diff --git a/nostrdb/nostrdb.c b/nostrdb/nostrdb.c
index d973b67a..72650be9 100644
--- a/nostrdb/nostrdb.c
+++ b/nostrdb/nostrdb.c
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 #include "sha256.h"
 #include "lmdb.h"
 #include "util.h"
+#include "cpu.h"
 #include "threadpool.h"
 #include "protected_queue.h"
 #include "memchr.h"
@@ -115,6 +116,8 @@ struct ndb_ingester {
 	uint32_t flags;
 	struct threadpool tp;
 	struct ndb_writer *writer;
+	void *filter_context;
+	ndb_ingest_filter_fn filter;
 };
 
 
@@ -1577,16 +1580,23 @@ static int ndb_ingester_process_note(secp256k1_context *ctx,
 				     struct ndb_note *note,
 				     size_t note_size,
 				     struct ndb_writer_msg *out,
-				     uint32_t flags)
+				     struct ndb_ingester *ingester)
 {
-	//printf("ndb_ingester_process_note ");
-	//print_hex(note->id, 32);
-	//printf("\n");
+	enum ndb_ingest_filter_action action;
+	action = NDB_INGEST_ACCEPT;
+
+	if (ingester->filter)
+		action = ingester->filter(ingester->filter_context, note);
+
+	if (action == NDB_INGEST_REJECT)
+		return 0;
 
 	// some special situations we might want to skip sig validation,
 	// like during large imports
-	if (!(flags & NDB_FLAG_SKIP_NOTE_VERIFY)) {
-		// Verify! If it's an invalid note we don't need to
+	if (action == NDB_INGEST_SKIP_VALIDATION || (ingester->flags & NDB_FLAG_SKIP_NOTE_VERIFY)) {
+		// if we're skipping validation we don't need to verify
+	} else {
+		// verify! If it's an invalid note we don't need to
 		// bother writing it to the database
 		if (!ndb_note_verify(ctx, note->pubkey, note->id, note->sig)) {
 			ndb_debug("signature verification failed\n");
@@ -1678,7 +1688,7 @@ static int ndb_ingester_process_event(secp256k1_context *ctx,
 			}
 
 			if (!ndb_ingester_process_note(ctx, note, note_size,
-						       out, ingester->flags)) {
+						       out, ingester)) {
 				goto cleanup;
 			} else {
 				// we're done with the original json, free it
@@ -1699,7 +1709,7 @@ static int ndb_ingester_process_event(secp256k1_context *ctx,
 			}
 
 			if (!ndb_ingester_process_note(ctx, note, note_size,
-						       out, ingester->flags)) {
+						       out, ingester)) {
 				goto cleanup;
 			} else {
 				// we're done with the original json, free it
@@ -3000,8 +3010,8 @@ static int ndb_writer_init(struct ndb_writer *writer, struct ndb_lmdb *lmdb)
 
 // initialize the ingester queue and then spawn the thread
 static int ndb_ingester_init(struct ndb_ingester *ingester,
-			     struct ndb_writer *writer, int num_threads,
-			     int flags)
+			     struct ndb_writer *writer,
+			     struct ndb_config *config)
 {
 	int elem_size, num_elems;
 	static struct ndb_ingester_msg quit_msg = { .type = NDB_INGEST_QUIT };
@@ -3011,10 +3021,13 @@ static int ndb_ingester_init(struct ndb_ingester *ingester,
 	num_elems = DEFAULT_QUEUE_SIZE;
 
 	ingester->writer = writer;
-	ingester->flags = flags;
+	ingester->flags = config->flags;
+	ingester->filter = config->ingest_filter;
+	ingester->filter_context = config->filter_context;
 
-	if (!threadpool_init(&ingester->tp, num_threads, elem_size, num_elems,
-			     &quit_msg, ingester, ndb_ingester_thread))
+	if (!threadpool_init(&ingester->tp, config->ingester_threads,
+			     elem_size, num_elems, &quit_msg, ingester,
+			     ndb_ingester_thread))
 	{
 		fprintf(stderr, "ndb ingester threadpool failed to init\n");
 		return 0;
@@ -3221,20 +3234,20 @@ static int ndb_run_migrations(struct ndb *ndb)
 	return 1;
 }
 
-int ndb_init(struct ndb **pndb, const char *filename, size_t mapsize, int ingester_threads, int flags)
+int ndb_init(struct ndb **pndb, const char *filename, struct ndb_config *config)
 {
 	struct ndb *ndb;
 	//MDB_dbi ind_id; // TODO: ind_pk, etc
 
 	ndb = *pndb = calloc(1, sizeof(struct ndb));
-	ndb->flags = flags;
+	ndb->flags = config->flags;
 
 	if (ndb == NULL) {
 		fprintf(stderr, "ndb_init: malloc failed\n");
 		return 0;
 	}
 
-	if (!ndb_init_lmdb(filename, &ndb->lmdb, mapsize))
+	if (!ndb_init_lmdb(filename, &ndb->lmdb, config->mapsize))
 		return 0;
 
 	if (!ndb_writer_init(&ndb->writer, &ndb->lmdb)) {
@@ -3242,14 +3255,14 @@ int ndb_init(struct ndb **pndb, const char *filename, size_t mapsize, int ingest
 		return 0;
 	}
 
-	if (!ndb_ingester_init(&ndb->ingester, &ndb->writer, ingester_threads,
-			       ndb->flags)) {
+	if (!ndb_ingester_init(&ndb->ingester, &ndb->writer, config)) {
 		fprintf(stderr, "failed to initialize %d ingester thread(s)\n",
-				ingester_threads);
+				config->ingester_threads);
 		return 0;
 	}
 
-	if (!ndb_flag_set(flags, NDB_FLAG_NOMIGRATE) && !ndb_run_migrations(ndb)) {
+	if (!ndb_flag_set(config->flags, NDB_FLAG_NOMIGRATE) &&
+			  !ndb_run_migrations(ndb)) {
 		fprintf(stderr, "failed to run migrations\n");
 		return 0;
 	}
@@ -4380,4 +4393,37 @@ inline int ndb_builder_push_tag_str(struct ndb_builder *builder,
 	return ndb_builder_finalize_tag(builder, pstr);
 }
 
+//
+// CONFIG
+// 
+void ndb_default_config(struct ndb_config *config)
+{
+	config->mapsize = 1024UL * 1024UL * 1024UL * 32UL; // 32 GiB
+	config->ingester_threads = 4; // TODO: figure this out from platform apis
+	config->flags = 0;
+	config->ingest_filter = NULL;
+	config->filter_context = NULL;
+}
 
+void ndb_config_set_ingest_threads(struct ndb_config *config, int threads)
+{
+	int cores = get_physical_cores();
+	config->ingester_threads = cores == -1 ? 4 : cores;
+}
+
+void ndb_config_set_flags(struct ndb_config *config, int flags)
+{
+	config->flags = flags;
+}
+
+void ndb_config_set_mapsize(struct ndb_config *config, size_t mapsize)
+{
+	config->mapsize = mapsize;
+}
+
+void ndb_config_set_ingest_filter(struct ndb_config *config,
+				  ndb_ingest_filter_fn fn, void *filter_ctx)
+{
+	config->ingest_filter = fn;
+	config->filter_context = filter_ctx;
+}
diff --git a/nostrdb/nostrdb.h b/nostrdb/nostrdb.h
index 89347750..9b4c0ff9 100644
--- a/nostrdb/nostrdb.h
+++ b/nostrdb/nostrdb.h
@@ -105,6 +105,12 @@ enum tce_type {
 	NDB_TCE_EOSE   = 0x4,
 };
 
+enum ndb_ingest_filter_action {
+	NDB_INGEST_REJECT,
+	NDB_INGEST_ACCEPT,
+	NDB_INGEST_SKIP_VALIDATION
+};
+
 // function pointer for controlling what to do after we parse an id
 typedef enum ndb_idres (*ndb_id_fn)(void *, const char *);
 
@@ -233,6 +239,8 @@ struct ndb_note {
 
 #pragma pack(pop)
 
+typedef enum ndb_ingest_filter_action (*ndb_ingest_filter_fn)(void *, struct ndb_note *);
+
 struct ndb_builder {
 	struct cursor mem;
 	struct cursor note_cur;
@@ -295,6 +303,20 @@ struct ndb_filter {
 	struct ndb_filter_elements *elements[NDB_NUM_FILTERS];
 };
 
+struct ndb_config {
+	int flags;
+	int ingester_threads;
+	size_t mapsize;
+	void *filter_context;
+	ndb_ingest_filter_fn ingest_filter;
+};
+
+// CONFIG
+void ndb_default_config(struct ndb_config *);
+void ndb_config_set_ingest_threads(struct ndb_config *config, int threads);
+void ndb_config_set_flags(struct ndb_config *config, int flags);
+void ndb_config_set_mapsize(struct ndb_config *config, size_t mapsize);
+void ndb_config_set_ingest_filter(struct ndb_config *config, ndb_ingest_filter_fn fn, void *);
 
 // HELPERS
 int ndb_calculate_id(struct ndb_note *note, unsigned char *buf, int buflen);
@@ -304,7 +326,7 @@ int ndb_decode_key(const char *secstr, struct ndb_keypair *keypair);
 int ndb_note_verify(void *secp_ctx, unsigned char pubkey[32], unsigned char id[32], unsigned char signature[64]);
 
 // NDB
-int ndb_init(struct ndb **ndb, const char *dbdir, size_t mapsize, int ingester_threads, int flags);
+int ndb_init(struct ndb **ndb, const char *dbdir, struct ndb_config *);
 int ndb_db_version(struct ndb *ndb);
 int ndb_process_event(struct ndb *, const char *json, int len);
 int ndb_process_events(struct ndb *, const char *ldjson, size_t len);
@@ -354,7 +376,6 @@ void ndb_filter_reset(struct ndb_filter *);
 void ndb_filter_end_field(struct ndb_filter *);
 void ndb_filter_free(struct ndb_filter *filter);
 
-
 // FULLTEXT SEARCH
 int ndb_text_search(struct ndb_txn *txn, const char *query, struct ndb_text_search_results *);