diff --git a/src/command_line.cc b/src/command_line.cc
index 4cc0f35c..975fec18 100644
--- a/src/command_line.cc
+++ b/src/command_line.cc
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 #include "queue_manager.h"
 #include "semantic_highlight_symbol_cache.h"
 #include "serializer.h"
+#include "serializers/json.h"
 #include "standard_includes.h"
 #include "test.h"
 #include "threaded_queue.h"
@@ -29,14 +30,11 @@
 #include "working_files.h"
 
 #include <doctest/doctest.h>
-#include <rapidjson/istreamwrapper.h>
-#include <rapidjson/ostreamwrapper.h>
 #include <loguru.hpp>
+#include <rapidjson/error/en.h>
 
 #include <climits>
-#include <fstream>
 #include <functional>
-#include <future>
 #include <iostream>
 #include <iterator>
 #include <sstream>
@@ -52,6 +50,8 @@
 // TODO: implement ThreadPool type which monitors CPU usage / number of work
 // items per second completed and scales up/down number of running threads.
 
+std::string g_init_options;
+
 namespace {
 
 std::vector<std::string> kEmptyArgs;
@@ -438,10 +438,22 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv) {
       return -1;
   }
 
-  if (HasOption(options, "--enable-comments")) {
-    // TODO Place this global variable into config
-    extern bool g_enable_comments;
-    g_enable_comments = true;
+  if (HasOption(options, "--init")) {
+    // We check syntax error here but override client-side initializationOptions
+    // in messages/initialize.cc
+    g_init_options = options["--init"];
+    rapidjson::Document reader;
+    rapidjson::ParseResult ok = reader.Parse(g_init_options.c_str());
+    if (!ok) {
+      std::cerr << "Failed to parse --init as JSON: "
+                << rapidjson::GetParseError_En(ok.Code()) << " (" << ok.Offset()
+                << ")\n";
+      return 1;
+    }
+    if (!reader.IsObject()) {
+      std::cerr << "--init must be a JSON object\n";
+      return 1;
+    }
   }
 
   if (HasOption(options, "--language-server")) {
diff --git a/src/config.h b/src/config.h
index 9b73c709..fe0297db 100644
--- a/src/config.h
+++ b/src/config.h
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@ struct Config {
   // a function or method
   bool enableSnippetInsertion = true;
 
+  bool enableComments = false;
+
   //// For debugging
 
   // Dump AST after parsing if some pattern matches the source filename.
@@ -132,6 +134,8 @@ MAKE_REFLECT_STRUCT(Config,
                     clientVersion,
                     enableSnippetInsertion,
 
+                    enableComments,
+
                     dumpAST
                     );
 
diff --git a/src/messages/initialize.cc b/src/messages/initialize.cc
index d6bc4fdb..ab865220 100644
--- a/src/messages/initialize.cc
+++ b/src/messages/initialize.cc
@@ -10,6 +10,10 @@
 
 #include <loguru.hpp>
 
+// TODO Cleanup global variables
+extern std::string g_init_options;
+extern bool g_enable_comments;
+
 namespace {
 struct Ipc_InitializeRequest : public IpcMessage<Ipc_InitializeRequest> {
   const static IpcId kIpcId = IpcId::Initialize;
@@ -60,6 +64,15 @@ struct InitializeHandler : BaseMessageHandler<Ipc_InitializeRequest> {
       }
 
       *config = *request->params.initializationOptions;
+      {
+        rapidjson::Document reader;
+        reader.Parse(g_init_options.c_str());
+        if (!reader.HasParseError()) {
+          JsonReader json_reader{&reader};
+          Reflect(json_reader, *config);
+        }
+      }
+      g_enable_comments = config->enableComments;
 
       // Check client version.
       if (config->clientVersion.has_value() &&