diff --git a/dask_sql/__init__.py b/dask_sql/__init__.py
index 803c753d1..b202ffccb 100644
--- a/dask_sql/__init__.py
+++ b/dask_sql/__init__.py
@@ -4,12 +4,17 @@
 
 import importlib.metadata
 
+from dask.config import set
+
 from . import config
 from .cmd import cmd_loop
 from .context import Context
 from .datacontainer import Statistics
 from .server.app import run_server
 
+# TODO: get pyarrow strings and p2p shuffle working
+set(dataframe__convert_string=False, dataframe__shuffle__method="tasks")
+
 __version__ = importlib.metadata.version(__name__)
 
 __all__ = [__version__, cmd_loop, Context, run_server, Statistics]
diff --git a/dask_sql/sql.yaml b/dask_sql/sql.yaml
index 8d2953ecc..13082a85d 100644
--- a/dask_sql/sql.yaml
+++ b/dask_sql/sql.yaml
@@ -1,9 +1,3 @@
-# TODO: get pyarrow strings and p2p shuffle working
-dataframe:
-  convert-string: False
-  shuffle:
-    method: "tasks"
-
 sql:
   aggregate:
     split_out: 1