diff --git a/ARCHITECTURE.md b/ARCHITECTURE.md
index 57b8ffa8cb..f10f4fec17 100644
--- a/ARCHITECTURE.md
+++ b/ARCHITECTURE.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Planetiler builds a map in 3 phases:
    intermediate files on disk
 2. [Sort Features](#2-sort-features) by tile ID
 3. [Emit Vector Tiles](#3-emit-vector-tiles) by iterating through sorted features to group by tile ID, encoding, and
-   writing to the output MBTiles file
+   writing to the output tile archive
 
 User-defined [profiles](#profiles) customize the behavior of each part of this pipeline.
 
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ of the intermediate features using a worker thread per core:
 
 ## 3) Emit Vector Tiles
 
-[MbtilesWriter](planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/mbtiles/MbtilesWriter.java) is the main driver.
+[TileArchiveWriter](planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/writer/TileArchiveWriter.java) is the main driver.
 First, a single-threaded reader reads features from disk:
 
 - [ExternalMergeSort](planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/collection/ExternalMergeSort.java) emits
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ First, a single-threaded reader reads features from disk:
 - [FeatureGroup](planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/collection/FeatureGroup.java) collects
   consecutive features in the same tile into a `TileFeatures` instance, dropping features in the same group over the
   grouping limit to limit point label density
-- Then [MbtilesWriter](planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/mbtiles/MbtilesWriter.java) groups tiles
+- Then [TileArchiveWriter](planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/writer/TileArchiveWriter.java) groups tiles
   into variable-sized batches for workers to process (complex tiles get their own batch to ensure workers stay busy
   while the writer thread waits for finished tiles in order)
 
@@ -116,9 +116,9 @@ Then, process tile batches in worker threads (default 1 per core):
 - gzip each encoded tile
 - Pass the batch of encoded vector tiles to the writer thread
 
-Finally, a single-threaded writer writes encoded vector tiles to the output MBTiles file:
+Finally, a single-threaded writer writes encoded vector tiles to the output archive format:
 
-- Create the largest prepared statement supported by SQLite (999 parameters)
+- For MBTiles, create the largest prepared statement supported by SQLite (999 parameters)
 - Iterate through finished vector tile batches until the prepared statement is full, flush to disk, then repeat
 - Then flush any remaining tiles at the end
 
diff --git a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/FeatureMerge.java b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/FeatureMerge.java
index 1d6bf9c87b..46b3b8ae3c 100644
--- a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/FeatureMerge.java
+++ b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/FeatureMerge.java
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 /**
  * A collection of utilities for merging features with the same attributes in a rendered tile from
  * {@link Profile#postProcessLayerFeatures(String, int, List)} immediately before a tile is written to the output
- * mbtiles file.
+ * archive.
  * <p>
  * Unlike postgis-based solutions that have a full view of all features after they are loaded into the database, the
  * planetiler engine only sees a single input feature at a time while processing source features, then only has
diff --git a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Planetiler.java b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Planetiler.java
index d26fa284de..8c14fa81ef 100644
--- a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Planetiler.java
+++ b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Planetiler.java
@@ -452,30 +452,29 @@ public Planetiler setProfile(Function<Planetiler, Profile> profileProvider) {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Sets the location of the output {@code .mbtiles} file to write rendered tiles to. Fails if the file already exists.
+   * Sets the location of the output archive to write rendered tiles to. Fails if the archive already exists.
    * <p>
-   * To override the location of the file, set {@code argument=newpath.mbtiles} in the arguments.
+   * To override the location of the file, set {@code argument=newpath} in the arguments.
    *
    * @param argument the argument key to check for an override to {@code fallback}
    * @param fallback the fallback value if {@code argument} is not set in arguments
    * @return this runner instance for chaining
-   * @see MbtilesWriter
+   * @see TileArchiveWriter
    */
   public Planetiler setOutput(String argument, Path fallback) {
-    this.output = arguments.file(argument, "mbtiles output file", fallback);
+    this.output = arguments.file(argument, "output tile archive", fallback);
     return this;
   }
 
   /**
-   * Sets the location of the output {@code .mbtiles} file to write rendered tiles to. Overwrites file if it already
-   * exists.
+   * Sets the location of the output archive to write rendered tiles to. Overwrites file if it already exists.
    * <p>
-   * To override the location of the file, set {@code argument=newpath.mbtiles} in the arguments.
+   * To override the location of the file, set {@code argument=newpath} in the arguments.
    *
    * @param argument the argument key to check for an override to {@code fallback}
    * @param fallback the fallback value if {@code argument} is not set in arguments
    * @return this runner instance for chaining
-   * @see MbtilesWriter
+   * @see TileArchiveWriter
    */
   public Planetiler overwriteOutput(String argument, Path fallback) {
     this.overwrite = true;
@@ -484,7 +483,7 @@ public Planetiler overwriteOutput(String argument, Path fallback) {
 
   /**
    * Reads all elements from all sourced that have been added, generates map features according to the profile, and
-   * writes the rendered tiles to the output mbtiles file.
+   * writes the rendered tiles to the output archive.
    *
    * @throws IllegalArgumentException if expected inputs have not been provided
    * @throws Exception                if an error occurs while processing
@@ -537,7 +536,7 @@ public void run() throws Exception {
         }
       }
       LOGGER.info("  sort: Sort rendered features by tile ID");
-      LOGGER.info("  mbtiles: Encode each tile and write to {}", output);
+      LOGGER.info("  archive: Encode each tile and write to {}", output);
     }
 
     // in case any temp files are left from a previous run...
@@ -574,7 +573,7 @@ public void run() throws Exception {
     stats.monitorFile("nodes", nodeDbPath);
     stats.monitorFile("features", featureDbPath);
     stats.monitorFile("multipolygons", multipolygonPath);
-    stats.monitorFile("mbtiles", output);
+    stats.monitorFile("archive", output);
 
     for (Stage stage : stages) {
       stage.task.run();
@@ -638,7 +637,7 @@ private void checkDiskSpace() {
     readPhase.addDisk(featureDbPath, featureSize, "temporary feature storage");
     writePhase.addDisk(featureDbPath, featureSize, "temporary feature storage");
     // output only needed during write phase
-    writePhase.addDisk(output, outputSize, "mbtiles output");
+    writePhase.addDisk(output, outputSize, "archive output");
     // if the user opts to remove an input source after reading to free up additional space for the output...
     for (var input : inputPaths) {
       if (input.freeAfterReading()) {
diff --git a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Profile.java b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Profile.java
index 2a30a6839a..8bb2977bbe 100644
--- a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Profile.java
+++ b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/Profile.java
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
  * (i.e. one per layer) and forwarding each element/event to the handlers that care about it.
  */
 public interface Profile {
-  // TODO might want to break this apart into sub-interfaces that ForwardingProfile (and MbtilesMetadata) can use too
+  // TODO might want to break this apart into sub-interfaces that ForwardingProfile (and TileArchiveMetadata) can use too
 
   /**
    * Allows profile to extract any information it needs from a {@link OsmElement.Node} during the first pass through OSM
diff --git a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/render/FeatureRenderer.java b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/render/FeatureRenderer.java
index d0a07685ef..189ccb8c09 100644
--- a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/render/FeatureRenderer.java
+++ b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/render/FeatureRenderer.java
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ private void writeTileFeatures(int zoom, long id, FeatureCollector.Feature featu
           // Store lines with extra precision (2^scale) in intermediate feature storage so that
           // rounding does not introduce artificial endpoint intersections and confuse line merge
           // post-processing.  Features need to be "unscaled" in FeatureGroup after line merging,
-          // and before emitting to output mbtiles.
+          // and before emitting to the output archive.
           scale = Math.max(config.maxzoom(), 14) - zoom;
           // need 14 bits to represent tile coordinates (4096 * 2 for buffer * 2 for zigzag encoding)
           // so cap the scale factor to avoid overflowing 32-bit integer space
diff --git a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/stats/Stats.java b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/stats/Stats.java
index 3ac15efc22..75e554055a 100644
--- a/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/stats/Stats.java
+++ b/planetiler-core/src/main/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/stats/Stats.java
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ default Timers.Finishable startStage(String name, boolean log) {
   /** Records that an input element was processed and emitted some output features in {@code layer}. */
   void processedElement(String elemType, String layer);
 
-  /** Records that a tile has been written to the mbtiles output where compressed size is {@code bytes}. */
+  /** Records that a tile has been written to the archive output where compressed size is {@code bytes}. */
   void wroteTile(int zoom, int bytes);
 
   /** Returns the timers for all stages started with {@link #startStage(String)}. */
diff --git a/planetiler-core/src/test/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/PlanetilerTests.java b/planetiler-core/src/test/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/PlanetilerTests.java
index 93e9ec4071..788402eebe 100644
--- a/planetiler-core/src/test/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/PlanetilerTests.java
+++ b/planetiler-core/src/test/java/com/onthegomap/planetiler/PlanetilerTests.java
@@ -264,11 +264,11 @@ void testMetadataButNoPoints() throws Exception {
   void testOverrideMetadata() throws Exception {
     var results = runWithReaderFeatures(
       Map.of(
-        "mbtiles_name", "mbtiles_name",
-        "mbtiles_description", "mbtiles_description",
-        "mbtiles_attribution", "mbtiles_attribution",
-        "mbtiles_version", "mbtiles_version",
-        "mbtiles_type", "mbtiles_type"
+        "tileset_name", "override_name",
+        "tileset_description", "override_description",
+        "tileset_attribution", "override_attribution",
+        "tileset_version", "override_version",
+        "tileset_type", "override_type"
       ),
       List.of(),
       (sourceFeature, features) -> {
@@ -276,11 +276,11 @@ void testOverrideMetadata() throws Exception {
     );
     assertEquals(Map.of(), results.tiles);
     assertSubmap(Map.of(
-      "name", "mbtiles_name",
-      "description", "mbtiles_description",
-      "attribution", "mbtiles_attribution",
-      "version", "mbtiles_version",
-      "type", "mbtiles_type"
+      "name", "override_name",
+      "description", "override_description",
+      "attribution", "override_attribution",
+      "version", "override_version",
+      "type", "override_type"
     ), results.metadata);
   }