diff --git a/docs/dev/protocol-extensions.md b/docs/dev/protocol-extensions.md
index 912cf1c68f..f3762ff534 100644
--- a/docs/dev/protocol-extensions.md
+++ b/docs/dev/protocol-extensions.md
@@ -74,6 +74,8 @@ The keys and values are:
     as an indicator to which shard client wants to connect. The desired shard number
     is calculated as: `desired_shard_no = client_port % SCYLLA_NR_SHARDS`.
     Its value is a decimal representation of type `uint16_t`, by default `19142`.
+  - `CLIENT_OPTIONS` is a string containing a JSON object representation that
+    contains CQL Driver configuration, e.g. load balancing policy, retry policy, timeouts, etc.
 
 Currently, one `SCYLLA_SHARDING_ALGORITHM` is defined,
 `biased-token-round-robin`. To apply the algorithm,
diff --git a/transport/server.cc b/transport/server.cc
index 89f70e6702..a42b058e02 100644
--- a/transport/server.cc
+++ b/transport/server.cc
@@ -1653,6 +1653,9 @@ std::unique_ptr<cql_server::response> cql_server::connection::make_supported(int
     opts.insert({"CQL_VERSION", cql3::query_processor::CQL_VERSION});
     opts.insert({"COMPRESSION", "lz4"});
     opts.insert({"COMPRESSION", "snappy"});
+    // CLIENT_OPTIONS value is a JSON string that can be used to pass client-specific configuration,
+    // e.g. CQL driver configuration.
+    opts.insert({"CLIENT_OPTIONS", ""});
     if (_server._config.allow_shard_aware_drivers) {
         opts.insert({"SCYLLA_SHARD", format("{:d}", this_shard_id())});
         opts.insert({"SCYLLA_NR_SHARDS", format("{:d}", smp::count)});