diff --git a/smartassist/src/startservices.py b/smartassist/src/startservices.py
index f9ad800..1d64643 100644
--- a/smartassist/src/startservices.py
+++ b/smartassist/src/startservices.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ def configure():
             return value
 
     def update_dict_with_env_vars(d): # Check all keys in d
-        for key in d: # Iterate over all keys in the dictionary. The keys seen are all at the same level
+        for key in d: # Iterate over all keys in the dictionary. The keys seen are all at the top-level of d
             logger.info(f"key investigated now: {key}")
             d[key] = update_value(d[key])
         return d
@@ -62,19 +62,29 @@ def configure():
     # Extract and export backend API
     # endpoint as global state variable
     ####################################
-    if isinstance(updated_config.get('backend'), dict): # Look for 'backend' key
-        if isinstance(updated_config['backend'].get('url'), str): # Look for 'url' key
-            url = updated_config['backend'].get('url')
-            if isinstance(updated_config['backend'].get('api'), str): # Look for 'api' key
-                api = updated_config['backend'].get('api')
-                # backend_api_ep = url+api # Extract API endpoint if defined
-                logger.debug(f"Constructing endpoint address as url+api: {url+api}")
-                global_state.set_backend_api_ep(url+api) # Extract API endpoint if defined and set in global_state 
-                logger.debug(f"Backend API endpoint is set to {global_state.get_backend_api_ep()}")
+    # if isinstance(updated_config.get('backend'), dict): # Look for 'backend' key
+    #     if isinstance(updated_config['backend'].get('url'), str): # Look for 'url' key
+    #         url = updated_config['backend'].get('url')
+    #         if isinstance(updated_config['backend'].get('api'), str): # Look for 'api' key
+    #             api = updated_config['backend'].get('api')
+    #             # backend_api_ep = url+api # Extract API endpoint if defined
+    #             logger.debug(f"Constructing endpoint address as url+api: {url+api}")
+    #             global_state.set_backend_api_ep(url+api) # Extract API endpoint if defined and set in global_state 
+    #             logger.debug(f"Backend API endpoint is set to {global_state.get_backend_api_ep()}")
 
     ####################################
     # Extract models (server url, api_key, model, et cetera)
     ####################################
+    if isinstance(updated_config.get('backend'),dict): # Extract backend info from dictionary
+        global_state.set_backend(backend=updated_config.get('backend'))
+        logger.debug("backend = \n{}".format(json.dumps(global_state.get_backend(), indent=4)))
+        logger.debug(f"Backend API endpoint is set to: {global_state.get_backend_api_ep()}")
+
+    if isinstance(updated_config.get('models'),list): # Extract info on model, url, provider et cetera from list
+        global_state.set_models(models=updated_config.get('models'))
+        logger.debug("models = \n{}".format(json.dumps(global_state.get_models(), indent=4)))
+
+    # TODO: Remove this section when not needed anymore
     if isinstance(updated_config.get('ollama'), dict): # Look for 'ollama' key
         if isinstance(updated_config['ollama'].get('model'), str): # Look for 'model' key
             model_to_use = updated_config['ollama'].get('model')
@@ -121,7 +131,6 @@ def start_backend(config):
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     conf = configure() # Read config from file and set up config dict
-    logger.debug('conf dictionary set to {}'.format(json.dumps(conf, indent=4)))
+    logger.debug('conf dictionary set to \n{}'.format(json.dumps(conf, indent=4)))
     # start_frontend(config=conf) # Not needed as we are using Flask for backend now
     start_backend(config=conf)
-