diff --git a/tests/stages/deduplication/semantic/test_pairwise_io.py b/tests/stages/deduplication/semantic/test_pairwise_io.py
index e8d16b1d4d..689463c76c 100644
--- a/tests/stages/deduplication/semantic/test_pairwise_io.py
+++ b/tests/stages/deduplication/semantic/test_pairwise_io.py
@@ -110,3 +110,37 @@ def test_process_finds_all_centroid_files(self, tmp_path: Path):
         assert result[2].task_id == "pairwise_centroid_2"
         assert result[2]._metadata == {"centroid_id": 2, "filetype": "parquet"}
         assert result[2].data == [str(centroid_2_dir / "file4.parquet"), str(centroid_2_dir / "file5.parquet")]
+
+    def test_process_restores_protocol_for_remote_listings(self):
+        """Remote fsspec listings may strip protocols; tasks should keep full URLs."""
+
+        class FakeRemoteFs:
+            def unstrip_protocol(self, path: str) -> str:
+                return path if path.startswith("gs://") else f"gs://{path}"
+
+            def ls(self, _path: str) -> list[str]:
+                return ["bucket/kmeans/centroid=7"]
+
+            def expand_path(self, path: str, recursive: bool = False) -> list[str]:
+                assert recursive is False
+                return [path]
+
+            def isdir(self, _path: str) -> bool:
+                return True
+
+            def find(self, path: str, maxdepth: int | None, withdirs: bool, detail: bool) -> list[str]:
+                assert path == "gs://bucket/kmeans/centroid=7"
+                assert maxdepth == 1
+                assert withdirs is False
+                assert detail is False
+                return ["bucket/kmeans/centroid=7/part.0.parquet"]
+
+        stage = ClusterWiseFilePartitioningStage("gs://bucket/kmeans")
+        stage.fs = FakeRemoteFs()
+        stage.path_normalizer = stage.fs.unstrip_protocol
+
+        empty_task = _EmptyTask(task_id="test", dataset_name="test", data=None)
+        result = stage.process(empty_task)
+
+        assert len(result) == 1
+        assert result[0].data == ["gs://bucket/kmeans/centroid=7/part.0.parquet"]