diff --git a/alephclient/api.py b/alephclient/api.py
index fb912ab..781d93f 100644
--- a/alephclient/api.py
+++ b/alephclient/api.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import importlib.metadata
 import json
+import mimetypes
 import uuid
 import logging
 from itertools import count
@@ -509,6 +510,84 @@ def ingest_upload(
                 backoff(ae, attempt)
         return {}
 
+    def signed_url_upload(
+        self,
+        collection_id: str,
+        file_path: Optional[Path] = None,
+        metadata: Optional[Dict] = None,
+        index: bool = True,
+    ) -> Dict:
+        """
+        Upload a document using the signed URL workflow.
+
+        For directories (no file), falls back to the standard ingest endpoint
+        since there is no file content to upload.
+
+        The workflow is:
+        1. POST /file/uploadUrl -> {url, id}
+        2. PUT file content to the signed url
+        3. POST /collections/{id}/document with the upload_id and metadata
+
+        params
+        ------
+        collection_id: id of the collection to upload to
+        file_path: path of the file to upload. None while creating folders
+        metadata: dict containing metadata for the file or folders
+        index: whether to index the document after creation
+        """
+        if not file_path or file_path.is_dir():
+            return self.ingest_upload(
+                collection_id, file_path, metadata=metadata, index=index
+            )
+
+        mime_type = mimetypes.guess_type(file_path.name)[0] or MIME
+        meta = dict(metadata or {})
+        meta["file_name"] = file_path.name
+        meta["mime_type"] = mime_type
+
+        for attempt in count(1):
+            try:
+                # Step 1: request a signed upload URL
+                upload_url = self._make_url("file/uploadUrl")
+                try:
+                    result = self._request("POST", upload_url)
+                except AlephException as ae:
+                    if ae.status == 404:
+                        raise AlephException(
+                            "Upload endpoint not found. Is this an Aleph Pro instance?"
+                        ) from ae
+                    raise
+                signed_url = result["url"]
+                upload_id = result["id"]
+                log.info("Signed URL id [%s]: %s", upload_id, file_path.name)
+                log.debug("Signed URL id [%s]", upload_id)
+
+                # Step 2: PUT file content to the signed URL
+                try:
+                    with file_path.open("rb") as fh:
+                        response = self.session.put(
+                            signed_url,
+                            data=fh,
+                            headers={"Content-Type": "application/octet-stream"},
+                        )
+                        response.raise_for_status()
+                except (RequestException, HTTPError) as exc:
+                    raise AlephException(exc) from exc
+
+                # Step 3: create the document record
+                doc_url_path = f"collections/{collection_id}/document"
+                doc_url = self._make_url(doc_url_path, params={"index": index})
+                payload = {"upload_id": upload_id, "Meta": meta}
+                result = self._request("POST", doc_url, json=payload)
+                if not result:
+                    return {"id": upload_id, "status": "ok"}
+                return result
+            except AlephException as ae:
+                if not ae.transient or attempt > self.retries:
+                    raise ae from ae
+                backoff(ae, attempt)
+        return {}
+
     def create_entityset(
         self, collection_id: str, type: str, label: str, summary: Optional[str]
     ) -> Dict:
diff --git a/alephclient/cli.py b/alephclient/cli.py
index b9399b0..83d8cd4 100644
--- a/alephclient/cli.py
+++ b/alephclient/cli.py
@@ -87,6 +87,12 @@ def cli(ctx, host, api_key, retries):
     help="maximum number of parallel uploads",
 )
 @click.option("-f", "--foreign-id", required=True, help="foreign-id of the collection")
+@click.option(
+    "--signed-url",
+    is_flag=True,
+    default=False,
+    help="use signed URL workflow for file uploads",
+)
 @click.argument("path", type=click.Path(exists=True))
 @click.pass_context
 def crawldir(
@@ -98,6 +104,7 @@ def crawldir(
     noindex=False,
     nojunk=False,
     parallel=1,
+    signed_url=False,
 ):
     """Crawl a directory recursively and upload the documents in it to a
     collection."""
@@ -112,6 +119,7 @@ def crawldir(
             index=not noindex,
             nojunk=nojunk,
             parallel=parallel,
+            signed_url=signed_url,
         )
     except AlephException as exc:
         raise click.ClickException(str(exc))
diff --git a/alephclient/crawldir.py b/alephclient/crawldir.py
index 36d3d8e..9a0b69b 100644
--- a/alephclient/crawldir.py
+++ b/alephclient/crawldir.py
@@ -22,9 +22,11 @@ def __init__(
         path: Path,
         index: bool = True,
         nojunk: bool = False,
+        signed_url: bool = False,
     ):
         self.api = api
         self.index = index
+        self.signed_url = signed_url
         self.exclude = (
             {
                 "f": re.compile(r"\..*|thumbs\.db|desktop\.ini", re.I),
@@ -128,12 +130,20 @@ def ingest_upload(self, path: Path, parent_id: str, foreign_id: str) -> str:
         log.info("Upload [%s->%s]: %s", self.collection_id, parent_id, foreign_id)
         if parent_id is not None:
             metadata["parent_id"] = parent_id
-        result = self.api.ingest_upload(
-            self.collection_id,
-            path,
-            metadata=metadata,
-            index=self.index,
-        )
+        if self.signed_url:
+            result = self.api.signed_url_upload(
+                self.collection_id,
+                path,
+                metadata=metadata,
+                index=self.index,
+            )
+        else:
+            result = self.api.ingest_upload(
+                self.collection_id,
+                path,
+                metadata=metadata,
+                index=self.index,
+            )
         if "id" not in result and not hasattr(result, "id"):
             raise AlephException("Upload failed")
         return result["id"]
@@ -147,6 +157,7 @@ def crawl_dir(
     index: bool = True,
     nojunk: bool = False,
     parallel: int = 1,
+    signed_url: bool = False,
 ):
     """Crawl a directory and upload its content to a collection
 
@@ -158,7 +169,9 @@ def crawl_dir(
     """
     root = Path(path).resolve()
     collection = api.load_collection_by_foreign_id(foreign_id, config)
-    crawler = CrawlDirectory(api, collection, root, index=index, nojunk=nojunk)
+    crawler = CrawlDirectory(
+        api, collection, root, index=index, nojunk=nojunk, signed_url=signed_url
+    )
     consumers = []
 
     # Use one thread to produce using scandir and at least one to consume
diff --git a/alephclient/tests/test_crawldir.py b/alephclient/tests/test_crawldir.py
index b906c60..c3e340e 100644
--- a/alephclient/tests/test_crawldir.py
+++ b/alephclient/tests/test_crawldir.py
@@ -48,3 +48,13 @@ def test_is_excluded_exclude_dir(self):
         crawldir.exclude["d"] = re.compile(r"week1\/*", re.I)
         is_excluded = crawldir.is_excluded(path)
         assert is_excluded
+
+    def test_signed_url_default_false(self):
+        path = Path(os.path.join(self.base_path, "jan/week1"))
+        crawldir = CrawlDirectory(AlephAPI, {}, path)
+        assert crawldir.signed_url is False
+
+    def test_signed_url_true(self):
+        path = Path(os.path.join(self.base_path, "jan/week1"))
+        crawldir = CrawlDirectory(AlephAPI, {}, path, signed_url=True)
+        assert crawldir.signed_url is True
diff --git a/alephclient/tests/test_tasks.py b/alephclient/tests/test_tasks.py
index c3afd57..2b32391 100644
--- a/alephclient/tests/test_tasks.py
+++ b/alephclient/tests/test_tasks.py
@@ -120,3 +120,20 @@ def test_ingest(self, mocker):
         ]
         for call in expected_calls:
             assert call in self.api.ingest_upload.mock_calls
+
+    def test_ingest_signed_url(self, mocker):
+        mocker.patch.object(self.api, "signed_url_upload", return_value={"id": 42})
+        mocker.patch.object(
+            self.api, "load_collection_by_foreign_id", return_value={"id": 2}
+        )
+        mocker.patch.object(self.api, "update_collection")
+        crawl_dir(
+            self.api,
+            "alephclient/tests/testdata",
+            "test153",
+            {},
+            True,
+            True,
+            signed_url=True,
+        )
+        assert self.api.signed_url_upload.call_count == 6