diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b59e09fb..ecea0d38 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 ### zeronet-conservancy 0.7.10+
+- ipython-based repl via --repl for debug/interactive development (@caryoscelus)
 
 ### zeronet-conservancy 0.7.10 (2023-07-26) (18d35d3bed4f0683e99)
 prepared by @caryoscelus
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1059795c..b9eb9fc9 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -15,3 +15,4 @@ rich
 defusedxml>=0.7
 pyaes
 requests
+ipython>=8
diff --git a/src/Config.py b/src/Config.py
index 6c25af00..1dba0007 100644
--- a/src/Config.py
+++ b/src/Config.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ class Config(object):
         self.version = "0.7.10+"
         self.user_agent = "conservancy"
         # DEPRECATED ; replace with git-generated commit
-        self.rev = 5121
+        self.rev = 5130
         self.user_agent_rev = 8192
         self.argv = argv
         self.action = None
@@ -304,6 +304,7 @@ class Config(object):
         self.parser.add_argument('--tor_hs_limit', help='Maximum number of hidden services in Tor always mode', metavar='limit', type=int, default=10)
         self.parser.add_argument('--tor_hs_port', help='Hidden service port in Tor always mode', metavar='limit', type=int, default=15441)
 
+        self.parser.add_argument('--repl', help='Instead of printing logs in console, drop into REPL after initialization', action='store_true')
         self.parser.add_argument('--version', action='version', version=f'zeronet-conservancy {self.version} r{self.rev}')
         self.parser.add_argument('--end', help='Stop multi value argument parsing', action='store_true')
 
@@ -583,7 +584,7 @@ class Config(object):
             format = '%(name)s %(message)s'
 
         if self.console_log_level == "default":
-            if self.silent:
+            if self.silent or self.repl:
                 level = logging.ERROR
             elif self.debug:
                 level = logging.DEBUG
diff --git a/src/main.py b/src/main.py
index 67480aaf..b15f46ec 100644
--- a/src/main.py
+++ b/src/main.py
@@ -157,6 +157,7 @@ if config.msgpack_purepython:
     os.environ["MSGPACK_PUREPYTHON"] = "True"
 
 # Fix console encoding on Windows
+# TODO: check if this is still required
 if sys.platform.startswith("win"):
     import subprocess
     try:
@@ -193,7 +194,7 @@ elif config.bind:
 
 
 @PluginManager.acceptPlugins
-class Actions(object):
+class Actions:
     def call(self, function_name, kwargs):
         logging.info("Version: %s r%s, Python %s, Gevent: %s" % (config.version, config.rev, sys.version, gevent.__version__))
 
@@ -202,6 +203,11 @@ class Actions(object):
         if back:
             print(back)
 
+    def ipythonThread(self):
+        import IPython
+        IPython.embed()
+        self.gevent_quit.set()
+
     # Default action: Start serving UiServer and FileServer
     def main(self):
         global ui_server, file_server
@@ -221,7 +227,25 @@ class Actions(object):
         CryptConnection.manager.removeCerts()
 
         logging.info("Starting servers....")
-        gevent.joinall([gevent.spawn(ui_server.start), gevent.spawn(file_server.start)])
+
+        import threading
+        self.gevent_quit = threading.Event()
+        launched_greenlets = [gevent.spawn(ui_server.start), gevent.spawn(file_server.start)]
+
+        # if --repl, start ipython thread
+        # FIXME: Unfortunately this leads to exceptions on exit so use with care
+        if config.repl:
+            threading.Thread(target=self.ipythonThread).start()
+
+        stopped = 0
+        # Process all greenlets in main thread
+        while not self.gevent_quit.is_set() and stopped < len(launched_greenlets):
+            stopped += len(gevent.joinall(launched_greenlets, timeout=1))
+
+        # Exited due to repl, so must kill greenlets
+        if stopped < len(launched_greenlets):
+            gevent.killall(launched_greenlets, exception=KeyboardInterrupt)
+
         logging.info("All server stopped")
 
     # Site commands