diff --git a/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl.go b/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl.go
index b935425058..140b0b2936 100644
--- a/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl.go
+++ b/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl.go
@@ -159,7 +159,7 @@ func purlConvert(p purl.PackageURL) (*model.PkgInputSpec, error) {
 	// so that they can be referenced with higher specificity in GUAC
 	//
 	// PURL types not defined in purl library handled generically
-	case "alpine", "alpm", "apk", "huggingface", "githubactions", "mlflow", "qpkg", "pub", "swid", PurlTypeGuac:
+	case "alpine", "githubactions", PurlTypeGuac:
 		fallthrough
 	// PURL types defined in purl library handled generically
 	case purl.TypeBitbucket, purl.TypeCocoapods, purl.TypeCargo,
@@ -167,8 +167,9 @@ func purlConvert(p purl.PackageURL) (*model.PkgInputSpec, error) {
 		purl.TypeDebian, purl.TypeGem, purl.TypeGithub,
 		purl.TypeGolang, purl.TypeHackage, purl.TypeHex, purl.TypeMaven,
 		purl.TypeNPM, purl.TypeNuget, purl.TypePyPi, purl.TypeRPM, purl.TypeSwift,
-		purl.TypeGeneric, purl.TypeYocto, purl.TypeCpan:
-		// some code
+		purl.TypeGeneric, purl.TypeYocto, purl.TypeCpan,
+		purl.TypeAlpm, purl.TypeApk, purl.TypeBitnami, purl.TypeHuggingface,
+		purl.TypeMLFlow, purl.TypePub, purl.TypeQpkg, purl.TypeSWID:
 		r := pkg(p.Type, p.Namespace, p.Name, p.Version, p.Subpath, p.Qualifiers.Map())
 		return r, nil
 
@@ -223,9 +224,13 @@ func purlConvert(p purl.PackageURL) (*model.PkgInputSpec, error) {
 		return r, nil
 
 	default:
-		// unhandled types should throw an error so we can make sure to review the
-		// implementation of newly introduced PURL types.
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unhandled PURL type: %s", p.Type)
+		if _, ok := purl.KnownTypes[p.Type]; ok {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("unhandled known PURL type: %q. Please report at https://github.com/guacsec/guac/issues/new", p.Type)
+		}
+		if _, ok := purl.CandidateTypes[p.Type]; ok {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("unhandled candidate PURL type: %q. Please report at https://github.com/guacsec/guac/issues/new", p.Type)
+		}
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unsupported PURL type: %q", p.Type)
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl_test.go b/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl_test.go
index cff4c24f5e..0f3bd2b146 100644
--- a/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl_test.go
+++ b/pkg/assembler/helpers/purl_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package helpers
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/google/go-cmp/cmp"
@@ -216,6 +217,9 @@ func TestPurlConvert(t *testing.T) {
 		}, {
 			purlUri:  "pkg:cpan/Pod-Perldoc@3.20",
 			expected: pkg("cpan", "", "Pod-Perldoc", "3.20", "", map[string]string{}),
+		}, {
+			purlUri:  "pkg:bitnami/apache@2.4.57",
+			expected: pkg("bitnami", "", "apache", "2.4.57", "", map[string]string{}),
 		},
 	}
 
@@ -234,6 +238,38 @@ func TestPurlConvert(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestPurlConvertUnhandledTypes(t *testing.T) {
+	testCases := []struct {
+		name        string
+		purlUri     string
+		expectedErr string
+	}{
+		{
+			name:        "unhandled candidate purl type",
+			purlUri:     "pkg:helm/prometheus@14.0.0",
+			expectedErr: "unhandled candidate PURL type",
+		},
+		{
+			name:        "unsupported unknown purl type",
+			purlUri:     "pkg:customtype/mynamespace/mypackage@1.0.0",
+			expectedErr: "unsupported PURL type",
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tt := range testCases {
+		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			_, err := PurlToPkg(tt.purlUri)
+			if err == nil {
+				t.Errorf("expected error for purl %s, got nil", tt.purlUri)
+				return
+			}
+			if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), tt.expectedErr) {
+				t.Errorf("expected error containing %q, got: %v", tt.expectedErr, err)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestPkgInputSpecToPurl(t *testing.T) {
 	testCases := []struct {
 		expectedPurlUri string