diff --git a/src/aligntools/__init__.py b/src/aligntools/__init__.py
index 12dbbaa..886395d 100644
--- a/src/aligntools/__init__.py
+++ b/src/aligntools/__init__.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 from .coordinate_mapping import CoordinateMapping
 from .int_dict import FrozenIntDict
 from .cigar_actions import CigarActions
-from .cigar import Cigar
+from .cigar import Cigar, CigarLike
 
 __all__ = [
     'CigarError',
@@ -22,4 +22,5 @@
     'connect_cigar_hits',
     'CoordinateMapping',
     'FrozenIntDict',
+    'CigarLike',
 ]
diff --git a/src/aligntools/cigar.py b/src/aligntools/cigar.py
index 7ccfec7..505521d 100644
--- a/src/aligntools/cigar.py
+++ b/src/aligntools/cigar.py
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@
 import aligntools.exceptions as ex
 
 
+CigarLike = Union['Cigar', str, Iterable[Tuple[int, CigarActions]]]
+
+
 class Cigar:
     """
     Represents an alignment between a query sequence and a reference
@@ -42,7 +45,7 @@ def __init__(self, data: Iterable[Tuple[int, CigarActions]]) -> None:
             = tuple(Cigar.normalize(data))
 
     @staticmethod
-    def coerce(obj: Union['Cigar', str, Iterable[Tuple[int, CigarActions]]]) \
+    def coerce(obj: CigarLike) \
             -> 'Cigar':
         if isinstance(obj, Cigar):
             return obj