diff --git a/doc/XMLreference.rst b/doc/XMLreference.rst
index a5486dec..8cf40b72 100644
--- a/doc/XMLreference.rst
+++ b/doc/XMLreference.rst
@@ -739,7 +739,7 @@ has any effect. The settings here are global and apply to the entire model.
 
 .. _compiler-strippath:
 
-:at:`strippath`: :at-val:`[false, true], "false" for MJCF, "true" for URDF`
+:at:`strippath`: :at-val:`[false, true], "false"`
    When this attribute is "true", the parser will remove any path information in file names specified in the model. This
    is useful for loading models created on a different system using a different directory structure.
 
diff --git a/doc/changelog.rst b/doc/changelog.rst
index 82fae188..e8dbb0ed 100644
--- a/doc/changelog.rst
+++ b/doc/changelog.rst
@@ -52,6 +52,16 @@ General
 
    - The :ref:`mjtWarning` enum value ``mjWARN_VGEOMFULL`` is removed. Exhaustion of visual geoms is now handled
      internally by the :ref:`mjvScene`.
+   - URDF parsing no longer hardcodes :ref:`strippath<compiler-strippath>` to "true". The setting is now respected and
+     the default is "false". Setting this is attribute is now the responsibility of the user.
+
+     **Migration:** Set :ref:`strippath<compiler-strippath>` to "true" in MJCF or programmatically using
+
+     .. code-block:: python
+
+       spec = mujoco.MjSpec.from_file("path/to/model.urdf")
+       spec.compiler.strippath = True
+
 
 Bug fixes
 ^^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/src/xml/xml.cc b/src/xml/xml.cc
index 639fc587..654d0a57 100644
--- a/src/xml/xml.cc
+++ b/src/xml/xml.cc
@@ -296,7 +296,6 @@ mjSpec* SpecFromXML(std::string_view xml, std::string_view dir,
 
       // set reasonable default for parsing a URDF
       // this is separate from the Parser to allow multiple URDFs to be loaded.
-      spec->strippath = true;
       spec->compiler.fusestatic = true;
       spec->compiler.discardvisual = true;