diff --git a/nexus/Cargo.lock b/nexus/Cargo.lock
index 9900e59f31..e2a9120933 100644
--- a/nexus/Cargo.lock
+++ b/nexus/Cargo.lock
@@ -55,7 +55,10 @@ dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "async-trait",
  "catalog",
+ "clap",
+ "dotenvy",
  "flow-rs",
+ "futures",
  "lazy_static",
  "pem 1.1.1",
  "pt",
diff --git a/nexus/analyzer/Cargo.toml b/nexus/analyzer/Cargo.toml
index 1680d9dcb9..5632e8db58 100644
--- a/nexus/analyzer/Cargo.toml
+++ b/nexus/analyzer/Cargo.toml
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ edition = "2021"
 anyhow = "1.0"
 async-trait = "0.1"
 catalog = { path = "../catalog" }
+clap = { version = "4.0", features = ["derive", "env"] }
+dotenvy = "0.15.7"
 flow-rs = { path = "../flow-rs" }
+futures = "0.3"
 lazy_static = "1.4"
 pem = "1.1.0"
 pt = { path = "../pt" }
diff --git a/nexus/analyzer/src/lib.rs b/nexus/analyzer/src/lib.rs
index 6893b46457..0b86fb725b 100644
--- a/nexus/analyzer/src/lib.rs
+++ b/nexus/analyzer/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,12 +1,8 @@
 // multipass statement analyzer.
 
-use std::{
-    collections::{HashMap, HashSet},
-    ops::ControlFlow,
-    vec,
-};
-
 use anyhow::Context;
+use catalog::{Catalog, CatalogConfig};
+use clap::Parser;
 use pt::{
     flow_model::{FlowJob, FlowJobTableMapping, FlowSyncMode, QRepFlowJob},
     peerdb_peers::{
@@ -17,9 +13,81 @@ use pt::{
 use qrep::process_options;
 use sqlparser::ast::CreateMirror::{Select, CDC};
 use sqlparser::ast::{visit_relations, visit_statements, FetchDirection, SqlOption, Statement};
+use std::{
+    collections::{HashMap, HashSet},
+    ops::ControlFlow,
+    vec,
+};
 
 mod qrep;
 
+#[derive(Parser, Debug)]
+struct CatalogArgs {
+    #[clap(long, default_value = "localhost", env = "PEERDB_CATALOG_HOST")]
+    catalog_host: String,
+    #[clap(long, default_value_t = 5432, env = "PEERDB_CATALOG_PORT")]
+    catalog_port: u16,
+    #[clap(long, default_value = "postgres", env = "PEERDB_CATALOG_USER")]
+    catalog_user: String,
+    #[clap(long, default_value = "postgres", env = "PEERDB_CATALOG_PASSWORD")]
+    catalog_password: String,
+    #[clap(long, default_value = "postgres", env = "PEERDB_CATALOG_DATABASE")]
+    catalog_database: String,
+}
+
+fn stage_check(stage: String, peer_type: DbType) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
+    if !stage.is_empty() && !stage.starts_with("s3://") && peer_type == DbType::Snowflake {
+        return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
+            "Staging path for Snowflake must either be an S3 URL or an empty string for staging inside PeerDB."
+        ));
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+fn mirror_input_checks(flow_job: &FlowJob) -> anyhow::Result<bool> {
+    dotenvy::dotenv().ok();
+    let catalog_args = CatalogArgs::parse();
+    let catalog_config = CatalogConfig {
+        host: catalog_args.catalog_host.clone(),
+        port: catalog_args.catalog_port,
+        user: catalog_args.catalog_user.clone(),
+        password: catalog_args.catalog_password.clone(),
+        database: catalog_args.catalog_database.clone(),
+    };
+
+    let new_catalog = futures::executor::block_on(Catalog::new(&catalog_config))?;
+    let destination_peer_type = futures::executor::block_on(
+        new_catalog.get_peer_type_by_name(flow_job.target_peer.clone()),
+    )?;
+
+    let path_missing_err = "missing or invalid for your destination peer";
+
+    // Error reporting
+    if Some(FlowSyncMode::Avro) == flow_job.snapshot_sync_mode {
+        if flow_job.snapshot_staging_path.is_none() {
+            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(format!(
+                "{} {}",
+                "snapshot_staging_path", path_missing_err
+            )));
+        } else if let Some(snapshot_stage) = flow_job.snapshot_staging_path.clone() {
+            stage_check(snapshot_stage, destination_peer_type)?;
+        }
+    }
+
+    if Some(FlowSyncMode::Avro) == flow_job.cdc_sync_mode {
+        if flow_job.cdc_staging_path.is_none() {
+            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(format!(
+                "{} {}",
+                "cdc_staging_path", path_missing_err
+            )));
+        } else if let Some(cdc_stage) = flow_job.cdc_staging_path.clone() {
+            stage_check(cdc_stage, destination_peer_type)?;
+        }
+    }
+
+    Ok(true)
+}
+
 pub trait StatementAnalyzer {
     type Output;
 
@@ -266,14 +334,7 @@ impl StatementAnalyzer for PeerDDLAnalyzer {
                             push_parallelism,
                         };
 
-                        // Error reporting
-                        if Some(FlowSyncMode::Avro) == flow_job.snapshot_sync_mode
-                            && flow_job.snapshot_staging_path.is_none()
-                        {
-                            return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
-                                "snapshot_staging_path must be set for AVRO snapshot mode."
-                            ));
-                        }
+                        mirror_input_checks(&flow_job)?;
 
                         Ok(Some(PeerDDL::CreateMirrorForCDC { flow_job }))
                     }
diff --git a/nexus/catalog/src/lib.rs b/nexus/catalog/src/lib.rs
index bab49b945c..837bfdb773 100644
--- a/nexus/catalog/src/lib.rs
+++ b/nexus/catalog/src/lib.rs
@@ -197,6 +197,24 @@ impl Catalog {
             .context("Failed to get peer type")
     }
 
+    // get the database type for a given peer name
+    pub async fn get_peer_type_by_name(&self, peer_name: String) -> anyhow::Result<DbType> {
+        let stmt = self
+            .pg
+            .prepare_typed(
+                "SELECT type FROM peers WHERE name = $1",
+                &[types::Type::TEXT],
+            )
+            .await?;
+
+        self.pg
+            .query_opt(&stmt, &[&peer_name])
+            .await?
+            .map(|row| row.get(0))
+            .map(|r#type| DbType::from_i32(r#type).unwrap()) // if row was inserted properly, this should never fail
+            .context("Failed to get peer type")
+    }
+
     pub async fn get_peers(&self) -> anyhow::Result<HashMap<String, Peer>> {
         let stmt = self
             .pg
diff --git a/nexus/server/tests/server_test.rs b/nexus/server/tests/server_test.rs
index 9412199fb9..2a905d64d0 100644
--- a/nexus/server/tests/server_test.rs
+++ b/nexus/server/tests/server_test.rs
@@ -223,6 +223,64 @@ fn query_unknown_peer_doesnt_crash_server() {
     assert!(res.is_ok());
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn mirror_with_bad_staging_path_should_err() {
+    let server = PeerDBServer::new();
+    let mut client = server.connect_dying();
+    let cdc_query = "CREATE MIRROR fail_cdc
+    FROM pg_test TO bq_test
+    WITH TABLE MAPPING (
+      public.cats:cats
+    )
+    WITH (
+      cdc_sync_mode = 'avro'
+    );";
+    let res = client.simple_query(cdc_query);
+    assert!(res.is_err());
+    if let Err(e) = res {
+        assert!(e
+            .to_string()
+            .contains("cdc_staging_path missing or invalid for your destination peer"));
+    }
+    let snapshot_query = "CREATE MIRROR fail_snapshot
+    FROM pg_test TO bq_test
+    WITH TABLE MAPPING (
+      public.cats:cats
+    )
+    WITH (
+      snapshot_sync_mode = 'avro'
+    );";
+    let res = client.simple_query(snapshot_query);
+    assert!(res.is_err());
+    if let Err(e) = res {
+        assert!(e
+            .to_string()
+            .contains("snapshot_staging_path missing or invalid for your destination peer"));
+    }
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn snowflake_mirror_errs_for_bad_stage() {
+    let server = PeerDBServer::new();
+    let mut client = server.connect_dying();
+    let sf_query = "CREATE MIRROR fail_cdc
+    FROM pg_test TO sf_test
+    WITH TABLE MAPPING (
+      public.cats:cats
+    )
+    WITH (
+      snapshot_sync_mode = 'avro',
+      snapshot_staging_path = 'something'
+    );";
+    let res = client.simple_query(sf_query);
+    assert!(res.is_err());
+    if let Err(e) = res {
+        assert!(e
+            .to_string()
+            .contains("Staging path for Snowflake must either be an S3 URL or an empty string"));
+    }
+}
+
 #[test]
 #[ignore = "requires some work for extended query prepares on bigquery."]
 fn extended_query_protocol_no_params_bq() {