diff --git a/guardrails/cli/hub/install.py b/guardrails/cli/hub/install.py
index 1a0cb5e16..4c492e1f2 100644
--- a/guardrails/cli/hub/install.py
+++ b/guardrails/cli/hub/install.py
@@ -10,9 +10,14 @@
 from guardrails.cli.version import version_warnings_if_applicable
 
 
-@hub_command.command()
+# Quick note: This is the command for `guardrails hub install`.  We change the name of
+# the function def to prevent confusion, lest people import it directly and calling it
+# with a string for package_uris instead of a list, which behaves oddly. If you need to
+# call install from a script, please consider importing install from guardrails,
+# not guardrails.cli.hub.install.
+@hub_command.command(name="install")
 @trace(name="guardrails-cli/hub/install")
-def install(
+def install_cli(
     package_uris: List[str] = typer.Argument(
         ...,
         help="URIs to the packages to install. Example: hub://guardrails/regex_match hub://guardrails/toxic_language",
@@ -33,6 +38,17 @@ def install(
     ),
 ):
     try:
+        if isinstance(package_uris, str):
+            logger.error(
+                f"`install` in {__file__} was called with a string instead of "
+                "a list! This can happen if it is invoked directly instead of "
+                "being run via the CLI. Did you mean to import `from guardrails import "
+                "install` instead?  Recovering..."
+            )
+            package_uris = [
+                package_uris,
+            ]
+
         from guardrails.hub.install import install_multiple
 
         def confirm():
diff --git a/guardrails/hub/install.py b/guardrails/hub/install.py
index 046ee073f..677e7c392 100644
--- a/guardrails/hub/install.py
+++ b/guardrails/hub/install.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ def install(
     Examples:
         >>> RegexMatch = install("hub://guardrails/regex_match").RegexMatch
 
-        >>> install("hub://guardrails/regex_match);
+        >>> install("hub://guardrails/regex_match")
         >>> import guardrails.hub.regex_match as regex_match
     """