diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index be5daf8fd..2518cc92b 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -2095,6 +2095,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "thiserror",
  "tokio",
  "ureq",
+ "url",
  "uuid",
 ]
 
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7894cc98c..09171118a 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -45,3 +45,4 @@ tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread"] }
 thiserror = "1.0"
 ureq = { version = "^2.9.0", features = ["tls"] }
 uuid = { version = "^1.8.0", features = ["serde", "v4"] }
+url = { version = "2" }
diff --git a/doc/man/task-sync.5.in b/doc/man/task-sync.5.in
index 54129343d..a8cf66d5f 100644
--- a/doc/man/task-sync.5.in
+++ b/doc/man/task-sync.5.in
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ Configure Taskwarrior with these details:
     $ task config sync.server.origin            <origin>
     $ task config sync.server.client_id         <client_id>
 
+Note that the origin must include the scheme, such as 'http://' or 'https://'.
+
 .SS Google Cloud Platform
 
 To synchronize your tasks to GCP, use the GCP Console to create a new project,
diff --git a/taskchampion/integration-tests/src/bindings_tests/replica.c b/taskchampion/integration-tests/src/bindings_tests/replica.c
index 58c0e5f29..0126791ff 100644
--- a/taskchampion/integration-tests/src/bindings_tests/replica.c
+++ b/taskchampion/integration-tests/src/bindings_tests/replica.c
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ static void test_replica_sync_local(void) {
 static void test_replica_remote_server(void) {
     TCString err;
     TCServer *server = tc_server_new_sync(
-        tc_string_borrow("tc.freecinc.com"),
+        tc_string_borrow("http://tc.freecinc.com"),
         tc_uuid_new_v4(),
         tc_string_borrow("\xf0\x28\x8c\x28"), // NOTE: not utf-8
         &err);
diff --git a/taskchampion/taskchampion/Cargo.toml b/taskchampion/taskchampion/Cargo.toml
index ad0b55b68..7ff582dd7 100644
--- a/taskchampion/taskchampion/Cargo.toml
+++ b/taskchampion/taskchampion/Cargo.toml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ rust-version = "1.70.0"
 default = ["server-sync", "server-gcp"]
 
 # Support for sync to a server
-server-sync = ["encryption", "dep:ureq"]
+server-sync = ["encryption", "dep:ureq", "dep:url"]
 # Support for sync to GCP
 server-gcp = ["cloud", "encryption", "dep:google-cloud-storage", "dep:tokio"]
 # (private) Support for sync protocol encryption
@@ -43,10 +43,12 @@ byteorder.workspace = true
 ring.workspace = true
 google-cloud-storage.workspace = true
 tokio.workspace = true
+url.workspace = true
 
 google-cloud-storage.optional = true
 tokio.optional = true
 ureq.optional = true
+url.optional = true
 ring.optional = true
 
 [dev-dependencies]
diff --git a/taskchampion/taskchampion/src/server/sync/mod.rs b/taskchampion/taskchampion/src/server/sync/mod.rs
index c42db7499..ecd118dbe 100644
--- a/taskchampion/taskchampion/src/server/sync/mod.rs
+++ b/taskchampion/taskchampion/src/server/sync/mod.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ use crate::server::{
     VersionId,
 };
 use std::time::Duration;
+use url::Url;
 use uuid::Uuid;
 
 use super::encryption::{Cryptor, Sealed, Secret, Unsealed};
@@ -28,8 +29,16 @@ impl SyncServer {
     /// identify this client to the server.  Multiple replicas synchronizing the same task history
     /// should use the same client_id.
     pub fn new(origin: String, client_id: Uuid, encryption_secret: Vec<u8>) -> Result<SyncServer> {
+        let origin = Url::parse(&origin)
+            .map_err(|_| Error::Server(format!("Could not parse {} as a URL", origin)))?;
+        if origin.path() != "/" {
+            return Err(Error::Server(format!(
+                "Server origin must have an empty path; got {}",
+                origin
+            )));
+        }
         Ok(SyncServer {
-            origin,
+            origin: origin.to_string(),
             client_id,
             cryptor: Cryptor::new(client_id, &Secret(encryption_secret.to_vec()))?,
             agent: ureq::AgentBuilder::new()