diff --git a/milatools/cli/commands.py b/milatools/cli/commands.py
index f257808f..8a465c02 100644
--- a/milatools/cli/commands.py
+++ b/milatools/cli/commands.py
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@
 from .remote import Remote, SlurmRemote
 from .utils import (
     CLUSTERS,
+    AllocationFlagsAction,
     Cluster,
     CommandNotFoundError,
     MilatoolsUserError,
@@ -224,13 +225,6 @@ def add_arguments(parser: argparse.ArgumentParser):
         default="mila",
         help="Which cluster to connect to.",
     )
-    code_parser.add_argument(
-        "--alloc",
-        nargs=argparse.REMAINDER,
-        help="Extra options to pass to slurm",
-        metavar="VALUE",
-        default=[],
-    )
     code_parser.add_argument(
         "--command",
         default=get_code_command(),
@@ -252,13 +246,10 @@ def add_arguments(parser: argparse.ArgumentParser):
         type=str,
         default=None,
         help="Node to connect to",
-        metavar="VALUE",
-    )
-    code_parser.add_argument(
-        "--persist",
-        action="store_true",
-        help="Whether the server should persist or not",
+        metavar="NODE",
     )
+    _add_allocation_options(code_parser)
+
     code_parser.set_defaults(function=code)
 
     # ----- mila sync vscode-extensions ------
@@ -944,14 +935,49 @@ def add_arguments(self, actions):
         super().add_arguments(actions)
 
 
-def _add_standard_server_args(parser: ArgumentParser):
-    parser.add_argument(
+def _add_allocation_options(parser: ArgumentParser):
+    arg_group = parser.add_argument_group(
+        "Allocation options", description="Extra options to pass to slurm."
+    )
+    common_kwargs = {
+        "dest": "alloc",
+        "nargs": argparse.REMAINDER,
+        "action": AllocationFlagsAction,
+        "metavar": "VALUE",
+        "default": [],
+    }
+    arg_group.add_argument(
         "--alloc",
-        nargs=argparse.REMAINDER,
-        help="Extra options to pass to slurm",
-        metavar="VALUE",
-        default=[],
+        **common_kwargs,
+        help="Extra options to pass to salloc or to sbatch if --persist is set.",
     )
+    alloc_group = arg_group.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
+    alloc_group.add_argument(
+        "--persist",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="Whether the server should persist or not when using --alloc",
+    )
+
+    # --persist cannot be used with --salloc or --sbatch.
+    # Note: REMAINDER args like --alloc, --sbatch and --salloc are already mutually
+    # exclusive in a sense, since it's only possible to use one correctly, the other
+    # args are stored in the first one (e.g. mila code --alloc --salloc bob will have
+    # alloc of ["--salloc", "bob"]).
+
+    alloc_group.add_argument(
+        "--salloc",
+        **common_kwargs,
+        help="Extra options to pass to salloc. Same as using --alloc without --persist.",
+    )
+    alloc_group.add_argument(
+        "--sbatch",
+        **common_kwargs,
+        help="Extra options to pass to sbatch (equivalent to --persist --alloc [...])",
+    )
+
+
+def _add_standard_server_args(parser: ArgumentParser):
+    _add_allocation_options(parser)
     parser.add_argument(
         "--job",
         type=int,
@@ -973,11 +999,6 @@ def _add_standard_server_args(parser: ArgumentParser):
         help="Node to connect to",
         metavar="VALUE",
     )
-    parser.add_argument(
-        "--persist",
-        action="store_true",
-        help="Whether the server should persist or not",
-    )
     parser.add_argument(
         "--port",
         type=int,
diff --git a/milatools/cli/utils.py b/milatools/cli/utils.py
index e62b79ce..6660f68b 100644
--- a/milatools/cli/utils.py
+++ b/milatools/cli/utils.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import argparse
 import contextvars
 import functools
 import itertools
@@ -13,6 +14,7 @@
 import warnings
 from collections.abc import Callable, Iterable
 from contextlib import contextmanager
+from logging import getLogger as get_logger
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any, Literal, TypeVar, Union, get_args
 
@@ -26,6 +28,7 @@
 if typing.TYPE_CHECKING:
     from milatools.cli.remote import Remote
 
+logger = get_logger(__name__)
 control_file_var = contextvars.ContextVar("control_file", default="/dev/null")
 
 
@@ -347,3 +350,31 @@ def removesuffix(s: str, suffix: str) -> str:
             return s
 else:
     removesuffix = str.removesuffix
+
+
+class AllocationFlagsAction(argparse._StoreAction):
+    def __call__(
+        self,
+        parser: argparse.ArgumentParser,
+        namespace,
+        values: list[str],
+        option_string: str | None = None,
+    ):
+        persist: bool | None = namespace.persist
+        if option_string == "--alloc":
+            namespace.alloc = values
+        elif option_string == "--salloc":
+            # --salloc is in a mutually exclusive group with --persist
+            assert not persist
+            if persist:
+                raise argparse.ArgumentError(
+                    argument=self,
+                    message="Cannot use --salloc with --persist, use only --sbatch for a persistent session.",
+                )
+            namespace.alloc = values
+        else:
+            assert option_string == "--sbatch", option_string
+            # --sbatch is in a mutually exclusive group with --persist
+            assert not persist
+            namespace.alloc = values
+            namespace.persist = True