diff --git a/cmd/splitter/main.go b/cmd/splitter/main.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a6d92e17e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/splitter/main.go
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"os"
+	"os/signal"
+	"syscall"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/bluesky-social/indigo/bgs"
+	"github.com/bluesky-social/indigo/util/version"
+	_ "go.uber.org/automaxprocs"
+
+	_ "net/http/pprof"
+
+	_ "github.com/joho/godotenv/autoload"
+
+	logging "github.com/ipfs/go-log"
+	"github.com/urfave/cli/v2"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/attribute"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlptrace/otlptracehttp"
+	"go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/resource"
+	tracesdk "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/sdk/trace"
+	semconv "go.opentelemetry.io/otel/semconv/v1.4.0"
+)
+
+var log = logging.Logger("splitter")
+
+func init() {
+	// control log level using, eg, GOLOG_LOG_LEVEL=debug
+	//logging.SetAllLoggers(logging.LevelDebug)
+}
+
+func main() {
+	run(os.Args)
+}
+
+func run(args []string) {
+	app := cli.App{
+		Name:    "splitter",
+		Usage:   "firehose proxy",
+		Version: version.Version,
+	}
+
+	app.Flags = []cli.Flag{
+		&cli.BoolFlag{
+			Name:  "crawl-insecure-ws",
+			Usage: "when connecting to PDS instances, use ws:// instead of wss://",
+		},
+		&cli.StringFlag{
+			Name:  "api-listen",
+			Value: ":2480",
+		},
+		&cli.StringFlag{
+			Name:    "metrics-listen",
+			Value:   ":2481",
+			EnvVars: []string{"SPLITTER_METRICS_LISTEN"},
+		},
+	}
+
+	app.Action = Splitter
+	err := app.Run(os.Args)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+}
+
+func Splitter(cctx *cli.Context) error {
+	// Trap SIGINT to trigger a shutdown.
+	signals := make(chan os.Signal, 1)
+	signal.Notify(signals, syscall.SIGINT, syscall.SIGTERM)
+
+	// Enable OTLP HTTP exporter
+	// For relevant environment variables:
+	// https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlptrace#readme-environment-variables
+	// At a minimum, you need to set
+	// OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=http://localhost:4318
+	if ep := os.Getenv("OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT"); ep != "" {
+		log.Infow("setting up trace exporter", "endpoint", ep)
+		ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(context.Background())
+		defer cancel()
+
+		exp, err := otlptracehttp.New(ctx)
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatalw("failed to create trace exporter", "error", err)
+		}
+		defer func() {
+			ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), time.Second)
+			defer cancel()
+			if err := exp.Shutdown(ctx); err != nil {
+				log.Errorw("failed to shutdown trace exporter", "error", err)
+			}
+		}()
+
+		tp := tracesdk.NewTracerProvider(
+			tracesdk.WithBatcher(exp),
+			tracesdk.WithResource(resource.NewWithAttributes(
+				semconv.SchemaURL,
+				semconv.ServiceNameKey.String("splitter"),
+				attribute.String("env", os.Getenv("ENVIRONMENT")),         // DataDog
+				attribute.String("environment", os.Getenv("ENVIRONMENT")), // Others
+				attribute.Int64("ID", 1),
+			)),
+		)
+		otel.SetTracerProvider(tp)
+	}
+
+	spl := splitter.New(cctx.String("bgs-host"))
+
+	// set up metrics endpoint
+	go func() {
+		if err := spl.StartMetrics(cctx.String("metrics-listen")); err != nil {
+			log.Fatalf("failed to start metrics endpoint: %s", err)
+		}
+	}()
+
+	runErr := make(chan error, 1)
+
+	go func() {
+		err := spl.Start(cctx.String("api-listen"))
+		runErr <- err
+	}()
+
+	log.Infow("startup complete")
+	select {
+	case <-signals:
+		log.Info("received shutdown signal")
+		errs := spl.Shutdown()
+		for err := range errs {
+			log.Errorw("error during Splitter shutdown", "err", err)
+		}
+	case err := <-runErr:
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Errorw("error during Splitter startup", "err", err)
+		}
+		log.Info("shutting down")
+		errs := bgs.Shutdown()
+		for err := range errs {
+			log.Errorw("error during Splitter shutdown", "err", err)
+		}
+	}
+
+	log.Info("shutdown complete")
+
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/splitter/splitter.go b/splitter/splitter.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..efe573a09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/splitter/splitter.go
@@ -0,0 +1,218 @@
+package splitter
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"fmt"
+	"math/rand"
+	"sync"
+	"time"
+
+	events "github.com/bluesky-social/indigo/events"
+	"github.com/bluesky-social/indigo/events/schedulers/sequential"
+	"github.com/bluesky-social/indigo/models"
+	"github.com/gorilla/websocket"
+	logging "github.com/ipfs/go-log"
+)
+
+var log = logging.Logger("splitter")
+
+type Splitter struct {
+	Host   string
+	erb    *EventRingBuffer
+	events *events.EventManager
+}
+
+func NewSplitter(host string, persister events.EventPersistence) *Splitter {
+	erb := NewEventRingBuffer(20000, 1000)
+
+	em := events.NewEventManager(erb)
+	return &Splitter{
+		Host:   host,
+		erb:    erb,
+		events: em,
+	}
+}
+
+func (s *Splitter) Start() error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func sleepForBackoff(b int) time.Duration {
+	if b == 0 {
+		return 0
+	}
+
+	if b < 50 {
+		return time.Millisecond * time.Duration(rand.Intn(100)+(5*b))
+	}
+
+	return time.Second * 5
+}
+
+func (s *Splitter) subscribeWithRedialer(ctx context.Context, host string, cursor int64) {
+	d := websocket.Dialer{}
+
+	protocol := "wss"
+
+	var backoff int
+	for {
+		select {
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return
+		default:
+		}
+
+		url := fmt.Sprintf("%s://%s/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.subscribeRepos?cursor=%d", protocol, host, cursor)
+		con, res, err := d.DialContext(ctx, url, nil)
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Warnw("dialing failed", "host", host, "err", err, "backoff", backoff)
+			time.Sleep(sleepForBackoff(backoff))
+			backoff++
+
+			continue
+		}
+
+		log.Info("event subscription response code: ", res.StatusCode)
+
+		if err := s.handleConnection(ctx, host, con, &cursor); err != nil {
+			log.Warnf("connection to %q failed: %s", host, err)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func (s *Splitter) handleConnection(ctx context.Context, host string, con *websocket.Conn, lastCursor *int64) error {
+	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(ctx)
+	defer cancel()
+
+	sched := sequential.NewScheduler("splitter", s.events.AddEvent)
+	return events.HandleRepoStream(ctx, con, sched)
+}
+
+func sequenceForEvent(evt *events.XRPCStreamEvent) int64 {
+	switch {
+	case evt.RepoCommit != nil:
+		return evt.RepoCommit.Seq
+	case evt.RepoHandle != nil:
+		return evt.RepoHandle.Seq
+	case evt.RepoMigrate != nil:
+		return evt.RepoMigrate.Seq
+	case evt.RepoTombstone != nil:
+		return evt.RepoTombstone.Seq
+	case evt.RepoInfo != nil:
+		return -1
+	default:
+		return -1
+	}
+}
+
+func NewEventRingBuffer(chunkSize, nchunks int) *EventRingBuffer {
+	return &EventRingBuffer{
+		chunkSize:     chunkSize,
+		maxChunkCount: nchunks,
+	}
+}
+
+type EventRingBuffer struct {
+	lk            sync.Mutex
+	chunks        []*ringChunk
+	chunkSize     int
+	maxChunkCount int
+
+	broadcast func(*events.XRPCStreamEvent)
+}
+
+type ringChunk struct {
+	lk  sync.Mutex
+	buf []*events.XRPCStreamEvent
+}
+
+func (rc *ringChunk) append(evt *events.XRPCStreamEvent) {
+	rc.lk.Lock()
+	defer rc.lk.Unlock()
+	rc.buf = append(rc.buf, evt)
+}
+
+func (rc *ringChunk) events() []*events.XRPCStreamEvent {
+	rc.lk.Lock()
+	defer rc.lk.Unlock()
+	return rc.buf
+}
+
+func (er *EventRingBuffer) Persist(ctx context.Context, evt *events.XRPCStreamEvent) error {
+	er.lk.Lock()
+	defer er.lk.Unlock()
+
+	if len(er.chunks) == 0 {
+		er.chunks = []*ringChunk{new(ringChunk)}
+	}
+
+	last := er.chunks[len(er.chunks)-1]
+	if len(last.buf) >= er.chunkSize {
+		last = new(ringChunk)
+		er.chunks = append(er.chunks, last)
+		if len(er.chunks) > er.maxChunkCount {
+			er.chunks = er.chunks[1:]
+		}
+	}
+
+	last.append(evt)
+
+	er.broadcast(evt)
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (er *EventRingBuffer) Flush(context.Context) error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (er *EventRingBuffer) Playback(ctx context.Context, since int64, cb func(*events.XRPCStreamEvent) error) error {
+	// grab a snapshot of the current chunks
+	er.lk.Lock()
+	chunks := er.chunks
+	er.lk.Unlock()
+
+	i := len(chunks) - 1
+	for ; i >= 0; i-- {
+		c := chunks[i]
+		evts := c.events()
+		if since > sequenceForEvent(evts[len(evts)-1]) {
+			i++
+			break
+		}
+	}
+
+	for _, c := range chunks[i:] {
+		var nread int
+		evts := c.events()
+		for nread < len(evts) {
+			for _, e := range evts[nread:] {
+				if since > 0 && sequenceForEvent(e) < since {
+					continue
+				}
+				since = 0
+
+				if err := cb(e); err != nil {
+					return err
+				}
+			}
+
+			// recheck evts buffer to see if more were added while we were here
+			evts = c.events()
+		}
+	}
+
+	// TODO: probably also check for if new chunks were added while we were iterating...
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (er *EventRingBuffer) SetEventBroadcaster(brc func(*events.XRPCStreamEvent)) {
+	er.broadcast = brc
+}
+
+func (er *EventRingBuffer) Shutdown(context.Context) error {
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (er *EventRingBuffer) TakeDownRepo(context.Context, models.Uid) error {
+	return nil
+}