diff --git a/src/client/index.ts b/src/client/index.ts
index 2140955..fdbc682 100644
--- a/src/client/index.ts
+++ b/src/client/index.ts
@@ -25,6 +25,15 @@ export type StreamWriter<A extends GenericActionCtx<GenericDataModel>> = (
   chunkAppender: ChunkAppender,
 ) => Promise<void>;
 
+export interface PersistentTextStreamingOptions {
+  /**
+   * How long (in ms) a stream may be idle before the cleanup cron marks
+   * it as timed-out.  Set to `null` to disable expiration entirely.
+   * When omitted the component defaults to 20 minutes.
+   */
+  expirationMs?: number | null;
+}
+
 // TODO -- make more flexible. # of bytes, etc?
 const hasDelimeter = (text: string) => {
   return text.includes(".") || text.includes("!") || text.includes("?");
@@ -32,11 +41,30 @@ const hasDelimeter = (text: string) => {
 
 // TODO -- some sort of wrapper with easy ergonomics for working with LLMs?
 export class PersistentTextStreaming {
+  private _configured = false;
+
   constructor(
     public component: UseApi<typeof api>,
-    public options?: object,
+    public options?: PersistentTextStreamingOptions,
   ) {}
 
+  /**
+   * Persist the expiration configuration into the component's database.
+   * This only needs to be called once (the setting is durable), but is
+   * safe to call repeatedly — it upserts a singleton config document.
+   *
+   * If `options.expirationMs` was provided to the constructor this is
+   * called automatically on the first `createStream` invocation.
+   */
+  async configure(ctx: RunMutationCtx): Promise<void> {
+    const expirationMs = this.options?.expirationMs;
+    if (expirationMs === undefined) return;
+    await ctx.runMutation(this.component.lib.configure, {
+      expirationMs,
+    });
+    this._configured = true;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Create a new stream. This will return a stream ID that can be used
    * in an HTTP action to stream data back out to the client while also
@@ -56,6 +84,9 @@ export class PersistentTextStreaming {
    */
 
   async createStream(ctx: RunMutationCtx): Promise<StreamId> {
+    if (!this._configured && this.options?.expirationMs !== undefined) {
+      await this.configure(ctx);
+    }
     const id = await ctx.runMutation(this.component.lib.createStream);
     return id as StreamId;
   }
diff --git a/src/component/lib.ts b/src/component/lib.ts
index cc01906..6530dc4 100644
--- a/src/component/lib.ts
+++ b/src/component/lib.ts
@@ -27,22 +27,22 @@ export const addChunk = mutation({
     if (!stream) {
       throw new Error("Stream not found");
     }
+    const patch: Record<string, unknown> = {
+      lastActivityTime: Date.now(),
+    };
     if (stream.status === "pending") {
-      await ctx.db.patch(args.streamId, {
-        status: "streaming",
-      });
+      patch.status = "streaming";
     } else if (stream.status !== "streaming") {
       throw new Error("Stream is not streaming; did it timeout?");
     }
+    if (args.final) {
+      patch.status = "done";
+    }
+    await ctx.db.patch(args.streamId, patch);
     await ctx.db.insert("chunks", {
       streamId: args.streamId,
       text: args.text,
     });
-    if (args.final) {
-      await ctx.db.patch(args.streamId, {
-        status: "done",
-      });
-    }
   },
 });
 
@@ -119,14 +119,45 @@ export const getStreamText = query({
   },
 });
 
-const EXPIRATION_TIME = 20 * 60 * 1000; // 20 minutes in milliseconds
+// Configure stream expiration behavior.
+// expirationMs: number of milliseconds of inactivity before a stream is
+// timed out. Set to null to disable expiration entirely.
+export const configure = mutation({
+  args: {
+    expirationMs: v.union(v.number(), v.null()),
+  },
+  handler: async (ctx, args) => {
+    const existing = await ctx.db.query("streamConfig").first();
+    if (existing) {
+      await ctx.db.patch(existing._id, {
+        expirationMs: args.expirationMs,
+      });
+    } else {
+      await ctx.db.insert("streamConfig", {
+        expirationMs: args.expirationMs,
+      });
+    }
+  },
+});
+
+const DEFAULT_EXPIRATION_TIME = 20 * 60 * 1000; // 20 minutes in milliseconds
 const BATCH_SIZE = 100;
 
-// If the last chunk of a stream was added more than 20 minutes ago,
-// set the stream to timeout. The action feeding it has to be dead.
+// Clean up streams that have been inactive longer than the configured
+// expiration. Uses lastActivityTime (falling back to _creationTime for
+// streams created before this field existed). Skipped entirely when
+// expiration is configured as null.
 export const cleanupExpiredStreams = internalMutation({
   args: {},
   handler: async (ctx) => {
+    const config = await ctx.db.query("streamConfig").first();
+    const expirationMs = config?.expirationMs;
+
+    if (expirationMs === null) return;
+
+    const effectiveExpiration =
+      typeof expirationMs === "number" ? expirationMs : DEFAULT_EXPIRATION_TIME;
+
     const now = Date.now();
     const pendingStreams = await ctx.db
       .query("streams")
@@ -138,7 +169,9 @@ export const cleanupExpiredStreams = internalMutation({
       .take(BATCH_SIZE);
 
     for (const stream of [...pendingStreams, ...streamingStreams]) {
-      if (now - stream._creationTime > EXPIRATION_TIME) {
+      const lastActive =
+        (stream as any).lastActivityTime ?? stream._creationTime;
+      if (now - lastActive > effectiveExpiration) {
         console.log("Cleaning up expired stream", stream._id);
         await ctx.db.patch(stream._id, {
           status: "timeout",
diff --git a/src/component/schema.ts b/src/component/schema.ts
index d7435fc..2d2cc8f 100644
--- a/src/component/schema.ts
+++ b/src/component/schema.ts
@@ -13,9 +13,13 @@ export type StreamStatus = Infer<typeof streamStatusValidator>;
 export default defineSchema({
   streams: defineTable({
     status: streamStatusValidator,
+    lastActivityTime: v.optional(v.number()),
   }).index("byStatus", ["status"]),
   chunks: defineTable({
     streamId: v.id("streams"),
     text: v.string(),
   }).index("byStream", ["streamId"]),
+  streamConfig: defineTable({
+    expirationMs: v.optional(v.union(v.number(), v.null())),
+  }),
 });