diff --git a/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml b/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml
index 48ebd455..27aacacf 100644
--- a/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml
+++ b/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml
@@ -1426,6 +1426,7 @@
       <w>mythingie</w>
       <w>myweakcall</w>
       <w>mywidget</w>
+      <w>namecap</w>
       <w>namedarg</w>
       <w>nametext</w>
       <w>nameval</w>
@@ -2108,6 +2109,7 @@
       <w>strt</w>
       <w>strval</w>
       <w>subargs</w>
+      <w>subc</w>
       <w>subclassof</w>
       <w>subcontainer</w>
       <w>subcontainerheight</w>
diff --git a/ballisticacore-cmake/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml b/ballisticacore-cmake/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml
index 197c076e..e6333108 100644
--- a/ballisticacore-cmake/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml
+++ b/ballisticacore-cmake/.idea/dictionaries/ericf.xml
@@ -626,6 +626,7 @@
       <w>mynode</w>
       <w>mystatspage</w>
       <w>mywidget</w>
+      <w>namecap</w>
       <w>nameval</w>
       <w>ndebug</w>
       <w>nearbytab</w>
@@ -950,6 +951,7 @@
       <w>strs</w>
       <w>strtof</w>
       <w>subargs</w>
+      <w>subc</w>
       <w>subclsssing</w>
       <w>subentities</w>
       <w>subfieldpath</w>
diff --git a/tests/test_efro/test_dataclassio.py b/tests/test_efro/test_dataclassio.py
index 5af21aa9..8a5bbc9b 100644
--- a/tests/test_efro/test_dataclassio.py
+++ b/tests/test_efro/test_dataclassio.py
@@ -9,13 +9,14 @@ import datetime
 from dataclasses import field, dataclass
 from typing import (TYPE_CHECKING, Optional, List, Set, Any, Dict, Sequence,
                     Union, Tuple)
-from typing_extensions import Annotated
 
+from typing_extensions import Annotated
 import pytest
 
 from efro.util import utc_now
 from efro.dataclassio import (dataclass_validate, dataclass_from_dict,
-                              dataclass_to_dict, ioprepped, IOAttrs, Codec)
+                              dataclass_to_dict, ioprepped, IOAttrs, Codec,
+                              FieldStoragePathCapture)
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     pass
@@ -651,3 +652,34 @@ def test_name_clashes() -> None:
         class _TestClass3:
             ival: Annotated[int, IOAttrs(store_default=False)] = 4
             ival2: Annotated[int, IOAttrs('ival')] = 5
+
+
+@ioprepped
+@dataclass
+class _SPTestClass1:
+    barf: int = 5
+    eep: str = 'blah'
+    barf2: Annotated[int, IOAttrs('b')] = 5
+
+
+@ioprepped
+@dataclass
+class _SPTestClass2:
+    rah: bool = False
+    subc: _SPTestClass1 = field(default_factory=_SPTestClass1)
+    subc2: Annotated[_SPTestClass1,
+                     IOAttrs('s')] = field(default_factory=_SPTestClass1)
+
+
+def test_field_storage_path_capture() -> None:
+    """Test FieldStoragePathCapture functionality."""
+
+    obj = _SPTestClass2()
+
+    namecap = FieldStoragePathCapture(obj)
+    assert namecap.subc.barf == 'subc.barf'
+    assert namecap.subc2.barf == 's.barf'
+    assert namecap.subc2.barf2 == 's.b'
+
+    with pytest.raises(AttributeError):
+        assert namecap.nonexistent.barf == 's.barf'
diff --git a/tools/efro/dataclassio.py b/tools/efro/dataclassio.py
index 6cd8e76d..a7d05337 100644
--- a/tools/efro/dataclassio.py
+++ b/tools/efro/dataclassio.py
@@ -90,6 +90,47 @@ class IOAttrs:
                                 f' store_default=False cannot be set for it.')
 
 
+class FieldStoragePathCapture:
+    """Utility for obtaining dataclass storage paths in a type safe way.
+
+    Given dataclass instance foo, FieldStoragePathCapture(foo).bar.eep
+    will return 'bar.eep' (or something like 'b.e' if storagenames are
+    overrridden). This can be combined with type-checking tricks that
+    return foo in the type-checker's eyes while returning
+    FieldStoragePathCapture(foo) at runtime in order to grant a measure
+    of type safety to specifying field paths for things such as db
+    queries. Be aware, however, that the type-checker will incorrectly
+    think these lookups are returning actual attr values when they
+    are actually returning strings.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, obj: Any, path: List[str] = None):
+        if path is None:
+            path = []
+        if not dataclasses.is_dataclass(obj):
+            raise TypeError(f'Expected a dataclass type/instance;'
+                            f' got {type(obj)}.')
+        self._cls = obj if isinstance(obj, type) else type(obj)
+        self._path = path
+
+    def __getattr__(self, name: str) -> Any:
+        prep = PrepSession(explicit=False).prep_dataclass(self._cls,
+                                                          recursion_level=0)
+        try:
+            anntype = prep.annotations[name]
+        except KeyError as exc:
+            raise AttributeError(f'{type(self)} has no {name} field.') from exc
+        anntype, ioattrs = _parse_annotated(anntype)
+        storagename = (name if (ioattrs is None or ioattrs.storagename is None)
+                       else ioattrs.storagename)
+        origin = _get_origin(anntype)
+        path = self._path + [storagename]
+
+        if dataclasses.is_dataclass(origin):
+            return FieldStoragePathCapture(origin, path=path)
+        return '.'.join(path)
+
+
 def dataclass_to_dict(obj: Any,
                       codec: Codec = Codec.JSON,
                       coerce_to_float: bool = True) -> dict: