diff --git a/slingshot/src/firehose_cache.rs b/slingshot/src/firehose_cache.rs
index 29ce666..5faffab 100644
--- a/slingshot/src/firehose_cache.rs
+++ b/slingshot/src/firehose_cache.rs
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ pub async fn firehose_cache(
         .with_device_options(
             DirectFsDeviceOptions::new(cache_dir)
                 .with_capacity(disk_gb * 2_usize.pow(30))
-                .with_file_size(16 * 2_usize.pow(20)), // note: this does limit the max cached item size, warning jumbo records
+                .with_file_size(16 * 2_usize.pow(20)), // note: this does limit the max cached item size (records should be max 1mb cbor, bit bigger json)
         )
         .build()
         .await
diff --git a/slingshot/src/identity.rs b/slingshot/src/identity.rs
index 80e5286..16733ce 100644
--- a/slingshot/src/identity.rs
+++ b/slingshot/src/identity.rs
@@ -161,7 +161,11 @@ pub struct Identity {
 }
 
 impl Identity {
-    pub async fn new(cache_dir: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<Self, IdentityError> {
+    pub async fn new(
+        cache_dir: impl AsRef<Path>,
+        memory_mb: usize,
+        disk_gb: usize,
+    ) -> Result<Self, IdentityError> {
         let http_client = Arc::new(DefaultHttpClient::default());
         let handle_resolver = AtprotoHandleResolver::new(AtprotoHandleResolverConfig {
             dns_txt_resolver: HickoryDnsTxtResolver::new().unwrap(),
@@ -174,13 +178,13 @@ impl Identity {
 
         let cache = HybridCacheBuilder::new()
             .with_name("identity")
-            .memory(16 * 2_usize.pow(20))
+            .memory(memory_mb * 2_usize.pow(20))
             .with_weighter(|k, v| std::mem::size_of_val(k) + std::mem::size_of_val(v))
             .storage(Engine::small())
             .with_device_options(
                 DirectFsDeviceOptions::new(cache_dir)
-                    .with_capacity(2_usize.pow(30)) // TODO: configurable (1GB to have something)
-                    .with_file_size(2_usize.pow(20)), // note: this does limit the max cached item size, warning jumbo records
+                    .with_capacity(disk_gb * 2_usize.pow(30)) // TODO: configurable (1GB to have something)
+                    .with_file_size(2_usize.pow(20)), // note: this does limit the max cached item size!
             )
             .build()
             .await?;
diff --git a/slingshot/src/main.rs b/slingshot/src/main.rs
index 07438f2..8b9147f 100644
--- a/slingshot/src/main.rs
+++ b/slingshot/src/main.rs
@@ -31,14 +31,22 @@ struct Args {
     #[arg(long, env = "SLINGSHOT_BIND")]
     #[clap(default_value = "0.0.0.0:8080")]
     bind: std::net::SocketAddr,
-    /// memory cache size in megabytes
-    #[arg(long, env = "SLINGSHOT_CACHE_MEMORY_MB")]
+    /// memory cache size in megabytes for records
+    #[arg(long, env = "SLINGSHOT_RECORD_CACHE_MEMORY_MB")]
     #[clap(default_value_t = 64)]
-    cache_memory_mb: usize,
-    /// disk cache size in gigabytes
-    #[arg(long, env = "SLINGHSOT_CACHE_DISK_DB")]
+    record_cache_memory_mb: usize,
+    /// disk cache size in gigabytes for records
+    #[arg(long, env = "SLINGSHOT_RECORD_CACHE_DISK_DB")]
     #[clap(default_value_t = 1)]
-    cache_disk_gb: usize,
+    record_cache_disk_gb: usize,
+    /// memory cache size in megabytes for identities
+    #[arg(long, env = "SLINGSHOT_IDENTITY_CACHE_MEMORY_MB")]
+    #[clap(default_value_t = 64)]
+    identity_cache_memory_mb: usize,
+    /// disk cache size in gigabytes for identities
+    #[arg(long, env = "SLINGSHOT_IDENTITY_CACHE_DISK_DB")]
+    #[clap(default_value_t = 1)]
+    identity_cache_disk_gb: usize,
     /// the domain pointing to this server
     ///
     /// if present:
@@ -118,8 +126,8 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), String> {
     log::info!("setting up firehose cache...");
     let cache = firehose_cache(
         cache_dir.join("./firehose"),
-        args.cache_memory_mb,
-        args.cache_disk_gb,
+        args.record_cache_memory_mb,
+        args.record_cache_disk_gb,
     )
     .await?;
     log::info!("firehose cache ready.");
@@ -127,9 +135,14 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), String> {
     let mut tasks: tokio::task::JoinSet<Result<(), MainTaskError>> = tokio::task::JoinSet::new();
 
     log::info!("starting identity service...");
-    let identity = Identity::new(cache_dir.join("./identity"))
-        .await
-        .map_err(|e| format!("identity setup failed: {e:?}"))?;
+    let identity = Identity::new(
+        cache_dir.join("./identity"),
+        args.identity_cache_memory_mb,
+        args.identity_cache_disk_gb,
+    )
+    .await
+    .map_err(|e| format!("identity setup failed: {e:?}"))?;
+
     log::info!("identity service ready.");
     let identity_refresher = identity.clone();
     let identity_shutdown = shutdown.clone();