diff --git a/config.go b/config.go
index 66de7a7..f4d750e 100644
--- a/config.go
+++ b/config.go
@@ -18,29 +18,41 @@ import (
 func init() {
 
 	cobra.OnInitialize(initConfig)
+
+	// irc client configuration
+	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("nick", "n", "soulshack", "bot's nickname on the irc server")
+	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("server", "s", "localhost", "irc server address")
 	root.PersistentFlags().BoolP("ssl", "e", false, "enable SSL for the IRC connection")
-	root.PersistentFlags().Int("maxtokens", 512, "maximum number of tokens to generate")
 	root.PersistentFlags().IntP("port", "p", 6667, "irc server port")
-	root.PersistentFlags().String("goodbye", "goodbye.", "prompt to be used when the bot leaves the channel")
-	root.PersistentFlags().String("greeting", "hello.", "prompt to be used when the bot joins the channel")
-	root.PersistentFlags().String("model", ai.GPT4, "model to be used for responses (e.g., gpt-4")
-	root.PersistentFlags().String("openaikey", "", "openai api key")
-	root.PersistentFlags().String("prompt", "respond in a short text:", "initial system prompt for the ai")
-	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("become", "b", "chatbot", "become the named personality")
 	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("channel", "c", "", "irc channel to join")
-	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("nick", "n", "soulshack", "bot's nickname on the irc server")
-	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("server", "s", "localhost", "irc server address")
+
+	// bot configuration
+	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("become", "b", "chatbot", "become the named personality")
+	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("directory", "d", "./personalities", "personalities configuration directory")
 	root.PersistentFlags().StringSliceP("admins", "A", []string{}, "comma-separated list of allowed users to administrate the bot (e.g., user1,user2,user3)")
-	root.PersistentFlags().DurationP("session", "S", time.Minute*3, "duration for the chat session; message context will be cleared after this time")
-	root.PersistentFlags().IntP("history", "H", 15, "maximum number of lines of context to keep per session")
-	root.PersistentFlags().DurationP("timeout", "t", time.Second*60, "timeout for each completion request to openai")
+
+	// informational
 	root.PersistentFlags().BoolP("list", "l", false, "list configured personalities")
-	root.PersistentFlags().StringP("directory", "d", "./personalities", "personalities configuration directory")
 	root.PersistentFlags().BoolP("verbose", "v", false, "enable verbose logging of sessions and configuration")
+
+	// openai configuration
+	root.PersistentFlags().String("openaikey", "", "openai api key")
+	root.PersistentFlags().Int("maxtokens", 512, "maximum number of tokens to generate")
+	root.PersistentFlags().String("model", ai.GPT4, "model to be used for responses (e.g., gpt-4)")
+
+	// timeouts and behavior
 	root.PersistentFlags().BoolP("addressed", "a", true, "require bot be addressed by nick for response")
-	root.PersistentFlags().DurationP("chunkdelay", "C", time.Second*5, "after this delay, bot will look to split the incoming buffer on sentence boundaries")
+	root.PersistentFlags().DurationP("session", "S", time.Minute*3, "duration for the chat session; message context will be cleared after this time")
+	root.PersistentFlags().DurationP("timeout", "t", time.Second*60, "timeout for each completion request to openai")
+	root.PersistentFlags().IntP("history", "H", 15, "maximum number of lines of context to keep per session")
+	root.PersistentFlags().DurationP("chunkdelay", "C", time.Second*15, "after this delay, bot will look to split the incoming buffer on sentence boundaries")
 	root.PersistentFlags().IntP("chunkmax", "m", 350, "maximum number of characters to send as a single message")
 
+	// personality / prompting
+	root.PersistentFlags().String("goodbye", "goodbye.", "prompt to be used when the bot leaves the channel")
+	root.PersistentFlags().String("greeting", "hello.", "prompt to be used when the bot joins the channel")
+	root.PersistentFlags().String("prompt", "respond in a short text:", "initial system prompt for the ai")
+
 	vip.BindPFlags(root.PersistentFlags())
 
 	vip.SetEnvPrefix("SOULSHACK")