diff --git a/docling_core/utils/file.py b/docling_core/utils/file.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..693f7bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docling_core/utils/file.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#
+# Copyright IBM Corp. 2024 - 2024
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+#
+
+"""File-related utilities."""
+
+import tempfile
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Union
+
+import requests
+from pydantic import AnyHttpUrl, TypeAdapter, ValidationError
+
+
+def resolve_file_source(source: Union[Path, AnyHttpUrl, str]) -> Path:
+    """Resolves the source (URL, path) of a file to a local file path.
+
+    If a URL is provided, the content is first downloaded to a temporary local file.
+
+    Args:
+        source (Path | AnyHttpUrl | str): The file input source. Can be a path or URL.
+
+    Raises:
+        ValueError: If source is of unexpected type.
+
+    Returns:
+        Path: The local file path.
+    """
+    try:
+        http_url: AnyHttpUrl = TypeAdapter(AnyHttpUrl).validate_python(source)
+        res = requests.get(http_url, stream=True)
+        res.raise_for_status()
+        fname = None
+        # try to get filename from response header
+        if cont_disp := res.headers.get("Content-Disposition"):
+            for par in cont_disp.strip().split(";"):
+                # currently only handling directive "filename" (not "*filename")
+                if (split := par.split("=")) and split[0].strip() == "filename":
+                    fname = "=".join(split[1:]).strip().strip("'\"") or None
+                    break
+        # otherwise, use name from URL:
+        if fname is None:
+            fname = Path(http_url.path or "file").name
+        local_path = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp()) / fname
+        with open(local_path, "wb") as f:
+            for chunk in res.iter_content(chunk_size=1024):  # using 1-KB chunks
+                f.write(chunk)
+    except ValidationError:
+        try:
+            local_path = TypeAdapter(Path).validate_python(source)
+        except ValidationError:
+            raise ValueError(f"Unexpected source type encountered: {type(source)}")
+    return local_path
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4867e64..c257520 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ module = [
     "jsonschema.*",
     "json_schema_for_humans.*",
     "pandas.*",
+    "requests.*",
     "tabulate.*",
 ]
 ignore_missing_imports = true