diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 8320d10..4473ddb 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -124,6 +124,26 @@ dependencies = [
  "syn",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "dirs"
+version = "4.0.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "ca3aa72a6f96ea37bbc5aa912f6788242832f75369bdfdadcb0e38423f100059"
+dependencies = [
+ "dirs-sys",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "dirs-sys"
+version = "0.3.7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1b1d1d91c932ef41c0f2663aa8b0ca0342d444d842c06914aa0a7e352d0bada6"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+ "redox_users",
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "email-encoding"
 version = "0.1.3"
@@ -218,6 +238,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "slab",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "getrandom"
+version = "0.2.8"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "c05aeb6a22b8f62540c194aac980f2115af067bfe15a0734d7277a768d396b31"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if",
+ "libc",
+ "wasi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "hashbrown"
 version = "0.12.3"
@@ -632,6 +663,17 @@ dependencies = [
  "bitflags",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "redox_users"
+version = "0.4.3"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "b033d837a7cf162d7993aded9304e30a83213c648b6e389db233191f891e5c2b"
+dependencies = [
+ "getrandom",
+ "redox_syscall",
+ "thiserror",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "remove_dir_all"
 version = "0.5.3"
@@ -805,6 +847,26 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi-util",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "thiserror"
+version = "1.0.38"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "6a9cd18aa97d5c45c6603caea1da6628790b37f7a34b6ca89522331c5180fed0"
+dependencies = [
+ "thiserror-impl",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "thiserror-impl"
+version = "1.0.38"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "1fb327af4685e4d03fa8cbcf1716380da910eeb2bb8be417e7f9fd3fb164f36f"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "thread_local"
 version = "1.1.4"
@@ -987,6 +1049,12 @@ version = "0.9.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "49874b5167b65d7193b8aba1567f5c7d93d001cafc34600cee003eda787e483f"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "wasi"
+version = "0.11.0+wasi-snapshot-preview1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "9c8d87e72b64a3b4db28d11ce29237c246188f4f51057d65a7eab63b7987e423"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "whakarite"
 version = "0.1.0"
@@ -995,12 +1063,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "clap",
  "diesel",
  "lettre",
- "log",
  "serde",
  "time",
  "toml",
  "tracing",
  "tracing-subscriber",
+ "xdg",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1090,3 +1158,12 @@ name = "windows_x86_64_msvc"
 version = "0.42.1"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "447660ad36a13288b1db4d4248e857b510e8c3a225c822ba4fb748c0aafecffd"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "xdg"
+version = "2.4.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "0c4583db5cbd4c4c0303df2d15af80f0539db703fa1c68802d4cbbd2dd0f88f6"
+dependencies = [
+ "dirs",
+]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index d0ec283..f962407 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ categories = ["utility"]
 
 [dependencies]
 anyhow = "1"
-log = "0.4"
 tracing = "0.1"
 tracing-subscriber = "0.3"
 time = "0.3"
@@ -20,3 +19,4 @@ diesel = { version = "2", features = ["postgres", "r2d2", "time"] }
 serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
 toml = "0.6"
 clap = { version = "4", features = ["derive"] }
+xdg = "2"
diff --git a/src/args.rs b/src/args.rs
index 69864cb..b4b12de 100644
--- a/src/args.rs
+++ b/src/args.rs
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ use tracing::Level;
 pub struct Args {
     /// Use a custom config file
     #[arg(short, long, value_name = "FILE")]
-    config: Option<PathBuf>,
+    pub config: Option<PathBuf>,
 
     /// Set a log level
     #[arg(short, long, value_name = "LEVEL", default_value_t = Level::INFO)]
diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index 8ee0351..d1e0eff 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
+use anyhow::{bail, Result};
 use serde::Deserialize;
+use std::{env, fs, path::PathBuf};
+use tracing::{error, info, trace};
 
 fn default_host() -> String {
     "localhost".to_string()
@@ -45,3 +48,43 @@ pub struct Config {
     /// Database configuration
     pub database: Database,
 }
+
+impl Config {
+    fn try_paths() -> Result<(PathBuf, String)> {
+        let file = "config.toml";
+        info!(?file, "loading configuration");
+        if let Ok(config) = fs::read_to_string(&file) {
+            return Ok((file.into(), config));
+        }
+
+        let user_file =
+            xdg::BaseDirectories::with_prefix(env!("CARGO_BIN_NAME"))?.get_config_file(file);
+        info!(file = ?user_file, "loading configuration");
+        if let Ok(config) = fs::read_to_string(&user_file) {
+            return Ok((user_file, config));
+        }
+
+        let global_file = format!("/etc/{}/{}", env!("CARGO_BIN_NAME"), file);
+        info!(file = ?global_file, "loading configuration");
+        if let Ok(config) = fs::read_to_string(&global_file) {
+            return Ok((global_file.into(), config));
+        }
+
+        error!("no configuration file found");
+        bail!("no configuration file found");
+    }
+
+    pub fn load_config(file: Option<PathBuf>) -> Result<Self> {
+        if let Some(file) = file {
+            info!(?file, "loading configuration");
+            let config: Config = toml::from_str(&fs::read_to_string(&file)?)?;
+            trace!(?file, ?config, "loaded configuration");
+            Ok(config)
+        } else {
+            let (file, config) = Self::try_paths()?;
+            let config = toml::from_str(&config)?;
+            trace!(?file, ?config, "loaded configuration");
+            Ok(config)
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 0e31328..9e13b5e 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -71,12 +71,7 @@ fn main() -> Result<()> {
         env!("CARGO_PKG_VERSION")
     );
 
-    let config_path = "./config.toml";
-
-    let config: Config = toml::from_str(&std::fs::read_to_string(config_path)?)?;
-
-    trace!(?config, config_path, "loaded config");
-
+    let config = Config::load_config(args.config)?;
     let db_pool = Pool::builder().build(ConnectionManager::<PgConnection>::new(format!(
         "postgresql://{}:{}@{}:{}/{}",
         config.database.user,