diff --git a/docs/taggers.md b/docs/taggers.md
index 42a9f75f..f5e6ddbd 100644
--- a/docs/taggers.md
+++ b/docs/taggers.md
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ The following parameters are supported either via CLI (e.g. `dolma tag --paramet
 |`destination`|No| One or more paths for output attribute files. Each accepts a single wildcard `*` character. Can be local, or an S3-compatible cloud path. If not provided, the destination will be derived from the document path. |
 |`experiment`|No| Used to name output attribute files. One output file will be created for each input document file, where the key is obtained by substituting `documents` with `attributes/<experiment>`. If not provided, we will use `attributes/<tagger_name>`. |
 |`taggers`|Yes| One or more taggers to run. |
+|`tagger_modules`|No| List of one or more Python modules to load taggers from. See section [*"Using Custom Taggers"*](#using-custom-taggers) for more details. |
 |`processes`|No| Number of processes to use for tagging. One process is used by default. |
 |`ignore_existing`|No| If true, ignore existing outputs and re-run the taggers. |
 |`dryrun`|No| If true, only print the configuration and exit without running the taggers. |
@@ -80,10 +81,9 @@ All taggers inherit from the `BaseTagger` class defined in [`core/taggers.py`](h
 import random
 
 from dolma.core.data_types import DocResult, Document, Span
-from dolma.core.registry import TaggerRegistry
-from dolma.core.taggers import BaseTagger
+from dolma import add_tagger, BaseTagger
 
-@TaggerRegistry.add("random_number_v1")
+@add_tagger("new_random_number")
 class RandomNumberTagger(BaseTagger):
     def predict(self, doc: Document) -> DocResult:
         # first, we generate a random number
@@ -102,4 +102,13 @@ class RandomNumberTagger(BaseTagger):
         return DocResult(doc=doc, spans=[span])
 ```
 
-Name for each tagger is specified using the `@TaggerRegistry.add` decorator. The name must be unique.
+Name for each tagger is specified using the `add_tagger` decorator. The name must be unique.
+
+## Using Custom Taggers
+
+Taggers can be added either as part of the Dolma package, or they can be imported at runtime by providing the `tagger_modules` parameter.
+
+For example, let's assume `new_random_number` is saved in a file called `my_taggers.py` in python module `my_module`. Then, we can run the tagger using one of the following commands:
+
+- `dolma tag --taggers new_random_number --tagger_modules path/to/my_module/my_taggers.py ...`
+- `PYTHONPATH="path/to/my_module" dolma tag --taggers new_random_number --tagger_modules my_taggers`
diff --git a/python/dolma/__init__.py b/python/dolma/__init__.py
index 635767b2..b5b90f1b 100644
--- a/python/dolma/__init__.py
+++ b/python/dolma/__init__.py
@@ -9,9 +9,19 @@
 # must import taggers to register them
 # we import the rust extension here and wrap it in a python module
 from . import dolma as _dolma  # type: ignore   # noqa: E402
+from .core import TaggerRegistry  # noqa: E402
 from .core.errors import DolmaRustPipelineError  # noqa: E402
+from .core.taggers import BaseTagger  # noqa: E402
 from .taggers import *  # noqa: E402
 
+__all__ = [
+    "add_tagger",
+    "BaseTagger",
+]
+
+# we create a shortcut to easily add taggers to the registry
+add_tagger = TaggerRegistry.add
+
 
 def deduper(config: dict):
     try:
diff --git a/python/dolma/cli/tagger.py b/python/dolma/cli/tagger.py
index 7e14d2a2..3a594fe7 100644
--- a/python/dolma/cli/tagger.py
+++ b/python/dolma/cli/tagger.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 from dolma.core.paths import glob_path
 from dolma.core.registry import TaggerRegistry
 from dolma.core.runtime import create_and_run_tagger
+from dolma.core.utils import import_modules
 
 
 @dataclass
@@ -53,6 +54,14 @@ class TaggerConfig:
             "If not provided, destination will be derived from the document path."
         ),
     )
+    tagger_modules: List[str] = field(
+        default=[],
+        help=(
+            "Additional modules to import taggers from; this is useful for taggers that are not part of Dolma. "
+            "Modules must be available in $PYTHONPATH or a path to module. Taggers should be registered using the "
+            "@dolma.add_tagger(...) decorator."
+        ),
+    )
     taggers: List[str] = field(
         default=[],
         help="List of taggers to run.",
@@ -122,6 +131,7 @@ def run(cls, parsed_config: TaggerConfig):
                 destination=parsed_config.destination,
                 metadata=work_dirs.output,
                 taggers=taggers,
+                taggers_modules=parsed_config.tagger_modules,
                 ignore_existing=parsed_config.ignore_existing,
                 num_processes=parsed_config.processes,
                 experiment=parsed_config.experiment,
@@ -135,7 +145,10 @@ def run(cls, parsed_config: TaggerConfig):
 
 @dataclass
 class ListTaggerConfig:
-    ...
+    tagger_modules: List[str] = field(
+        default=[],
+        help="List of Python modules $PYTHONPATH to import custom taggers from.",
+    )
 
 
 class ListTaggerCli(BaseCli):
@@ -144,6 +157,9 @@ class ListTaggerCli(BaseCli):
 
     @classmethod
     def run(cls, parsed_config: ListTaggerConfig):
+        # import tagger modules
+        import_modules(parsed_config.tagger_modules)
+
         table = Table(title="dolma taggers", style="bold")
         table.add_column("name", justify="left", style="cyan")
         table.add_column("class", justify="left", style="magenta")
diff --git a/python/dolma/core/registry.py b/python/dolma/core/registry.py
index e520b49c..6ebd27ea 100644
--- a/python/dolma/core/registry.py
+++ b/python/dolma/core/registry.py
@@ -36,6 +36,19 @@ def _add(
 
         return _add
 
+    @classmethod
+    def remove(cls, name: str) -> bool:
+        """Remove a tagger from the registry."""
+        if name in cls.__taggers:
+            cls.__taggers.pop(name)
+            return True
+        return False
+
+    @classmethod
+    def has(cls, name: str) -> bool:
+        """Check if a tagger exists in the registry."""
+        return name in cls.__taggers
+
     @classmethod
     def get(cls, name: str) -> Type[BaseTagger]:
         """Get a tagger from the registry; raise ValueError if it doesn't exist."""
diff --git a/python/dolma/core/runtime.py b/python/dolma/core/runtime.py
index 2faf713d..62ea0f5e 100644
--- a/python/dolma/core/runtime.py
+++ b/python/dolma/core/runtime.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 from .parallel import BaseParallelProcessor, QueueType
 from .paths import delete_dir, join_path, make_relative, mkdir_p, split_glob, split_path
 from .registry import TaggerRegistry
-from .utils import make_variable_name
+from .utils import import_modules, make_variable_name
 
 # this placeholder gets used when a user has provided no experiment name, and we want to use taggers'
 # names as experiment names.
@@ -220,6 +220,10 @@ def process_single(
         **kwargs,
     ):
         """Lets count run the taggers! We will use the destination path to save each tagger output."""
+        # import tagger modules
+        taggers_modules = kwargs.get("taggers_modules", None)
+        if taggers_modules is not None:
+            import_modules(taggers_modules)
 
         # get names of taggers
         taggers_names = kwargs.get("taggers_names", None)
@@ -329,6 +333,7 @@ def profiler(
 def create_and_run_tagger(
     documents: List[str],
     taggers: List[str],
+    taggers_modules: Optional[List[str]] = None,
     experiment: Optional[str] = None,
     destination: Union[None, str, List[str]] = None,
     metadata: Union[None, str, List[str]] = None,
@@ -421,6 +426,7 @@ def create_and_run_tagger(
             tagger(
                 experiment_name=experiment,
                 taggers_names=taggers,
+                taggers_modules=taggers_modules,
                 skip_on_failure=skip_on_failure,
                 steps=profile_steps,
             )
diff --git a/python/dolma/core/utils.py b/python/dolma/core/utils.py
index e21882cd..6ec012a9 100644
--- a/python/dolma/core/utils.py
+++ b/python/dolma/core/utils.py
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+import importlib
+import os
 import re
 import string
-from typing import List
+import sys
+from typing import List, Union
 
 try:
     import blingfire
@@ -19,8 +22,10 @@
 
 
 from .data_types import TextSlice
+from .loggers import get_logger
 
 sent_tokenizer = PunktSentenceTokenizer()
+logger = get_logger(__name__)
 
 
 def make_variable_name(name: str, remove_multiple_underscores: bool = False) -> str:
@@ -56,7 +61,7 @@ def split_sentences(text: str, remove_empty: bool = True) -> List[TextSlice]:
     Split a string into sentences.
     """
     if text and BLINGFIRE_AVAILABLE:
-        _, offsets = blingfire.text_to_sentences_and_offsets(text)
+        _, offsets = blingfire.text_to_sentences_and_offsets(text)  # pyright: ignore
     elif text:
         offsets = [(start, end) for start, end in sent_tokenizer.span_tokenize(text)]
     else:
@@ -66,3 +71,53 @@ def split_sentences(text: str, remove_empty: bool = True) -> List[TextSlice]:
         return [TextSlice(doc=text, start=start, end=end) for (start, end) in offsets]
     else:
         raise NotImplementedError("remove_empty=False is not implemented yet")
+
+
+def import_modules(modules_path: Union[List[str], None]):
+    """Import one or more user modules from either names or paths.
+    Importing from path is modeled after fairseq's import_user_module function:
+    github.com/facebookresearch/fairseq/blob/da8fb630880d529ab47e53381c30ddc8ad235216/fairseq/utils.py#L464
+
+    Args:
+        modules_path (Union[List[str], None]): List of module names or paths to import.
+    """
+
+    for module_path in modules_path or []:
+        # try importing the module directly
+        try:
+            importlib.import_module(module_path)
+            continue
+        except ModuleNotFoundError:
+            pass
+        except Exception as exp:
+            raise RuntimeError(f"Could not import module {module_path}: {exp}") from exp
+
+        # if that fails, try importing the module as a path
+
+        # check if this function has a memorization attribute; if not; create it
+        # the memorization attribute is used to ensure that user modules are only imported once
+        if (modules_memo := getattr(import_modules, "memo", None)) is None:
+            modules_memo = set()
+            import_modules.memo = modules_memo  # type: ignore
+
+        # ensure that user modules are only imported once
+        if module_path not in modules_memo:
+            modules_memo.add(module_path)
+
+            if not os.path.exists(module_path):
+                raise FileNotFoundError(f"Could not find module {module_path}")
+
+            # the format is `<module_parent>/<module_name>.py` or `<module_parent>/<module_name>`
+            module_parent, module_name = os.path.split(module_path)
+            module_name, _ = os.path.splitext(module_name)
+            if module_name not in sys.modules:
+                sys.path.insert(0, module_parent)
+                importlib.import_module(module_name)
+            elif module_path in sys.modules[module_name].__path__:
+                logger.info(f"{module_path} has already been imported.")
+            else:
+                raise ImportError(
+                    f"Failed to import {module_path} because the corresponding module name "
+                    f"({module_name}) is not globally unique. Please rename the directory to "
+                    "something unique and try again."
+                )
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/__init__.py b/tests/python/extras/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module/__init__.py b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5b40202a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from .extra_taggers import *  # noqa
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module/extra_taggers.py b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module/extra_taggers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..92a3fb61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module/extra_taggers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+from dolma import BaseTagger, add_tagger
+
+
+@add_tagger("extra_v1")
+class ExtraV1Tagger(BaseTagger):
+    ...
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module_path/__init__.py b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module_path/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5b40202a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module_path/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from .extra_taggers import *  # noqa
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module_path/extra_taggers.py b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module_path/extra_taggers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c88c7750
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_module_path/extra_taggers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+from dolma import BaseTagger, add_tagger
+
+
+@add_tagger("extra_v3")
+class ExtraV1Tagger(BaseTagger):
+    ...
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/extras_from_path/__init__.py b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_path/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/tests/python/extras/extras_from_path/extra_taggers.py b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_path/extra_taggers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bbe0b2ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/extras/extras_from_path/extra_taggers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+from dolma import BaseTagger, add_tagger
+
+
+@add_tagger("extra_v2")
+class ExtraV2Tagger(BaseTagger):
+    ...
diff --git a/tests/python/test_extra.py b/tests/python/test_extra.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..be2866d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/test_extra.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+import sys
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from dolma.core.registry import TaggerRegistry
+from dolma.core.utils import import_modules
+
+
+class TestExtra(unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self) -> None:
+        self.current_path = Path(__file__).parent.absolute()
+
+    def test_import_from_module(self):
+        sys.path.append(f"{self.current_path}/extras")
+        import_modules(["extras_from_module"])
+        self.assertTrue(TaggerRegistry.has("extra_v1"))
+
+    def test_import_from_path(self):
+        import_modules([f"{self.current_path}/extras/extras_from_path/extra_taggers.py"])
+        self.assertTrue(TaggerRegistry.has("extra_v2"))
+
+    def test_import_from_module_path(self):
+        import_modules([f"{self.current_path}/extras/extras_from_module_path"])
+        self.assertTrue(TaggerRegistry.has("extra_v3"))