diff --git a/src/app/fdctl/config.h b/src/app/fdctl/config.h
index a73fccb5ea..53587691d9 100644
--- a/src/app/fdctl/config.h
+++ b/src/app/fdctl/config.h
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ typedef struct {
     char affinity[ AFFINITY_SZ ];
     char agave_affinity[ AFFINITY_SZ ];
 
+    uint agave_unified_scheduler_handler_threads;
     uint net_tile_count;
     uint quic_tile_count;
     uint resolv_tile_count;
diff --git a/src/app/fdctl/config/default.toml b/src/app/fdctl/config/default.toml
index 7e06c443ae..6ed11e0fa9 100644
--- a/src/app/fdctl/config/default.toml
+++ b/src/app/fdctl/config/default.toml
@@ -639,6 +639,23 @@ dynamic_port_range = "8900-9000"
     # determined automatically as well.
     agave_affinity = "auto"
 
+    # The number of threads to spawn for the unified scheduler.  The
+    # replay stage, which is a part of the Agave subprocess, uses these
+    # threads for transaction execution.  The threads stay within the
+    # cores dedicated to the Agave subprocess.
+    #
+    # If set to 0, the default depends on the number of cores available
+    # to the agave subprocess.
+    #
+    #          agave_cores >= 8  =>  agave_cores - 4
+    #     4 <= agave_cores <  8  =>  4
+    #          agave_cores <  4  =>  agave_cores
+    #
+    # Increasing the value for this parameter might help during the
+    # start-up phase when the validator is trying to catchup to the
+    # cluster.
+    agave_unified_scheduler_handler_threads = 0
+
     # How many net tiles to run.  Should be set to 1.  This is
     # configurable and designed to scale out for future network
     # conditions but there is no need to run more than 1 net tile given
diff --git a/src/app/fdctl/config_parse.c b/src/app/fdctl/config_parse.c
index b283ad1ab8..5079d2c458 100644
--- a/src/app/fdctl/config_parse.c
+++ b/src/app/fdctl/config_parse.c
@@ -270,6 +270,7 @@ fdctl_pod_to_cfg( config_t * config,
 
   CFG_POP      ( cstr,   layout.affinity                                  );
   CFG_POP      ( cstr,   layout.agave_affinity                            );
+  CFG_POP      ( uint,   layout.agave_unified_scheduler_handler_threads   );
   CFG_POP      ( uint,   layout.net_tile_count                            );
   CFG_POP      ( uint,   layout.quic_tile_count                           );
   CFG_POP      ( uint,   layout.resolv_tile_count                         );
diff --git a/src/app/fdctl/run/run_agave.c b/src/app/fdctl/run/run_agave.c
index 51137a5c61..61933666b8 100644
--- a/src/app/fdctl/run/run_agave.c
+++ b/src/app/fdctl/run/run_agave.c
@@ -144,6 +144,13 @@ agave_boot( config_t * config ) {
   ADDU( "--maximum-incremental-snapshots-to-retain", config->snapshots.maximum_incremental_snapshots_to_retain );
   ADDU( "--minimal-snapshot-download-speed", config->snapshots.minimum_snapshot_download_speed );
 
+  if( config->layout.agave_unified_scheduler_handler_threads ) {
+    ADDU( "--unified-scheduler-handler-threads", config->layout.agave_unified_scheduler_handler_threads );
+  } else {
+    ulong num_threads = fd_ulong_max( config->topo.agave_affinity_cnt-4UL, fd_ulong_min( config->topo.agave_affinity_cnt, 4UL ) );
+    ADDU( "--unified-scheduler-handler-threads", (uint)num_threads );
+  }
+
   argv[ idx ] = NULL;
 
   if( FD_LIKELY( strcmp( config->reporting.solana_metrics_config, "" ) ) ) {