diff --git a/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/chatmail-metadata.service.f b/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/chatmail-metadata.service.f
index 71f3e110..ffd74b10 100644
--- a/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/chatmail-metadata.service.f
+++ b/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/chatmail-metadata.service.f
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 Description=Chatmail dict proxy for IMAP METADATA
 
 [Service]
-ExecStart={execpath} /run/dovecot/metadata.socket vmail {config_path}
+ExecStart={execpath} /run/dovecot/metadata.socket vmail {config_path} /home/vmail/metadata
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=30
 
diff --git a/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/metadata.py b/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/metadata.py
index ace92336..3a63f998 100644
--- a/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/metadata.py
+++ b/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/metadata.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import pwd
 
+import pathlib
 from queue import Queue
 from threading import Thread
 from socketserver import (
@@ -145,12 +146,15 @@ class ThreadedUnixStreamServer(ThreadingMixIn, UnixStreamServer):
 
 
 def main():
-    socket, username, config = sys.argv[1:]
+    socket, username, config, metadata_dir = sys.argv[1:]
     passwd_entry = pwd.getpwnam(username)
 
     # XXX config is not currently used
     config = read_config(config)
-    notifier = Notifier()
+    metadata_dir = pathlib.Path(metadata_dir)
+    if not metadata_dir.exists():
+        metadata_dir.mkdir()
+    notifier = Notifier(metadata_dir)
 
     class Handler(StreamRequestHandler):
         def handle(self):
diff --git a/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/tests/test_metadata.py b/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/tests/test_metadata.py
index 2a3c122b..5a7e117a 100644
--- a/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/tests/test_metadata.py
+++ b/chatmaild/src/chatmaild/tests/test_metadata.py
@@ -16,6 +16,22 @@ def notifier(tmp_path):
     return Notifier(metadata_dir)
 
 
+def test_notifier_persistence(tmp_path):
+    metadata_dir = tmp_path.joinpath("metadata")
+    metadata_dir.mkdir()
+    notifier1 = Notifier(metadata_dir)
+    notifier2 = Notifier(metadata_dir)
+    assert notifier1.get_token(guid="guid00") is None
+    assert notifier2.get_token(guid="guid00") is None
+
+    notifier1.set_token("guid00", "01234")
+    notifier1.set_token("guid03", "456")
+    assert notifier2.get_token("guid00") == "01234"
+    assert notifier2.get_token("guid03") == "456"
+    notifier2.del_token("guid00")
+    assert notifier1.get_token("guid00") is None
+
+
 def test_handle_dovecot_request_lookup_fails(notifier):
     res = handle_dovecot_request("Lpriv/123/chatmail", {}, notifier)
     assert res == "N\n"