diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 4b7207c..cd416ce 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -44,6 +44,54 @@ version = "0.2.16"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "0942ffc6dcaadf03badf6e6a2d0228460359d5e34b57ccdc720b7382dfbd5ec5"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "anstream"
+version = "0.5.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b1f58811cfac344940f1a400b6e6231ce35171f614f26439e80f8c1465c5cc0c"
+dependencies = [
+ "anstyle",
+ "anstyle-parse",
+ "anstyle-query",
+ "anstyle-wincon",
+ "colorchoice",
+ "utf8parse",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "anstyle"
+version = "1.0.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b84bf0a05bbb2a83e5eb6fa36bb6e87baa08193c35ff52bbf6b38d8af2890e46"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "anstyle-parse"
+version = "0.2.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "938874ff5980b03a87c5524b3ae5b59cf99b1d6bc836848df7bc5ada9643c333"
+dependencies = [
+ "utf8parse",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "anstyle-query"
+version = "1.0.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5ca11d4be1bab0c8bc8734a9aa7bf4ee8316d462a08c6ac5052f888fef5b494b"
+dependencies = [
+ "windows-sys",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "anstyle-wincon"
+version = "2.1.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "58f54d10c6dfa51283a066ceab3ec1ab78d13fae00aa49243a45e4571fb79dfd"
+dependencies = [
+ "anstyle",
+ "windows-sys",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "anyhow"
 version = "1.0.75"
@@ -161,6 +209,52 @@ version = "1.0.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "baf1de4339761588bc0619e3cbc0120ee582ebb74b53b4efbf79117bd2da40fd"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "clap"
+version = "4.4.4"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b1d7b8d5ec32af0fadc644bf1fd509a688c2103b185644bb1e29d164e0703136"
+dependencies = [
+ "clap_builder",
+ "clap_derive",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "clap_builder"
+version = "4.4.4"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5179bb514e4d7c2051749d8fcefa2ed6d06a9f4e6d69faf3805f5d80b8cf8d56"
+dependencies = [
+ "anstream",
+ "anstyle",
+ "clap_lex",
+ "strsim",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "clap_derive"
+version = "4.4.2"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "0862016ff20d69b84ef8247369fabf5c008a7417002411897d40ee1f4532b873"
+dependencies = [
+ "heck",
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn 2.0.29",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "clap_lex"
+version = "0.5.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "cd7cc57abe963c6d3b9d8be5b06ba7c8957a930305ca90304f24ef040aa6f961"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "colorchoice"
+version = "1.0.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "acbf1af155f9b9ef647e42cdc158db4b64a1b61f743629225fde6f3e0be2a7c7"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "const-oid"
 version = "0.9.5"
@@ -754,6 +848,7 @@ version = "0.0.1-dev"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "assert_matches",
+ "clap",
  "derive_more",
  "figment",
  "futures-util",
@@ -1783,6 +1878,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-normalization",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "strsim"
+version = "0.10.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "73473c0e59e6d5812c5dfe2a064a6444949f089e20eec9a2e5506596494e4623"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "subtle"
 version = "2.5.0"
@@ -2093,6 +2194,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "percent-encoding",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "utf8parse"
+version = "0.2.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "711b9620af191e0cdc7468a8d14e709c3dcdb115b36f838e601583af800a370a"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "uuid"
 version = "1.4.1"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7f6593c..f2d6e9e 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ tokio = { version = "1.24.1", features = ["full"] } # async runtime
 futures-util = "0.3.25"
 anyhow = "1.0.68" # error utils
 nonempty = "0.8.1"
+clap = { version = "4.4.4", features = ["derive"] }
 
 [package]
 name = "lavina"
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ derive_more = "0.99.17"
 uuid = { version = "1.3.0", features = ["v4"] }
 sqlx = { version = "0.7.0-alpha.2", features = ["sqlite", "migrate"] }
 proto-irc = { path = "crates/proto-irc" }
+clap.workspace = true
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 assert_matches.workspace = true
diff --git a/crates/proto-irc/Cargo.toml b/crates/proto-irc/Cargo.toml
index e2225a7..4a5286e 100644
--- a/crates/proto-irc/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/proto-irc/Cargo.toml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 name = "proto-irc"
 edition = "2021"
 version.workspace = true
+publish = false
 
 [dependencies]
 nom.workspace = true
diff --git a/dist/alpine3.18.Dockerfile b/dist/alpine3.18.Dockerfile
index 3a4a5d4..facdfb0 100644
--- a/dist/alpine3.18.Dockerfile
+++ b/dist/alpine3.18.Dockerfile
@@ -8,4 +8,4 @@ FROM alpine:3.18@sha256:7144f7bab3d4c2648d7e59409f15ec52a18006a128c733fcff20d3a4
 
 COPY --from=bld target/release/lavina /usr/bin/lavina
 VOLUME ["/etc/lavina/", "/var/lib/lavina/"]
-ENTRYPOINT ["lavina"]
+ENTRYPOINT ["lavina", "--config", "/etc/lavina/config.toml"]
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index cfc3955..b6f19da 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@ mod protos;
 mod util;
 
 use std::future::Future;
+use std::path::Path;
 
+use clap::Parser;
 use figment::providers::Format;
 use figment::{providers::Toml, Figment};
 use prometheus::Registry as MetricsRegistry;
@@ -31,11 +33,15 @@ struct ServerConfig {
     storage: core::repo::StorageConfig,
 }
 
+#[derive(Parser)]
+struct CliArgs {
+    #[arg(long)]
+    config: Box<Path>, 
+}
+
 fn load_config() -> Result<ServerConfig> {
-    // TODO get config path as a cmd line arg
-    let raw_config = Figment::new()
-        .merge(Toml::file("config.toml"))
-        .merge(Toml::file("/etc/lavina/config.toml"));
+    let args = CliArgs::parse();
+    let raw_config = Figment::from(Toml::file(args.config));
     let config: ServerConfig = raw_config.extract()?;
     Ok(config)
 }