diff --git a/src/openflexure_microscope_server/server.py b/src/openflexure_microscope_server/server.py
index ab84d4cf..dc261851 100644
--- a/src/openflexure_microscope_server/server.py
+++ b/src/openflexure_microscope_server/server.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ from labthings_picamera2.thing import StreamingPiCamera2
 from .things.autofocus import AutofocusThing
 from .things.camera_stage_mapping import CameraStageMapper
 from .things.system_control import SystemControlThing
+from .things.settings_manager import SettingsManager
 from .serve_static_files import add_static_files
 import openflexure_microscope_server
 
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ thing_server.add_thing(SangaboardThing(), "/stage/")
 thing_server.add_thing(AutofocusThing(), "/autofocus/")
 thing_server.add_thing(CameraStageMapper(), "/camera_stage_mapping/")
 thing_server.add_thing(SystemControlThing(), "/system_control/")
+thing_server.add_thing(SettingsManager(), "/settings/")
 try:
     add_static_files(thing_server.app)
 except RuntimeError:
diff --git a/src/openflexure_microscope_server/things/settings_manager.py b/src/openflexure_microscope_server/things/settings_manager.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d60f7ffd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/openflexure_microscope_server/things/settings_manager.py
@@ -0,0 +1,114 @@
+"""
+OpenFlexure Settings Management
+
+This module provides some settings management across the other Things, and
+for code that currently lives in clients but needs to persist settings on
+the server.
+"""
+from collections.abc import Mapping
+from typing import Any, Mapping, MutableMapping, Optional, Sequence
+from fastapi import HTTPException
+from labthings_fastapi.dependencies.metadata import ThingStates
+from labthings_fastapi.thing import Thing
+from labthings_fastapi.decorators import thing_action, thing_property
+from pydantic import BaseModel
+
+
+def recursive_update(old_dict: MutableMapping, update: Mapping):
+    """Update a dictionary recursively"""
+    for k, v in update.items():
+        if isinstance(v, Mapping):
+            if (
+                k in old_dict 
+                and isinstance(old_dict[k], MutableMapping)
+            ):
+                recursive_update(old_dict[k], v)
+            else:
+                old_dict[k] = dict(**v)
+        else:
+            old_dict[k] = v
+
+
+def nested_dict_get(data: dict, key: Sequence[str], create=False) -> Any:
+    """Index a dict-of-dicts with a sequence of strings"""
+    subdict = data
+    for k in key:
+        if k not in subdict and create:
+            subdict[k] = {}
+        subdict = subdict[k]
+    return subdict
+
+
+class SettingsManager(Thing):
+    @thing_property
+    def external_metadata(self) -> Mapping:
+        """External metadata stored in the server's settings"""
+        return self.thing_settings.get("external_metadata", {})
+    
+    @thing_action
+    def update_external_metadata(self, data: Mapping, key: Optional[str] = None) -> None:
+        """Add or replace keys in the external metadata.
+        
+        The data supplied will be merged into the existing dictionary
+        recursively, i.e. if a key exists, it will be added to rather than
+        replaced.
+
+        If a key is supplied, we will treat `data` as being relative to that
+        key, i.e. calling this action with `data={"a":1 }, key="foo/bar"` is
+        equivalent to calling it with `data={"foo": {"bar": {"a": 1}}}`.
+        """
+        metadata = self.external_metadata
+        subdict = metadata
+        # If we're operating only on a part of the dict, make sure
+        # that key exists, and find it.
+        if key:
+            subdict = nested_dict_get(subdict, key.split("/"), create=True)
+        recursive_update(subdict, data)
+        self.thing_settings["external_metadata"] = metadata
+
+    @thing_action
+    def delete_external_metadata(self, key: str) -> None:
+        """Delete a key from the stored metadata.
+        
+        The key may contain forward slashes, which are understood to separate
+        levels of the dictionary - i.e. `'a/c'` will remove the `c` key from a
+        dictionary that looks like: `{'a': {'c': 1}, 'b': {'d': 2}}`
+        """
+        metadata = self.external_metadata
+        try:
+            subdict = nested_dict_get(metadata, key.split("/")[:-1])
+            del subdict[key.split("/")[-1]]
+        except KeyError:
+            raise HTTPException(
+                status_code=404,
+                detail="The specified key '{key}' was not found"
+            )
+        self.thing_settings["external_metadata"] = metadata
+    
+    @thing_action
+    def get_things_state(self, thing_states_metadata: ThingStates) -> Mapping:
+        """Metadata summarising the current state of all Things in the server"""
+        return thing_states_metadata
+
+    @thing_property
+    def external_metadata_in_state(self) -> Sequence[str]:
+        """A list of strings that are included in the "state" metadata"""
+        return self.thing_settings.get("external_metadata_in_state", [])
+    @external_metadata_in_state.setter
+    def external_metadata_in_state(self, keys: Sequence[str]):
+        """Set the keys from external metadata that are returned in state"""
+        self.thing_settings["external_metadata_in_state"] = keys
+
+    @property
+    def thing_state(self) -> Mapping:
+        state = {}
+        metadata = self.external_metadata
+        for k in self.external_metadata_in_state:
+            try:
+                kl = k.split("/")
+                v = nested_dict_get(metadata, kl)
+                subdict = nested_dict_get(state, kl[:-1], create=True)
+                subdict[kl[-1]] = v
+            except KeyError:
+                continue
+        return state
\ No newline at end of file