>(input);
+    if (json.action !== 'copy') throw new Error('Invalid action: ' + json.action + ' from:' + input);
     return json.parameters.manifest;
   }
-  if (x.startsWith('[') || x.startsWith('{')) return JSON.parse(x);
-  return JSON.parse(gunzipSync(Buffer.from(x, 'base64url')).toString());
+  if (input.startsWith('[') || input.startsWith('{')) return JSON.parse(input);
+  return JSON.parse(gunzipSync(Buffer.from(input, 'base64url')).toString());
 }
 
 export const commandCopy = command({
@@ -66,7 +68,11 @@ export const commandCopy = command({
       defaultValueIsSerializable: true,
     }),
     concurrency: option({ type: number, long: 'concurrency', defaultValue: () => 4 }),
-    manifest: restPositionals({ type: string, displayName: 'location', description: 'Manifest of file to copy' }),
+    manifest: restPositionals({
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+      displayName: 'location',
+      description: 'Manifest of file to copy',
+    }),
   },
   async handler(args) {
     registerCli(this, args);
@@ -88,7 +94,7 @@ export const commandCopy = command({
     const startTime = performance.now();
     for (const m of args.manifest) {
       const data = await tryParse(m);
-      const manifest = CopyManifest.parse(data);
+      const manifest = CopyManifest.parse(data) as { source: PathString | UrlString; target: PathString | UrlString }[];
 
       const chunkSize = Math.ceil(manifest.length / args.concurrency);
       for (let i = 0; i < manifest.length; i += chunkSize) {
diff --git a/src/commands/create-manifest/__test__/create-manifest.test.ts b/src/commands/create-manifest/__test__/create-manifest.test.ts
index f38ec6e3c..fd4d3d1d9 100644
--- a/src/commands/create-manifest/__test__/create-manifest.test.ts
+++ b/src/commands/create-manifest/__test__/create-manifest.test.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { beforeEach, describe, it } from 'node:test';
 import { fsa } from '@chunkd/fs';
 import { FsMemory } from '@chunkd/source-memory';
 
+import { UrlString } from '../../../utils/types.js';
 import { createManifest, validatePaths } from '../create-manifest.js';
 
 describe('createManifest', () => {
@@ -18,7 +19,9 @@ describe('createManifest', () => {
       fsa.write('memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.png', Buffer.from('test')),
     ]);
 
-    const outputFiles = await createManifest('memory://source/', 'memory://target/', { flatten: true });
+    const outputFiles = await createManifest('memory://source/' as UrlString, 'memory://target/' as UrlString, {
+      flatten: true,
+    });
     assert.deepEqual(outputFiles[0], [
       {
         source: 'memory://source/topographic.json',
@@ -36,7 +39,7 @@ describe('createManifest', () => {
       fsa.write('memory://source/topographic.json', Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({ test: true }))),
       fsa.write('memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.png', Buffer.from('test')),
     ]);
-    const outputFiles = await createManifest('memory://source/', 'memory://target/sub/', {
+    const outputFiles = await createManifest('memory://source/' as UrlString, 'memory://target/sub/' as UrlString, {
       flatten: false,
       transform: 'f.replace("topographic", "test")',
     });
@@ -58,7 +61,9 @@ describe('createManifest', () => {
       fsa.write('memory://source/foo/bar/topographic.png', Buffer.from('test')),
     ]);
 
-    const outputFiles = await createManifest('memory://source/', 'memory://target/sub/', { flatten: false });
+    const outputFiles = await createManifest('memory://source/' as UrlString, 'memory://target/sub/' as UrlString, {
+      flatten: false,
+    });
     assert.deepEqual(outputFiles[0], [
       {
         source: 'memory://source/topographic.json',
@@ -75,8 +80,8 @@ describe('createManifest', () => {
     await Promise.all([fsa.write('memory://source/topographic.json', Buffer.from(JSON.stringify({ test: true })))]);
 
     const outputFiles = await createManifest(
-      'memory://source/topographic.json',
-      'memory://target/sub/topographic.json',
+      'memory://source/topographic.json' as UrlString,
+      'memory://target/sub/topographic.json' as UrlString,
       { flatten: false },
     );
     assert.deepEqual(outputFiles[0], [
@@ -89,12 +94,12 @@ describe('createManifest', () => {
   describe('validatePaths', () => {
     it('Should throw error for Missmatch Paths', () => {
       assert.throws(() => {
-        validatePaths('memory://source/', 'memory://target/sub/test.tiff');
+        validatePaths('memory://source/' as UrlString, 'memory://target/sub/test.tiff' as UrlString);
       }, Error);
     });
     it('Should also throw error for Missmatch Paths', () => {
       assert.throws(() => {
-        validatePaths('memory://source/test.tiff', 'memory://target/sub/');
+        validatePaths('memory://source/test.tiff' as UrlString, 'memory://target/sub/' as UrlString);
       }, Error);
     });
   });
diff --git a/src/commands/create-manifest/create-manifest.ts b/src/commands/create-manifest/create-manifest.ts
index baba66832..ccee3ea0c 100644
--- a/src/commands/create-manifest/create-manifest.ts
+++ b/src/commands/create-manifest/create-manifest.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { getActionLocation } from '../../utils/action.storage.js';
 import { ActionCopy } from '../../utils/actions.js';
 import { FileFilter, getFiles } from '../../utils/chunk.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 
 export const commandCreateManifest = command({
@@ -37,16 +39,24 @@ export const commandCreateManifest = command({
       long: 'limit',
       description: 'Limit the file count to this amount, -1 is no limit',
     }),
-    output: option({ type: string, long: 'output', description: 'Output location for the listing' }),
-    target: option({ type: string, long: 'target', description: 'Copy destination' }),
-    source: restPositionals({ type: string, displayName: 'source', description: 'Where to list' }),
+    output: option({
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+      long: 'output',
+      description: 'Output location for the listing',
+    }),
+    target: option({ type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString, long: 'target', description: 'Copy destination' }),
+    source: restPositionals({
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+      displayName: 'source',
+      description: 'Where to list',
+    }),
   },
   async handler(args) {
     registerCli(this, args);
 
-    const outputCopy: string[] = [];
+    const outputCopy: (PathString | UrlString)[] = [];
 
-    const targetPath: string = args.target;
+    const targetPath = args.target;
     const actionLocation = getActionLocation();
     for (const source of args.source) {
       const outputFiles = await createManifest(source, targetPath, args);
@@ -59,9 +69,9 @@ export const commandCreateManifest = command({
           const targetLocation = fsa.join(actionLocation, `actions/manifest-${targetHash}.json`);
           const targetAction: ActionCopy = { action: 'copy', parameters: { manifest: current } };
           await fsa.write(targetLocation, JSON.stringify(targetAction));
-          outputCopy.push(targetLocation);
+          outputCopy.push(targetLocation as PathString | UrlString);
         } else {
-          outputCopy.push(gzipSync(outBuf).toString('base64url'));
+          outputCopy.push(gzipSync(outBuf).toString('base64url') as PathString | UrlString);
         }
       }
     }
@@ -69,7 +79,7 @@ export const commandCreateManifest = command({
   },
 });
 
-export type SourceTarget = { source: string; target: string };
+export type SourceTarget = { source: PathString | UrlString; target: PathString | UrlString };
 export type ManifestFilter = FileFilter & { flatten: boolean; transform?: string };
 
 function createTransformFunc(transform: string): (f: string) => string {
@@ -78,8 +88,8 @@ function createTransformFunc(transform: string): (f: string) => string {
 }
 
 export async function createManifest(
-  source: string,
-  targetPath: string,
+  source: PathString | UrlString,
+  targetPath: PathString | UrlString,
   args: ManifestFilter,
 ): Promise<SourceTarget[][]> {
   const outputFiles = await getFiles([source], args);
@@ -94,7 +104,7 @@ export async function createManifest(
       const baseFile = args.flatten ? path.basename(filePath) : filePath.slice(source.length);
       let target = targetPath;
       if (baseFile) {
-        target = fsa.joinAll(targetPath, transformFunc ? transformFunc(baseFile) : baseFile);
+        target = fsa.joinAll(targetPath, transformFunc ? transformFunc(baseFile) : baseFile) as PathString | UrlString;
       }
       validatePaths(filePath, target);
       current.push({ source: filePath, target });
@@ -105,7 +115,7 @@ export async function createManifest(
   return outputCopy;
 }
 
-export function validatePaths(source: string, target: string): void {
+export function validatePaths(source: PathString | UrlString, target: PathString | UrlString): void {
   // Throws error if the source and target paths are not:
   // - both directories
   // - both paths
diff --git a/src/commands/format/pretty.print.ts b/src/commands/format/pretty.print.ts
index 77ade3a07..3ee48c0b5 100644
--- a/src/commands/format/pretty.print.ts
+++ b/src/commands/format/pretty.print.ts
@@ -1,16 +1,18 @@
 import { fsa } from '@chunkd/fs';
-import { command, option, optional, positional, string } from 'cmd-ts';
+import { command, option, optional, positional } from 'cmd-ts';
 import { basename } from 'path';
 import prettier from 'prettier';
 
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
 import { getFiles } from '../../utils/chunk.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
 import { DEFAULT_PRETTIER_FORMAT } from '../../utils/config.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 
-function isJson(x: string): boolean {
-  const search = x.toLowerCase();
+function isJson(path: PathString | UrlString): boolean {
+  const search = path.toLowerCase();
   return search.endsWith('.json');
 }
 
@@ -22,11 +24,15 @@ export const commandPrettyPrint = command({
     config,
     verbose,
     target: option({
-      type: optional(string),
+      type: optional(PathStringOrUrlStringFromString),
       long: 'target',
       description: 'Use if files have to be saved somewhere else instead of overwriting the source (testing)',
     }),
-    path: positional({ type: string, displayName: 'path', description: 'Path of the files to pretty print' }),
+    path: positional({
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+      displayName: 'path',
+      description: 'Path of the files to pretty print',
+    }),
   },
 
   async handler(args) {
@@ -45,7 +51,7 @@ export const commandPrettyPrint = command({
     if (jsonFiles[0]) await fsa.head(jsonFiles[0]);
 
     // format files
-    await Promise.all(jsonFiles.map((f: string) => formatFile(f, args.target)));
+    await Promise.all(jsonFiles.map((f: PathString | UrlString) => formatFile(f, args.target)));
     logger.info({ fileCount: jsonFiles.length, duration: performance.now() - startTime }, 'PrettyPrint:Done');
   },
 });
@@ -56,12 +62,15 @@ export const commandPrettyPrint = command({
  * @param path of the file to format
  * @param target where to save the output. If not specified, overwrite the original file.
  */
-export async function formatFile(path: string, target = ''): Promise<void> {
+export async function formatFile(
+  path: PathString | UrlString,
+  target: PathString | UrlString = '' as UrlString,
+): Promise<void> {
   logger.debug({ file: path }, 'PrettyPrint:RunPrettier');
   const prettyPrinted = await prettyPrint(JSON.stringify(await fsa.readJson(path)), DEFAULT_PRETTIER_FORMAT);
   if (target) {
     // FIXME: can be duplicate files
-    path = fsa.join(target, basename(path));
+    path = fsa.join(target, basename(path)) as PathString | UrlString;
   }
 
   await fsa.write(path, Buffer.from(prettyPrinted));
diff --git a/src/commands/lds-cache/lds.cache.ts b/src/commands/lds-cache/lds.cache.ts
index 1956dc6f7..a979663ce 100644
--- a/src/commands/lds-cache/lds.cache.ts
+++ b/src/commands/lds-cache/lds.cache.ts
@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@ import { createGunzip } from 'zlib';
 
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 
-function getTargetPath(source: string, path: string): string {
+function getTargetPath(source: PathString | UrlString, path: PathString | UrlString): string {
   if (path.startsWith('./')) return fsa.join(source, path.slice(2));
   throw new Error('No relative path found: ' + path);
 }
@@ -50,7 +51,10 @@ export const commandLdsFetch = command({
 
       const targetFile = fsa.join(args.target, lastItem.href.replace('.json', '.gpkg'));
 
-      const targetPath = getTargetPath(`s3://linz-lds-cache/${layerId}/`, lastItem.href).replace('.json', '.gpkg');
+      const targetPath = getTargetPath(
+        `s3://linz-lds-cache/${layerId}/` as UrlString,
+        lastItem.href as UrlString,
+      ).replace('.json', '.gpkg');
       logger.info({ layerId, lastItem, source: targetPath }, 'Collection:Item:Fetch');
       await fsa.write(targetFile, fsa.stream(targetPath).pipe(createGunzip()));
     }
diff --git a/src/commands/lint/lint.s3.paths.ts b/src/commands/lint/lint.s3.paths.ts
index 12c824d10..d13e0a3dc 100644
--- a/src/commands/lint/lint.s3.paths.ts
+++ b/src/commands/lint/lint.s3.paths.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-import { command, positional, string } from 'cmd-ts';
+import { command, positional } from 'cmd-ts';
 
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 import { imageryBucketNames, imageryCrs, imageryProducts, regions } from './lint.constants.js';
 
@@ -13,7 +14,7 @@ export const commandLintInputs = command({
     config,
     verbose,
     path: positional({
-      type: string,
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
       displayName: 'path',
       description: 'JSON file to load inputs from, must be a JSON Array',
     }),
diff --git a/src/commands/list/list.ts b/src/commands/list/list.ts
index ef28bc216..8e62d361a 100644
--- a/src/commands/list/list.ts
+++ b/src/commands/list/list.ts
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { command, number, option, optional, restPositionals, string } from 'cmd-
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
 import { getFiles } from '../../utils/chunk.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 
 export const CommandListArgs = {
@@ -23,7 +24,11 @@ export const CommandListArgs = {
     description: 'Limit the file count to this amount, -1 is no limit',
   }),
   output: option({ type: optional(string), long: 'output', description: 'Output location for the listing' }),
-  location: restPositionals({ type: string, displayName: 'location', description: 'Where to list' }),
+  location: restPositionals({
+    type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+    displayName: 'location',
+    description: 'Where to list',
+  }),
 };
 
 export const commandList = command({
diff --git a/src/commands/stac-catalog/stac.catalog.ts b/src/commands/stac-catalog/stac.catalog.ts
index 1bc0eac0a..f33ebe800 100644
--- a/src/commands/stac-catalog/stac.catalog.ts
+++ b/src/commands/stac-catalog/stac.catalog.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import * as st from 'stac-ts';
 
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
 import { config, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 
 /** is a path a URL */
@@ -54,7 +55,10 @@ export const commandStacCatalog = command({
       description: 'JSON template file location for the Catalog metadata',
     }),
     output: option({ type: string, long: 'output', description: 'Output location for the catalog' }),
-    path: positional({ type: string, description: 'Location to search for collection.json paths' }),
+    path: positional({
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+      description: 'Location to search for collection.json paths',
+    }),
   },
 
   async handler(args) {
diff --git a/src/commands/tileindex-validate/tileindex.validate.ts b/src/commands/tileindex-validate/tileindex.validate.ts
index 8f2a523fc..7a8c89e4c 100644
--- a/src/commands/tileindex-validate/tileindex.validate.ts
+++ b/src/commands/tileindex-validate/tileindex.validate.ts
@@ -1,14 +1,16 @@
 import { Bounds, Projection } from '@basemaps/geo';
 import { fsa } from '@chunkd/fs';
 import { CogTiff, Size } from '@cogeotiff/core';
-import { boolean, command, flag, number, option, optional, restPositionals, string } from 'cmd-ts';
+import { boolean, command, flag, number, option, optional, restPositionals } from 'cmd-ts';
 
 import { CliInfo } from '../../cli.info.js';
 import { logger } from '../../log.js';
 import { isArgo } from '../../utils/argo.js';
 import { FileFilter, getFiles } from '../../utils/chunk.js';
+import { PathStringOrUrlStringFromString } from '../../utils/cmd-ts-types.js';
 import { findBoundingBox } from '../../utils/geotiff.js';
 import { MapSheet, SheetRanges } from '../../utils/mapsheet.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from '../../utils/types.js';
 import { config, createTiff, forceOutput, registerCli, verbose } from '../common.js';
 import { CommandListArgs } from '../list/list.js';
 
@@ -17,8 +19,8 @@ const SHEET_MAX_X = MapSheet.origin.x + 46 * MapSheet.width; // The maximum x co
 const SHEET_MIN_Y = MapSheet.origin.y - 41 * MapSheet.height; // The minimum y coordinate of a valid sheet / tile
 const SHEET_MAX_Y = MapSheet.origin.y; // The maximum y coordinate of a valid sheet / tile
 
-export function isTiff(x: string): boolean {
-  const search = x.toLowerCase();
+export function isTiff(path: PathString | UrlString): boolean {
+  const search = path.toLowerCase();
   return search.endsWith('.tiff') || search.endsWith('.tif');
 }
 
@@ -30,7 +32,7 @@ export const TiffLoader = {
    * @param args filter the tiffs
    * @returns Initialized tiff
    */
-  async load(locations: string[], args?: FileFilter): Promise<CogTiff[]> {
+  async load(locations: (PathString | UrlString)[], args?: FileFilter): Promise<CogTiff[]> {
     const files = await getFiles(locations, args);
     const tiffLocations = files.flat().filter(isTiff);
     if (tiffLocations.length === 0) throw new Error('No Files found');
@@ -129,7 +131,11 @@ export const commandTileIndexValidate = command({
       defaultValueIsSerializable: true,
     }),
     forceOutput,
-    location: restPositionals({ type: string, displayName: 'location', description: 'Location of the source files' }),
+    location: restPositionals({
+      type: PathStringOrUrlStringFromString,
+      displayName: 'location',
+      description: 'Location of the source files',
+    }),
   },
   async handler(args) {
     registerCli(this, args);
@@ -316,6 +322,7 @@ export async function extractTiffLocations(
   for (const o of result) if (o) output.push(o);
   return output;
 }
+
 export function getSize(extent: [number, number, number, number]): Size {
   return { width: extent[2] - extent[0], height: extent[3] - extent[1] };
 }
diff --git a/src/utils/action.storage.ts b/src/utils/action.storage.ts
index d0af1f861..e6abe9b50 100644
--- a/src/utils/action.storage.ts
+++ b/src/utils/action.storage.ts
@@ -1,15 +1,17 @@
+import { PathString, UrlString } from './types.js';
+
 /**
  * Store actions as JSON documents on a file system rather than passing huge JSON documents around
  *
  * Uses $ACTION_PATH if set to store the actions to a user defined location
  * This parses $ARGO_TEMPLATE looking for a `archiveLocation`
  */
-export function getActionLocation(): string | null {
-  if (process.env['ACTION_PATH']) return process.env['ACTION_PATH'];
+export function getActionLocation(): PathString | UrlString | null {
+  if (process.env['ACTION_PATH']) return process.env['ACTION_PATH'] as PathString | UrlString;
   const loc = JSON.parse(process.env['ARGO_TEMPLATE'] ?? '{}')?.archiveLocation?.s3;
   if (loc == null) return null;
   if (typeof loc.key !== 'string') return null;
 
   const key = loc.key.replace(`/${process.env['ARGO_NODE_ID']}`, '');
-  return `s3://${loc.bucket}/${key}`;
+  return `s3://${loc.bucket}/${key}` as UrlString;
 }
diff --git a/src/utils/chunk.ts b/src/utils/chunk.ts
index b7808a8ad..86901309e 100644
--- a/src/utils/chunk.ts
+++ b/src/utils/chunk.ts
@@ -2,9 +2,10 @@ import { fsa } from '@chunkd/fs';
 
 import { parseSize } from '../commands/common.js';
 import { logger } from '../log.js';
+import { PathString, UrlString } from './types.js';
 
 export interface FileSizeInfo {
-  path: string;
+  path: PathString | UrlString;
   size?: number;
 }
 
@@ -23,11 +24,11 @@ export async function* asyncFilter<T extends { path: string; size?: number }>(
 }
 
 /** Chunk files into a max size (eg 1GB chunks) or max count (eg 100 files) or what ever comes first when both are defined */
-export function chunkFiles(values: FileSizeInfo[], count: number, size: number): string[][] {
+export function chunkFiles(values: FileSizeInfo[], count: number, size: number): (PathString | UrlString)[][] {
   if (count == null && size == null) return [values.map((c) => c.path)];
 
-  const output: string[][] = [];
-  let current: string[] = [];
+  const output: (PathString | UrlString)[][] = [];
+  let current: (PathString | UrlString)[] = [];
   let totalSize = 0;
   for (const v of values) {
     current.push(v.path);
@@ -42,7 +43,10 @@ export function chunkFiles(values: FileSizeInfo[], count: number, size: number):
   return output;
 }
 export type FileFilter = { include?: string; exclude?: string; limit?: number; group?: number; groupSize?: string };
-export async function getFiles(paths: string[], args: FileFilter = {}): Promise<string[][]> {
+export async function getFiles(
+  paths: (PathString | UrlString)[],
+  args: FileFilter = {},
+): Promise<(PathString | UrlString)[][]> {
   const limit = args.limit ?? -1; // no limit by default
   const maxSize = parseSize(args.groupSize ?? '-1');
   const maxLength = args.group ?? -1;
@@ -58,7 +62,7 @@ export async function getFiles(paths: string[], args: FileFilter = {}): Promise<
       // Skip empty files
       if (file.size === 0) continue;
       if (file.size != null) size += file.size;
-      outputFiles.push(file);
+      outputFiles.push({ path: file.path, size: file.size } as FileSizeInfo);
       if (limit > 0 && outputFiles.length >= limit) break;
     }
     if (limit > 0 && outputFiles.length >= limit) break;
diff --git a/src/utils/cmd-ts-types.ts b/src/utils/cmd-ts-types.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..622f5caae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/cmd-ts-types.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+import { Type } from 'cmd-ts';
+
+import { PathString, UrlString } from './types.js';
+
+export const PathStringOrUrlStringFromString: Type<string, PathString | UrlString> = {
+  async from(value) {
+    try {
+      return new URL(value).href as UrlString;
+    } catch (error) {
+      return value as PathString;
+    }
+  },
+};
diff --git a/src/utils/types.ts b/src/utils/types.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..764b5c3bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils/types.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+declare const __brand: unique symbol;
+type Brand<B> = { [__brand]: B };
+
+export type Branded<T, B> = T & Brand<B>;
+
+export type PathString = Branded<string, 'Url'>;
+export type UrlString = Branded<string, 'Path'>;
+export type JSONString = Branded<string, 'JSONString'>;