diff --git a/config.example.yaml b/config.example.yaml
index c062ddd..e2fe99b 100644
--- a/config.example.yaml
+++ b/config.example.yaml
@@ -1,93 +1,191 @@
-# ======
-# For a more detailed configuration example:
-# https://github.com/mostlygeek/llama-swap/wiki/Configuration
-# ======
+# llama-swap YAML configuration example
+# -------------------------------------
+#
+# - Below are all the available configuration options for llama-swap.
+# - Settings with a default value, or noted as optional can be omitted.
+# - Settings that are marked required must be in your configuration file
 
-# Seconds to wait for llama.cpp to be available to serve requests
-# Default (and minimum): 15 seconds
-healthCheckTimeout: 90
+# healthCheckTimeout: number of seconds to wait for a model to be ready to serve requests
+# - optional, default: 120
+# - minimum value is 15 seconds, anything less will be set to this value
+healthCheckTimeout: 500
 
-# valid log levels: debug, info (default), warn, error
-logLevel: debug
+# logLevel: sets the logging value
+# - optional, default: info
+# - Valid log levels: debug, info, warn, error
+logLevel: info
 
-# creating a coding profile with models for code generation and general questions
-groups:
-  coding:
-    swap: false
-    members:
-      - "qwen"
-      - "llama"
+# startPort: sets the starting port number for the automatic ${PORT} macro.
+# - optional, default: 5800
+# - the ${PORT} macro can be used in model.cmd and model.proxy settings
+# - it is automatically incremented for every model that uses it
+startPort: 10001
 
+# macros: sets a dictionary of string:string pairs
+# - optional, default: empty dictionary
+# - these are reusable snippets
+# - used in a model's cmd, cmdStop, proxy and checkEndpoint
+# - useful for reducing common configuration settings
+macros:
+  "latest-llama": >
+    /path/to/llama-server/llama-server-ec9e0301
+    --port ${PORT}
+
+# models: a dictionary of model configurations
+# - required
+# - each key is the model's ID, used in API requests
+# - model settings have default values that are used if they are not defined here
+# - below are examples of the various settings a model can have:
+# - available model settings: env, cmd, cmdStop, proxy, aliases, checkEndpoint, ttl, unlisted
 models:
+
+  # keys are the model names used in API requests
   "llama":
+    # cmd: the command to run to start the inference server.
+    # - required
+    # - it is just a string, similar to what you would run on the CLI
+    # - using `|` allows for comments in the command, these will be parsed out
+    # - macros can be used within cmd
     cmd: |
-      models/llama-server-osx
-      --port ${PORT}
-      -m models/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-Q4_0.gguf
+      # ${latest-llama} is a macro that is defined above
+      ${latest-llama}
+      --model path/to/Qwen2.5-1.5B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf
+
+    # env: define an array of environment variables to inject into cmd's environment
+    # - optional, default: empty array
+    # - each value is a single string
+    # - in the format: ENV_NAME=value
+    env:
+      - "CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1,2"
 
-    # list of model name aliases this llama.cpp instance can serve
+    # proxy: the URL where llama-swap routes API requests
+    # - optional, default: http://localhost:${PORT}
+    # - if you used ${PORT} in cmd this can be omitted
+    # - if you use a custom port in cmd this *must* be set
+    proxy: http://127.0.0.1:8999
+
+    # aliases: alternative model names that this model configuration is used for
+    # - optional, default: empty array
+    # - aliases must be unique globally
+    # - useful for impersonating a specific model
     aliases:
-    - gpt-4o-mini
+      - "gpt-4o-mini"
+      - "gpt-3.5-turbo"
 
-    # check this path for a HTTP 200 response for the server to be ready
-    checkEndpoint: /health
+    # checkEndpoint: URL path to check if the server is ready
+    # - optional, default: /health
+    # - use "none" to skip endpoint ready checking
+    # - endpoint is expected to return an HTTP 200 response
+    # - all requests wait until the endpoint is ready (or fails)
+    checkEndpoint: /custom-endpoint
 
-    # unload model after 5 seconds
-    ttl: 5
+    # ttl: automatically unload the model after this many seconds
+    # - optional, default: 0
+    # - ttl values must be a value greater than 0
+    # - a value of 0 disables automatic unloading of the model
+    ttl: 60
 
-  "qwen":
-    cmd: models/llama-server-osx --port ${PORT} -m models/qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q8_0.gguf
-    aliases:
-      - gpt-3.5-turbo
+    # useModelName: overrides the model name that is sent to upstream server
+    # - optional, default: ""
+    # - useful when the upstream server expects a specific model name or format
+    useModelName: "qwen:qwq"
 
-  # Embedding example with Nomic
-  # https://huggingface.co/nomic-ai/nomic-embed-text-v1.5-GGUF
-  "nomic":
-    cmd: |
-      models/llama-server-osx --port ${PORT}
-      -m models/nomic-embed-text-v1.5.Q8_0.gguf
-      --ctx-size 8192
-      --batch-size 8192
-      --rope-scaling yarn
-      --rope-freq-scale 0.75
-      -ngl 99
-      --embeddings
-
-  # Reranking example with bge-reranker
-  # https://huggingface.co/gpustack/bge-reranker-v2-m3-GGUF
-  "bge-reranker":
-    cmd: |
-      models/llama-server-osx --port ${PORT}
-      -m models/bge-reranker-v2-m3-Q4_K_M.gguf
-      --ctx-size 8192
-      --reranking
+    # filters: a dictionary of filter settings
+    # - optional, default: empty dictionary
+    filters:
+      # strip_params: a comma separated list of parameters to remove from the request
+      # - optional, default: ""
+      # - useful for preventing overriding of default server params by requests
+      # - `model` parameter is never removed
+      # - can be any JSON key in the request body
+      # - recommended to stick to sampling parameters
+      strip_params: "temperature, top_p, top_k"
+
+  # Unlisted model example:
+  "qwen-unlisted":
+    # unlisted: true or false
+    # - optional, default: false
+    # - unlisted models do not show up in /v1/models or /upstream lists
+    # - can be requested as normal through all apis
+    unlisted: true
+    cmd: llama-server --port ${PORT} -m Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf -ngl 0
 
-  # Docker Support (v26.1.4+ required!)
-  "dockertest":
+  # Docker example:
+  # container run times like Docker and Podman can also be used with a
+  # a combination of cmd and cmdStop.
+  "docker-llama":
+    proxy: "http://127.0.0.1:${PORT}"
     cmd: |
       docker run --name dockertest
       --init --rm -p ${PORT}:8080 -v /mnt/nvme/models:/models
-      ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:server
+      ghcr.io/ggml-org/llama.cpp:server
       --model '/models/Qwen2.5-Coder-0.5B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf'
 
-  "simple":
-    # example of setting environment variables
-    env:
-      - CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0,1
-      - env1=hello
-    cmd: build/simple-responder --port ${PORT}
-    unlisted: true
+    # cmdStop: command to run to stop the model gracefully
+    # - optional, default: ""
+    # - useful for stopping commands managed by another system
+    # - on POSIX systems: a SIGTERM is sent for graceful shutdown
+    # - on Windows, taskkill is used
+    # - processes are given 5 seconds to shutdown until they are forcefully killed
+    # - the upstream's process id is available in the ${PID} macro
+    cmdStop: docker stop dockertest
 
-    # use "none" to skip check. Caution this may cause some requests to fail
-    # until the upstream server is ready for traffic
-    checkEndpoint: none
+# groups: a dictionary of group settings
+# - optional, default: empty dictionary
+# - provide advanced controls over model swapping behaviour.
+# - Using groups some models can be kept loaded indefinitely, while others are swapped out.
+# - model ids must be defined in the Models section
+# - a model can only be a member of one group
+# - group behaviour is controlled via the `swap`, `exclusive` and `persistent` fields
+# - see issue #109 for details
+#
+# NOTE: the example below uses model names that are not defined above for demonstration purposes
+groups:
+  # group1 is same as the default behaviour of llama-swap where only one model is allowed
+  # to run a time across the whole llama-swap instance
+  "group1":
+    # swap: controls the model swapping behaviour in within the group
+    # - optional, default: true
+    # - true : only one model is allowed to run at a time
+    # - false: all models can run together, no swapping
+    swap: true
 
-  # don't use these, just for testing if things are broken
-  "broken":
-    cmd: models/llama-server-osx --port 8999 -m models/doesnotexist.gguf
-    proxy: http://127.0.0.1:8999
-    unlisted: true
-  "broken_timeout":
-    cmd: models/llama-server-osx --port 8999 -m models/qwen2.5-0.5b-instruct-q8_0.gguf
-    proxy: http://127.0.0.1:9000
-    unlisted: true
\ No newline at end of file
+    # exclusive: controls how the group affects other groups
+    # - optional, default: true
+    # - true: causes all other groups to unload when this group runs a model
+    # - false: does not affect other groups
+    exclusive: true
+
+    # members references the models defined above
+    # required
+    members:
+      - "llama"
+      - "qwen-unlisted"
+
+  # Example:
+  # - in this group all the models can run at the same time
+  # - when a different group loads all running models in this group are unloaded
+  "group2":
+    swap: false
+    exclusive: false
+    members:
+      - "docker-llama"
+      - "modelA"
+      - "modelB"
+
+  # Example:
+  # - a persistent group, prevents other groups from unloading it
+  "forever":
+    # persistent: prevents over groups from unloading the models in this group
+    # - optional, default: false
+    # - does not affect individual model behaviour
+    persistent: true
+
+    # set swap/exclusive to false to prevent swapping inside the group
+    # and the unloading of other groups
+    swap: false
+    exclusive: false
+    members:
+      - "forever-modelA"
+      - "forever-modelB"
+      - "forever-modelc"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/misc/simple-responder/simple-responder.go b/misc/simple-responder/simple-responder.go
index d06840d..d0198cc 100644
--- a/misc/simple-responder/simple-responder.go
+++ b/misc/simple-responder/simple-responder.go
@@ -42,9 +42,12 @@ func main() {
 			time.Sleep(wait)
 		}
 
+		bodyBytes, _ := io.ReadAll(c.Request.Body)
+
 		c.JSON(http.StatusOK, gin.H{
 			"responseMessage":  *responseMessage,
 			"h_content_length": c.Request.Header.Get("Content-Length"),
+			"request_body":     string(bodyBytes),
 		})
 	})
 
diff --git a/proxy/config.go b/proxy/config.go
index e4b0a50..e9821e9 100644
--- a/proxy/config.go
+++ b/proxy/config.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"regexp"
 	"runtime"
+	"slices"
 	"sort"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
@@ -29,6 +30,9 @@ type ModelConfig struct {
 
 	// Limit concurrency of HTTP requests to process
 	ConcurrencyLimit int `yaml:"concurrencyLimit"`
+
+	// Model filters see issue #174
+	Filters ModelFilters `yaml:"filters"`
 }
 
 func (m *ModelConfig) UnmarshalYAML(unmarshal func(interface{}) error) error {
@@ -63,6 +67,46 @@ func (m *ModelConfig) SanitizedCommand() ([]string, error) {
 	return SanitizeCommand(m.Cmd)
 }
 
+// ModelFilters see issue #174
+type ModelFilters struct {
+	StripParams string `yaml:"strip_params"`
+}
+
+func (m *ModelFilters) UnmarshalYAML(unmarshal func(interface{}) error) error {
+	type rawModelFilters ModelFilters
+	defaults := rawModelFilters{
+		StripParams: "",
+	}
+
+	if err := unmarshal(&defaults); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	*m = ModelFilters(defaults)
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (f ModelFilters) SanitizedStripParams() ([]string, error) {
+	if f.StripParams == "" {
+		return nil, nil
+	}
+
+	params := strings.Split(f.StripParams, ",")
+	cleaned := make([]string, 0, len(params))
+
+	for _, param := range params {
+		trimmed := strings.TrimSpace(param)
+		if trimmed == "model" || trimmed == "" {
+			continue
+		}
+		cleaned = append(cleaned, trimmed)
+	}
+
+	// sort cleaned
+	slices.Sort(cleaned)
+	return cleaned, nil
+}
+
 type GroupConfig struct {
 	Swap       bool     `yaml:"swap"`
 	Exclusive  bool     `yaml:"exclusive"`
@@ -212,6 +256,7 @@ func LoadConfigFromReader(r io.Reader) (Config, error) {
 			modelConfig.CmdStop = strings.ReplaceAll(modelConfig.CmdStop, macroSlug, macroValue)
 			modelConfig.Proxy = strings.ReplaceAll(modelConfig.Proxy, macroSlug, macroValue)
 			modelConfig.CheckEndpoint = strings.ReplaceAll(modelConfig.CheckEndpoint, macroSlug, macroValue)
+			modelConfig.Filters.StripParams = strings.ReplaceAll(modelConfig.Filters.StripParams, macroSlug, macroValue)
 		}
 
 		// enforce ${PORT} used in both cmd and proxy
diff --git a/proxy/config_posix_test.go b/proxy/config_posix_test.go
index 2023eb7..4a62a99 100644
--- a/proxy/config_posix_test.go
+++ b/proxy/config_posix_test.go
@@ -83,6 +83,9 @@ models:
 		assert.Equal(t, "", model1.UseModelName)
 		assert.Equal(t, 0, model1.ConcurrencyLimit)
 	}
+
+	// default empty filter exists
+	assert.Equal(t, "", model1.Filters.StripParams)
 }
 
 func TestConfig_LoadPosix(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/proxy/config_test.go b/proxy/config_test.go
index 49d4711..70a1d2d 100644
--- a/proxy/config_test.go
+++ b/proxy/config_test.go
@@ -300,3 +300,28 @@ models:
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestConfig_ModelFilters(t *testing.T) {
+	content := `
+macros:
+  default_strip: "temperature, top_p"
+models:
+  model1:
+    cmd: path/to/cmd --port ${PORT}
+    filters:
+      strip_params: "model, top_k, ${default_strip}, , ,"
+`
+	config, err := LoadConfigFromReader(strings.NewReader(content))
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	modelConfig, ok := config.Models["model1"]
+	if !assert.True(t, ok) {
+		t.FailNow()
+	}
+
+	// make sure `model` and enmpty strings are not in the list
+	assert.Equal(t, "model, top_k, temperature, top_p, , ,", modelConfig.Filters.StripParams)
+	sanitized, err := modelConfig.Filters.SanitizedStripParams()
+	if assert.NoError(t, err) {
+		assert.Equal(t, []string{"temperature", "top_k", "top_p"}, sanitized)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/proxy/config_windows_test.go b/proxy/config_windows_test.go
index d5cb50c..2f3fd30 100644
--- a/proxy/config_windows_test.go
+++ b/proxy/config_windows_test.go
@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ models:
 		assert.Equal(t, "", model1.UseModelName)
 		assert.Equal(t, 0, model1.ConcurrencyLimit)
 	}
+
+	// default empty filter exists
+	assert.Equal(t, "", model1.Filters.StripParams)
 }
 
 func TestConfig_LoadWindows(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/proxy/proxymanager.go b/proxy/proxymanager.go
index 6855e37..268458b 100644
--- a/proxy/proxymanager.go
+++ b/proxy/proxymanager.go
@@ -365,6 +365,21 @@ func (pm *ProxyManager) proxyOAIHandler(c *gin.Context) {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// issue #174 strip parameters from the JSON body
+	stripParams, err := pm.config.Models[realModelName].Filters.SanitizedStripParams()
+	if err != nil { // just log it and continue
+		pm.proxyLogger.Errorf("Error sanitizing strip params string: %s, %s", pm.config.Models[realModelName].Filters.StripParams, err.Error())
+	} else {
+		for _, param := range stripParams {
+			pm.proxyLogger.Debugf("<%s> stripping param: %s", realModelName, param)
+			bodyBytes, err = sjson.DeleteBytes(bodyBytes, param)
+			if err != nil {
+				pm.sendErrorResponse(c, http.StatusInternalServerError, fmt.Sprintf("error deleting parameter %s from request", param))
+				return
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	c.Request.Body = io.NopCloser(bytes.NewBuffer(bodyBytes))
 
 	// dechunk it as we already have all the body bytes see issue #11
diff --git a/proxy/proxymanager_test.go b/proxy/proxymanager_test.go
index 32a007a..d62af6a 100644
--- a/proxy/proxymanager_test.go
+++ b/proxy/proxymanager_test.go
@@ -623,3 +623,37 @@ func TestProxyManager_ChatContentLength(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Equal(t, "81", response["h_content_length"])
 	assert.Equal(t, "model1", response["responseMessage"])
 }
+
+func TestProxyManager_FiltersStripParams(t *testing.T) {
+	modelConfig := getTestSimpleResponderConfig("model1")
+	modelConfig.Filters = ModelFilters{
+		StripParams: "temperature, model, stream",
+	}
+
+	config := AddDefaultGroupToConfig(Config{
+		HealthCheckTimeout: 15,
+		LogLevel:           "error",
+		Models: map[string]ModelConfig{
+			"model1": modelConfig,
+		},
+	})
+
+	proxy := New(config)
+	defer proxy.StopProcesses(StopWaitForInflightRequest)
+	reqBody := `{"model":"model1", "temperature":0.1, "x_param":"123", "y_param":"abc", "stream":true}`
+	req := httptest.NewRequest("POST", "/v1/chat/completions", bytes.NewBufferString(reqBody))
+	w := httptest.NewRecorder()
+
+	proxy.ServeHTTP(w, req)
+	assert.Equal(t, http.StatusOK, w.Code)
+	var response map[string]string
+	assert.NoError(t, json.Unmarshal(w.Body.Bytes(), &response))
+
+	// `temperature` and `stream` are gone but model remains
+	assert.Equal(t, `{"model":"model1", "x_param":"123", "y_param":"abc"}`, response["request_body"])
+
+	// assert.Nil(t, response["temperature"])
+	// assert.Equal(t, "123", response["x_param"])
+	// assert.Equal(t, "abc", response["y_param"])
+	// t.Logf("%v", response)
+}
diff --git a/ui/misc/logo.acorn b/ui/misc/logo.acorn
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1185f3
Binary files /dev/null and b/ui/misc/logo.acorn differ