diff --git a/cmd/stepd/main.go b/cmd/stepd/main.go
index 849290c..743b8e9 100644
--- a/cmd/stepd/main.go
+++ b/cmd/stepd/main.go
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ package main
 import "os"
 import "log"
 import "time"
-import "slices"
 import "errors"
 import "syscall"
 import "os/user"
@@ -17,7 +16,6 @@ import "path/filepath"
 import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/step"
 import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/go-cli"
 import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/step/providers"
-import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/goutil/container"
 import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/go-service/daemon"
 import "git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/go-service/rotate"
 import stephttp"git.tebibyte.media/sashakoshka/step/http"
@@ -200,32 +198,14 @@ func main () {
 	err = environment.Init(context.Background())
 	if err != nil { log.Fatal("XXX:", err) }
 
-	// set up the HTTP handler
-	rateLimit := 0.0
-	if rateLimitStr := config.Get("http.rate-limit"); rateLimitStr != "" {
-		rateLimit, err = strconv.ParseFloat(rateLimitStr, 64)
-		if err != nil { log.Fatal("XXX bad value for rate limit", err) }
-	}
+	// initialize the HTTP handler
 	handler := stephttp.Handler {
-		Environment:         &environment,
-		Directories:         config.Get("http.serve-directories") == "true",
-		StepExt:             ucontainer.NewSet(slices.Clone(config["http.step-extension"])...),
-		Index:               slices.Clone(config["http.index-file"]),
-		ErrorDocument:       config.Get("http.error-document"),
-		DirectoryDocument:   config.Get("http.directory-document"),
-		DenyAll:             ucontainer.NewSet(configFileName),
-		RateLimit:           time.Duration(rateLimit * float64(time.Second)),
-		TrustXForwardedFor:  config.Get("http.trust-x-forwarded-for") == "true",
-		TrustCFConnectingIP: config.Get("http.trust-cf-connecting-ip") == "true",
-	}
-	if len(handler.StepExt) == 0 {
-		handler.StepExt.Add(".step")
-	}
-	if len(handler.Index) == 0 {
-		handler.Index = []string { "index.step", "index.html", "index" }
+		Environment: &environment,
 	}
 	err = handler.Init(ctx)
 	if err != nil { log.Println("XXX", err) }
+	err = handler.Configure(config)
+	if err != nil { log.Println("XXX", err) }
 
 	// set up the HTTP server
 	httpServer := httpServerRoutine {