diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index fa7d2045..627cf336 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+## Breaking API Changes
+-   The `files` argument of `api.run` is now a `Collection[pathlib.Path]` that represents an exact collection of files to be formatted, instead of a list of paths to search for files. Use `api.get_matching_paths(paths, mode)` to return the set of exact paths expected by `api.run`
+
 ## Formatting Changes + Bug Fixes
 -   fixed a bug that could cause lines with long jinja tags to be one character over the line length limit, and could result in unstable formatting ([#237](https://github.com/tconbeer/sqlfmt/pull/237) - thank you [@nfcampos](https://github.com/nfcampos)!)
 -   fixed a bug that formatted array literals like they were indexing operations ([#235](https://github.com/tconbeer/sqlfmt/pull/235) - thank you [@nfcampos](https://github.com/nfcampos)!)
diff --git a/src/sqlfmt/api.py b/src/sqlfmt/api.py
index b6d455fb..0434c4dd 100755
--- a/src/sqlfmt/api.py
+++ b/src/sqlfmt/api.py
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def format_string(source_string: str, mode: Mode) -> str:
     return str(formatted_query)
 
 
-def run(files: List[Path], mode: Mode) -> Report:
+def run(files: Collection[Path], mode: Mode) -> Report:
     """
     Runs sqlfmt on all files in list of given paths (files), using the specified mode.
 
@@ -44,8 +44,7 @@ def run(files: List[Path], mode: Mode) -> Report:
     else:
         cache = load_cache()
 
-    matched_paths = _get_matching_paths(files, mode)
-    results = _format_many(matched_paths, cache, mode)
+    results = _format_many(files, cache, mode)
 
     report = Report(results, mode)
 
@@ -56,7 +55,7 @@ def run(files: List[Path], mode: Mode) -> Report:
     return report
 
 
-def _get_matching_paths(paths: Iterable[Path], mode: Mode) -> Set[Path]:
+def get_matching_paths(paths: Iterable[Path], mode: Mode) -> Set[Path]:
     """
     Takes a list of paths (files or directories) and a mode as an input, and
     yields paths to individual files that match the input paths (or are contained in
diff --git a/src/sqlfmt/cli.py b/src/sqlfmt/cli.py
index beb13fdf..7d08961a 100755
--- a/src/sqlfmt/cli.py
+++ b/src/sqlfmt/cli.py
@@ -138,7 +138,9 @@ def sqlfmt(
         }
         config.update(non_default_options)
         mode = Mode(**config)  # type: ignore
-        report = api.run(files=files, mode=mode)
+
+        matched_files = api.get_matching_paths(files, mode=mode)
+        report = api.run(files=matched_files, mode=mode)
         report.display_report()
 
         if report.number_errored > 0:
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/test_api.py b/tests/unit_tests/test_api.py
index 3fd15f4e..6f9b5795 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/test_api.py
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/test_api.py
@@ -7,9 +7,9 @@
 
 from sqlfmt.api import (
     _format_many,
-    _get_matching_paths,
     _update_source_files,
     format_string,
+    get_matching_paths,
     run,
 )
 from sqlfmt.exception import SqlfmtBracketError, SqlfmtError
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ def unformatted_files(unformatted_dir: Path) -> List[Path]:
 
 def test_file_discovery(all_output_modes: Mode) -> None:
     p = Path("tests/data/unit_tests/test_api/test_file_discovery")
-    res = list(_get_matching_paths(p.iterdir(), all_output_modes))
+    res = list(get_matching_paths(p.iterdir(), all_output_modes))
 
     expected = (
         p / "top_level_file.sql",
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ def test_file_discovery(all_output_modes: Mode) -> None:
 def test_file_discovery_with_excludes(exclude: List[str]) -> None:
     mode = Mode(exclude=exclude)
     p = Path("tests/data/unit_tests/test_api/test_file_discovery")
-    res = _get_matching_paths(p.iterdir(), mode)
+    res = get_matching_paths(p.iterdir(), mode)
 
     expected = {
         # p / "top_level_file.sql",
@@ -179,11 +179,11 @@ def test_update_source_files_unformatted(
 def test_run_unformatted_update(
     unformatted_dir: Path, default_mode: Mode, monkeypatch: pytest.MonkeyPatch
 ) -> None:
-
+    files = get_matching_paths([unformatted_dir], default_mode)
     # confirm that we call the _update_source function
     monkeypatch.delattr("sqlfmt.api._update_source_files")
     with pytest.raises(NameError):
-        _ = run(files=[unformatted_dir], mode=default_mode)
+        _ = run(files=files, mode=default_mode)
 
 
 def test_run_preformatted(
@@ -230,7 +230,8 @@ def test_run_unformatted(unformatted_files: List[Path], all_output_modes: Mode)
 
 
 def test_run_error(error_dir: Path, all_output_modes: Mode) -> None:
-    files = [error_dir]
+    p = [error_dir]
+    files = get_matching_paths(p, all_output_modes)
     report = run(files=files, mode=all_output_modes)
     assert report.number_changed == 0
     assert report.number_unchanged == 0
@@ -265,5 +266,6 @@ def test_run_single_process_does_not_use_multiprocessing(
 
     # confirm that we do not call _multiprocess_map; if we do,
     # this will raise
+    files = get_matching_paths([unformatted_dir], single_process_mode)
     monkeypatch.delattr("sqlfmt.api._multiprocess_map")
-    _ = run(files=[unformatted_dir], mode=single_process_mode)
+    _ = run(files=files, mode=single_process_mode)