diff --git a/external/CMakeLists.txt b/external/CMakeLists.txt
index 0f1a82e..43c4947 100644
--- a/external/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/external/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -68,3 +68,12 @@ if (NOT TARGET solanaceae_tox_contacts AND NOT TARGET solanaceae_tox_messages)
 	FetchContent_MakeAvailable(solanaceae_tox)
 endif()
 
+if (NOT TARGET nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json)
+	FetchContent_Declare(json
+		URL https://github.com/nlohmann/json/releases/download/v3.11.3/json.tar.xz
+		URL_HASH SHA256=d6c65aca6b1ed68e7a182f4757257b107ae403032760ed6ef121c9d55e81757d
+		EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL
+	)
+	FetchContent_MakeAvailable(json)
+endif()
+
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index b044835..fc56154 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@
       };
       solanaceae_util-src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
         owner = "Green-Sky"; repo = "solanaceae_util";
-        rev = "92eee153f2c14f97e50f44b10e2a0aeb5f8b190d";
-        hash = "sha256-otzjzY8lxanKlryahRe+S0UL7yXsRKDJbh2DYNV71QM=";
+        rev = "57d7178e76b41c5d0f8117fc8fb5791b4108cdc0";
+        hash = "sha256-CjBj1iYlJsLMsZvp857FrsmStV4AJ7SD7L+hzOgZMpg=";
       };
       solanaceae_contact-src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
         owner = "Green-Sky"; repo = "solanaceae_contact";
@@ -70,13 +70,14 @@
         cmakeFlags = [
           #"-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_TOXCORE=${pkgs.libtoxcore.src}"
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_TOXCORE=${toxcore-src}"
-          "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_ENTT=${entt-src}"
+          "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_ENTT=${entt-src}" # the version is important
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_SOLANACEAE_UTIL=${solanaceae_util-src}"
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_SOLANACEAE_CONTACT=${solanaceae_contact-src}"
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_SOLANACEAE_MESSAGE3=${solanaceae_message3-src}"
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_SOLANACEAE_PLUGIN=${solanaceae_plugin-src}"
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_SOLANACEAE_TOXCORE=${solanaceae_toxcore-src}"
           "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_SOLANACEAE_TOX=${solanaceae_tox-src}"
+          "-DFETCHCONTENT_SOURCE_DIR_JSON=${pkgs.nlohmann_json.src}" # we care less about version here
         ];
 
         buildInputs = with pkgs; [
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index fd773c8..09b1909 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -20,5 +20,7 @@ target_link_libraries(totato PUBLIC
 	solanaceae_toxcore
 	solanaceae_tox_contacts
 	solanaceae_tox_messages
+
+	nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json
 )
 
diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
index a2f1d10..2a39214 100644
--- a/src/main.cpp
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -13,10 +13,14 @@
 #include "./tox_client.hpp"
 #include "./auto_dirty.hpp"
 
+#include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
+
 #include <chrono>
 #include <thread>
 #include <atomic>
 #include <iostream>
+#include <fstream>
+#include <filesystem>
 
 #if defined (__unix__) || (defined (__APPLE__) && defined (__MACH__))
 #include <signal.h>
@@ -35,6 +39,65 @@ void sigint_handler(int signo) {
 }
 #endif
 
+bool load_json_into_config(const nlohmann::ordered_json& config_json, SimpleConfigModel& conf) {
+	if (!config_json.is_object()) {
+		std::cout << "TOTATO error: config file is not an json object!!!\n";
+		return false;
+	}
+	for (const auto& [mod, cats] : config_json.items()) {
+		for (const auto& [cat, cat_v] : cats.items()) {
+			if (cat_v.is_object()) {
+				if (cat_v.contains("default")) {
+					const auto& value = cat_v["default"];
+					if (value.is_string()) {
+						conf.set(mod, cat, value.get_ref<const std::string&>());
+					} else if (value.is_boolean()) {
+						conf.set(mod, cat, value.get_ref<const bool&>());
+					} else if (value.is_number_float()) {
+						conf.set(mod, cat, value.get_ref<const double&>());
+					} else if (value.is_number_integer()) {
+						conf.set(mod, cat, value.get_ref<const int64_t&>());
+					} else {
+						std::cerr << "JSON error: wrong value type in " << mod << "::" << cat << " = " << value << "\n";
+						return false;
+					}
+				}
+				if (cat_v.contains("entries")) {
+					for (const auto& [ent, ent_v] : cat_v["entries"].items()) {
+						if (ent_v.is_string()) {
+							conf.set(mod, cat, ent, ent_v.get_ref<const std::string&>());
+						} else if (ent_v.is_boolean()) {
+							conf.set(mod, cat, ent, ent_v.get_ref<const bool&>());
+						} else if (ent_v.is_number_float()) {
+							conf.set(mod, cat, ent, ent_v.get_ref<const double&>());
+						} else if (ent_v.is_number_integer()) {
+							conf.set(mod, cat, ent, ent_v.get_ref<const int64_t&>());
+						} else {
+							std::cerr << "JSON error: wrong value type in " << mod << "::" << cat << "::" << ent << " = " << ent_v << "\n";
+							return false;
+						}
+					}
+				}
+			} else {
+				if (cat_v.is_string()) {
+					conf.set(mod, cat, cat_v.get_ref<const std::string&>());
+				} else if (cat_v.is_boolean()) {
+					conf.set(mod, cat, cat_v.get_ref<const bool&>());
+				} else if (cat_v.is_number_float()) {
+					conf.set(mod, cat, cat_v.get_ref<const double&>());
+				} else if (cat_v.is_number_integer()) {
+					conf.set(mod, cat, cat_v.get_ref<const int64_t&>());
+				} else {
+					std::cerr << "JSON error: wrong value type in " << mod << "::" << cat << " = " << cat_v << "\n";
+					return false;
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	return true;
+}
+
 int main(int argc, char** argv) {
 #if defined (__unix__) || (defined (__APPLE__) && defined (__MACH__))
 	struct sigaction sigint_action;
@@ -45,23 +108,73 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv) {
 #elif defined (_WIN32)
 	signal(SIGINT, sigint_handler);
 #endif
+
 	auto last_time = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
 
-	// TODO: parse arg
-	// totato <config.json> -p <path/to/plugin.so>
+	std::string config_path {"config.json"};
 
-	// HACK: config
-	std::string tox_profile_path {"totato.tox"};
+	// totato <config.json> -p <path/to/plugin.so>
+	// TODO: parse arg
+	if (argc == 2) {
+		config_path = argv[1];
+	}
 
 	SimpleConfigModel conf;
+
+	{ // read conf from json TODO: refactor extract this for reuse
+		auto config_file = std::ifstream(config_path);
+		if (!config_file.is_open()) {
+			std::cerr << "TOTATO error: failed to open config file '" << config_path << "', exiting...\n";
+			return -1;
+		}
+
+		auto config_json = nlohmann::ordered_json::parse(std::ifstream(config_path));
+		if (!load_json_into_config(config_json, conf)) {
+			std::cerr << "TOTATO error in config json, exiting...\n";
+			return -1;
+		}
+	}
+
+	{ // fill in defaults
+		// config file folder
+		const auto config_path_base = std::filesystem::path{config_path}.parent_path();
+
+		if (!conf.has_string("tox", "save_file_path")) {
+			// default to totato.tox relative to config file
+			conf.set("tox", "save_file_path", (config_path_base / "totato.tox").u8string());
+		} else { // transform relative to config to absolute
+			const auto tox_conf_path = std::filesystem::path{conf.get_string("tox", "save_file_path").value()};
+			if (tox_conf_path.has_relative_path()) {
+				// is relative to config
+				conf.set("tox", "save_file_path", std::filesystem::canonical(tox_conf_path).u8string());
+			}
+		}
+
+		// TODO: name
+	}
+
+	conf.dump();
+
 	Contact3Registry cr;
 	RegistryMessageModel rmm{cr};
 	MessageTimeSort mts{rmm};
 
 	PluginManager pm;
 
-	ToxEventLogger tel{std::cout};
-	ToxClient tc{tox_profile_path, ""};
+	ToxEventLogger tel{std::cout}; // TODO: config
+
+	// TODO: password?
+	ToxClient tc{conf.get_string("tox", "save_file_path").value(), ""};
+	tel.subscribeAll(tc);
+	{ // name stuff
+		auto name = tc.toxSelfGetName();
+		if (name.empty()) {
+			name = "totato";
+		}
+		conf.set("tox", "name", name);
+		tc.setSelfName(name); // TODO: this is ugly
+	}
+
 	ToxPrivateImpl tpi{tc.getTox()};
 	AutoDirty ad{tc};
 	ToxContactModel2 tcm{cr, tc, tc};
@@ -73,14 +186,15 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv) {
 		g_provideInstance<Contact3Registry>("Contact3Registry", "host", &cr);
 		g_provideInstance<RegistryMessageModel>("RegistryMessageModel", "host", &rmm);
 
-		//g_provideInstance<ToxI>("ToxI", "host", &tc);
-		//g_provideInstance<ToxPrivateI>("ToxPrivateI", "host", &tpi);
-		//g_provideInstance<ToxEventProviderI>("ToxEventProviderI", "host", &tc);
-		//g_provideInstance<ToxContactModel2>("ToxContactModel2", "host", &tcm);
+		g_provideInstance<ToxI>("ToxI", "host", &tc);
+		g_provideInstance<ToxPrivateI>("ToxPrivateI", "host", &tpi);
+		g_provideInstance<ToxEventProviderI>("ToxEventProviderI", "host", &tc);
+		g_provideInstance<ToxContactModel2>("ToxContactModel2", "host", &tcm);
 
 		// TODO: pm?
 	}
 
+	// load from config!!!
 	for (const auto& ppath : {"../../solanaceae_ecosystem/build/bin/libplugin_transfer_auto_accept.so"}) {
 		if (!pm.add(ppath)) {
 			std::cerr << "TOTATO error: loading plugin '" << ppath << "' failed!\n";