diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/configure-bundles.md b/changelog/unreleased/configure-bundles.md
index c69b9845ef..c031755561 100644
--- a/changelog/unreleased/configure-bundles.md
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/configure-bundles.md
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 Enhancement: Make the settings bundles part of the service config
 
-We added the settings bundles to the config. The default roles are still unchanged. You can now override the defaults by replacing the whole bundles list via the yaml config files. An example can be found in the Service Configuration documentation.
+We added the settings bundles to the config. The default roles are still unchanged. You can now override the defaults by replacing the whole bundles list via json config files. The config file is loaded from a specified path which can be configured with `SETTINGS_BUNDLES_PATH`.
 
 https://github.com/owncloud/ocis/pull/5589
+https://github.com/owncloud/ocis/pull/5607
diff --git a/services/settings/pkg/config/config.go b/services/settings/pkg/config/config.go
index 390c740af0..031cc7f5dc 100644
--- a/services/settings/pkg/config/config.go
+++ b/services/settings/pkg/config/config.go
@@ -22,10 +22,11 @@ type Config struct {
 
 	GRPCClientTLS *shared.GRPCClientTLS `yaml:"grpc_client_tls"`
 
-	StoreType string                `yaml:"store_type" env:"SETTINGS_STORE_TYPE" desc:"Store type configures the persistency driver. Supported values are \"metadata\" and \"filesystem\"."`
-	DataPath  string                `yaml:"data_path" env:"SETTINGS_DATA_PATH" desc:"The directory where the filesystem storage will store ocis settings. If not definied, the root directory derives from $OCIS_BASE_DATA_PATH:/settings."`
-	Metadata  Metadata              `yaml:"metadata_config"`
-	Bundles   []*settingsmsg.Bundle `yaml:"bundles"`
+	StoreType   string                `yaml:"store_type" env:"SETTINGS_STORE_TYPE" desc:"Store type configures the persistency driver. Supported values are \"metadata\" and \"filesystem\"."`
+	DataPath    string                `yaml:"data_path" env:"SETTINGS_DATA_PATH" desc:"The directory where the filesystem storage will store ocis settings. If not definied, the root directory derives from $OCIS_BASE_DATA_PATH:/settings."`
+	Metadata    Metadata              `yaml:"metadata_config"`
+	BundlesPath string                `yaml:"bundles_path" env:"SETTINGS_BUNDLES_PATH" desc:"The path to a JSON file with a list of bundles. If not definied, the default bundles will be loaded."`
+	Bundles     []*settingsmsg.Bundle `yaml:"-"`
 
 	AdminUserID string `yaml:"admin_user_id" env:"OCIS_ADMIN_USER_ID;SETTINGS_ADMIN_USER_ID" desc:"ID of the user that should receive admin privileges. Consider that the UUID can be encoded in some LDAP deployment configurations like in .ldif files. These need to be decoded beforehand."`
 
diff --git a/services/settings/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go b/services/settings/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go
index 7b0e91d70a..1c07e7005a 100644
--- a/services/settings/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go
+++ b/services/settings/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go
@@ -1,14 +1,16 @@
 package defaults
 
 import (
+	"encoding/json"
+	"os"
 	"path"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/owncloud/ocis/v2/ocis-pkg/config/defaults"
 	"github.com/owncloud/ocis/v2/ocis-pkg/shared"
-	v0 "github.com/owncloud/ocis/v2/protogen/gen/ocis/messages/settings/v0"
 	"github.com/owncloud/ocis/v2/services/settings/pkg/config"
 	rdefaults "github.com/owncloud/ocis/v2/services/settings/pkg/store/defaults"
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 )
 
 func FullDefaultConfig() *config.Config {
@@ -53,7 +55,8 @@ func DefaultConfig() *config.Config {
 			StorageAddress: "127.0.0.1:9215",
 			SystemUserIDP:  "internal",
 		},
-		Bundles: []*v0.Bundle{},
+		BundlesPath: "",
+		Bundles:     nil,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -123,12 +126,23 @@ func EnsureDefaults(cfg *config.Config) {
 }
 
 func Sanitize(cfg *config.Config) {
-	if len(cfg.Bundles) == 0 {
-		cfg.Bundles = rdefaults.GenerateBundlesDefaultRoles()
-	}
-
 	// sanitize config
 	if cfg.HTTP.Root != "/" {
 		cfg.HTTP.Root = strings.TrimSuffix(cfg.HTTP.Root, "/")
 	}
 }
+
+// LoadBundles loads setting bundles from a file or from defaults
+func LoadBundles(cfg *config.Config) error {
+	if cfg.BundlesPath != "" {
+		data, _ := os.ReadFile(cfg.BundlesPath)
+		err := json.Unmarshal(data, &cfg.Bundles)
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.Wrapf(err, "Could not load bundles from path %s", cfg.BundlesPath)
+		}
+	}
+	if len(cfg.Bundles) == 0 {
+		cfg.Bundles = rdefaults.GenerateBundlesDefaultRoles()
+	}
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/services/settings/pkg/config/parser/parse.go b/services/settings/pkg/config/parser/parse.go
index 1e9071a78a..4478629a6b 100644
--- a/services/settings/pkg/config/parser/parse.go
+++ b/services/settings/pkg/config/parser/parse.go
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ func ParseConfig(cfg *config.Config) error {
 
 	defaults.Sanitize(cfg)
 
+	if err := defaults.LoadBundles(cfg); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	return Validate(cfg)
 }