diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 63ea4447..01ae984b 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -86,9 +86,15 @@ def linkcode_resolve(domain, info):
 pygements_dark_style = "monokai"
 
 # -- sphinx-click ------------------------------------------------------------
+# These functions let us write descriptions/docstrings in a way that doesn't look
+# weird in the Click CLI, but get additional formatting in the sphinx-click autodocs for
+# better readability.
 from typing import List
 import re
 
+from click.core import Context
+from sphinx.application import Sphinx
+
 CMD_PATTERN = r"--[^ ]+"
 STR_PATTERN = r"\"[^ ]+\""
 SNAKE_PATTERN = r"[A-Z]+_[A-Z_]*[A-Z]"
@@ -106,13 +112,14 @@ def _add_formatting_to_string(line: str) -> str:
     return line
 
 
-def process_description(app, ctx, lines: List[str]):
-    """Add custom formatting to sphinx-click autodocs. This lets us write Click
-    docstrings in ways that look presentable in the CLI, but adds extra formatting when
-    generating Sphinx docs.
+def process_description(app: Sphinx, ctx: Context, lines: List[str]):
+    """Add custom formatting to sphinx-click autodoc descriptions.
 
     * add fixed-width (code) font to certain words
     * add code block formatting to example shell commands
+
+    Because we have to modify the lines list in place, we have to make multiple passes
+    through it to format everything correctly.
     """
     # chop off params
     param_boundary = None
@@ -147,5 +154,13 @@ def process_description(app, ctx, lines: List[str]):
                 lines.insert(i, ".. code-block:: console")
 
 
+def process_option(app: Sphinx, ctx: Context, lines: List[str]):
+    """Add fixed-width formatting to strings in sphinx-click autodoc options."""
+    for i, line in enumerate(lines):
+        if re.findall(STR_PATTERN, line):
+            lines[i] = re.sub(STR_PATTERN, lambda x: f"``{x.group()}``", line)
+
+
 def setup(app):
     app.connect("sphinx-click-process-description", process_description)
+    app.connect("sphinx-click-process-options", process_option)
diff --git a/src/gene/cli.py b/src/gene/cli.py
index 102d0213..e8606413 100644
--- a/src/gene/cli.py
+++ b/src/gene/cli.py
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@
 logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
 
 
+url_description = 'URL endpoint for the application database. Can either be a URL to a local DynamoDB server (e.g. "http://localhost:8001") or a libpq-compliant PostgreSQL connection description (e.g. "postgresql://postgres:password@localhost:5432/gene_normalizer").'
+
+
 @click.group()
 def cli() -> None:
     """Manage Gene Normalizer data."""
@@ -24,7 +27,7 @@ def cli() -> None:
 @click.argument("sources", nargs=-1)
 @click.option("--all", is_flag=True, help="Update records for all sources.")
 @click.option("--normalize", is_flag=True, help="Update normalized concepts.")
-@click.option("--db_url", help="URL endpoint for the application database.")
+@click.option("--db_url", help=url_description)
 @click.option("--aws_instance", is_flag=True, help="Use cloud DynamodDB instance.")
 @click.option(
     "--use_existing",
@@ -109,7 +112,7 @@ def update(
 
 @cli.command()
 @click.option("--data_url", help="URL to data dump")
-@click.option("--db_url", help="URL endpoint for the application database.")
+@click.option("--db_url", help=url_description)
 def update_from_remote(data_url: Optional[str], db_url: str) -> None:
     """Update data from remotely-hosted DB dump. By default, fetches from latest
     available dump on VICC S3 bucket; specific URLs can be provided instead by
@@ -137,7 +140,7 @@ def update_from_remote(data_url: Optional[str], db_url: str) -> None:
 
 
 @cli.command()
-@click.option("--db_url", help="URL endpoint for the application database.")
+@click.option("--db_url", help=url_description)
 @click.option("--verbose", "-v", is_flag=True, help="Print result to console if set.")
 def check_db(db_url: str, verbose: bool = False) -> None:
     """Perform basic checks on DB health and population. Exits with status code 1
@@ -181,7 +184,7 @@ def check_db(db_url: str, verbose: bool = False) -> None:
     help="Output location to write to",
     type=click.Path(exists=True, path_type=Path),
 )
-@click.option("--db_url", help="URL endpoint for the application database.")
+@click.option("--db_url", help=url_description)
 def dump_database(output_directory: Path, db_url: str) -> None:
     """Dump data from database into file.