diff --git a/service/cachemdw/cache.go b/service/cachemdw/cache.go
index 756ddd1..1568942 100644
--- a/service/cachemdw/cache.go
+++ b/service/cachemdw/cache.go
@@ -81,6 +81,8 @@ func IsCacheable(
 	req *decode.EVMRPCRequestEnvelope,
 ) bool {
 	// TODO: technically, we _could_ cache the "invalid request" response for `null` requests...
+	// however, doing so will may result in different than expected responses for batch requests
+	// ie. {error} response vs [{error}] (the not-list is expected)
 	if req == nil {
 		return false
 	}
diff --git a/service/middleware.go b/service/middleware.go
index 669d652..342e703 100644
--- a/service/middleware.go
+++ b/service/middleware.go
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ func (w bodySaverResponseWriter) Write(b []byte) (int, error) {
 // - routes single requests to next()
 func createDecodeRequestMiddleware(next http.HandlerFunc, batchProcessingMiddleware http.HandlerFunc, serviceLogger *logging.ServiceLogger) http.HandlerFunc {
 	return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		// capture the initial request time in order to calculate response time & latency at the end
+		requestStartTimeContext := context.WithValue(r.Context(), RequestStartTimeContextKey, time.Now())
+
 		// skip processing if there is no body content
 		if r.Body == nil {
 			serviceLogger.Trace().Msg("no data in request")
@@ -124,7 +127,7 @@ func createDecodeRequestMiddleware(next http.HandlerFunc, batchProcessingMiddlew
 			serviceLogger.Trace().
 				Any("decoded request", decodedRequest).
 				Msg("successfully decoded single EVM request")
-			singleDecodedReqContext := context.WithValue(r.Context(), DecodedRequestContextKey, decodedRequest)
+			singleDecodedReqContext := context.WithValue(requestStartTimeContext, DecodedRequestContextKey, decodedRequest)
 			next.ServeHTTP(w, r.WithContext(singleDecodedReqContext))
 			return
 		}
@@ -137,33 +140,17 @@ func createDecodeRequestMiddleware(next http.HandlerFunc, batchProcessingMiddlew
 			return
 		}
 		if len(batchRequests) == 0 {
-			// TODO: hardcode or cache error response here?
+			serviceLogger.Trace().Msg(fmt.Sprintf("request is for an empty batch: %s", rawBody))
 			next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
 			return
 		}
 
-		// TODO: Trace
 		serviceLogger.Trace().Any("batch", batchRequests).Msg("successfully decoded batch of requests")
-		batchDecodedReqContext := context.WithValue(r.Context(), DecodedBatchRequestContextKey, batchRequests)
+		batchDecodedReqContext := context.WithValue(requestStartTimeContext, DecodedBatchRequestContextKey, batchRequests)
 		batchProcessingMiddleware.ServeHTTP(w, r.WithContext(batchDecodedReqContext))
 	}
 }
 
-// createRequestLoggingMiddleware returns a handler that logs any request to stdout
-// and if able to decode the request to a known type adds it as a context key
-// To use the decoded request body, get the value from the context and then
-// use type assertion to EVMRPCRequestEnvelope. With this middleware, the request body
-// can be read once, and then accessed by all future middleware and the final
-// http handler.
-func createRequestLoggingMiddleware(h http.HandlerFunc, serviceLogger *logging.ServiceLogger) http.HandlerFunc {
-	return func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
-		requestStartTimeContext := context.WithValue(r.Context(), RequestStartTimeContextKey, time.Now())
-		h.ServeHTTP(w, r.WithContext(requestStartTimeContext))
-
-		// TODO: cleanup. is this middleware still useful? should it actually...log the request? lol
-	}
-}
-
 // create the main service middleware for
 // introspecting and transforming the original request
 // and the backend origin server(s) response(s)
diff --git a/service/service.go b/service/service.go
index d4876c1..e853a03 100644
--- a/service/service.go
+++ b/service/service.go
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ func New(ctx context.Context, config config.Config, serviceLogger *logging.Servi
 	// create an http router for registering handlers for a given route
 	mux := http.NewServeMux()
 
-	// will run after the proxy middleware handler and is
+	// AfterProxyFinalizer will run after the proxy middleware handler and is
 	// the final function called after all other middleware
 	// allowing it to access values added to the request context
 	// to do things like metric the response and cache the response
@@ -67,7 +67,10 @@ func New(ctx context.Context, config config.Config, serviceLogger *logging.Servi
 	//   - response is present in context
 	cacheAfterProxyMiddleware := serviceCache.CachingMiddleware(afterProxyFinalizer)
 
-	// create an http handler that will proxy any request to the specified URL
+	// ProxyRequestMiddleware responds to the client with
+	// - cached data if present in the context
+	// - a forwarded request to the appropriate backend
+	// Backend is decided by the Proxies configuration for a particular host.
 	proxyMiddleware := createProxyRequestMiddleware(cacheAfterProxyMiddleware, config, serviceLogger, []RequestInterceptor{}, []RequestInterceptor{})
 
 	// IsCachedMiddleware works in the following way:
@@ -76,19 +79,24 @@ func New(ctx context.Context, config config.Config, serviceLogger *logging.Servi
 	//   - if not present marks as uncached in context and forwards to next middleware
 	cacheMiddleware := serviceCache.IsCachedMiddleware(proxyMiddleware)
 
-	// TODO: docs
+	// BatchProcessingMiddleware separates a batch into multiple requests and routes each one
+	// through the single request middleware sequence.
+	// This allows the sub-requests of a batch to leverage the cache & metric recording.
+	// Expects non-zero length batch to be in the context.
 	batchMdwConfig := batchmdw.BatchMiddlewareConfig{
 		ServiceLogger:                  serviceLogger,
 		ContextKeyDecodedRequestBatch:  DecodedBatchRequestContextKey,
 		ContextKeyDecodedRequestSingle: DecodedRequestContextKey,
 	}
 	batchProcessingMiddleware := batchmdw.CreateBatchProcessingMiddleware(cacheMiddleware, &batchMdwConfig)
-	// TODO: docs
-	decodeRequestMiddleware := createDecodeRequestMiddleware(cacheMiddleware, batchProcessingMiddleware, serviceLogger)
 
-	// create an http handler that will log the request to stdout
-	// this handler will run before the proxyMiddleware handler
-	requestLoggingMiddleware := createRequestLoggingMiddleware(decodeRequestMiddleware, serviceLogger)
+	// DecodeRequestMiddleware captures the request start time & attempts to decode the request body.
+	// If successful, the decoded request is put into the request context:
+	// - if decoded as a single EVM request: it forwards it to the single request middleware sequence
+	// - if decoded as a batch EVM request: it forwards it to the batchProcessingMiddleware
+	// - if fails to decode: it passes to single request middleware sequence which will proxy the request
+	// When requests fail to decode, no context value is set.
+	decodeRequestMiddleware := createDecodeRequestMiddleware(cacheMiddleware, batchProcessingMiddleware, serviceLogger)
 
 	// register healthcheck handler that can be used during deployment and operations
 	// to determine if the service is ready to receive requests
@@ -99,7 +107,7 @@ func New(ctx context.Context, config config.Config, serviceLogger *logging.Servi
 	mux.HandleFunc("/servicecheck", createServicecheckHandler(&service))
 
 	// register middleware chain as the default handler for any request to the proxy service
-	mux.HandleFunc("/", requestLoggingMiddleware)
+	mux.HandleFunc("/", decodeRequestMiddleware)
 
 	// create an http server for the caller to start on demand with a call to ProxyService.Run()
 	server := &http.Server{