diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 1370ca03..10331fbf 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1952,7 +1952,6 @@ checksum = "8cb01cd46b0cf372153850f4c6c272d9cbea2da513e07538405148f95bd789f3"
 dependencies = [
  "atomic",
  "parking_lot",
- "pear",
  "serde",
  "tempfile",
  "toml",
@@ -2775,12 +2774,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "sqlx",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "inlinable_string"
-version = "0.1.15"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "c8fae54786f62fb2918dcfae3d568594e50eb9b5c25bf04371af6fe7516452fb"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "inout"
 version = "0.1.4"
@@ -3700,29 +3693,6 @@ version = "1.0.15"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "57c0d7b74b563b49d38dae00a0c37d4d6de9b432382b2892f0574ddcae73fd0a"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "pear"
-version = "0.2.9"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "bdeeaa00ce488657faba8ebf44ab9361f9365a97bd39ffb8a60663f57ff4b467"
-dependencies = [
- "inlinable_string",
- "pear_codegen",
- "yansi",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "pear_codegen"
-version = "0.2.9"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "4bab5b985dc082b345f812b7df84e1bef27e7207b39e448439ba8bd69c93f147"
-dependencies = [
- "proc-macro2",
- "proc-macro2-diagnostics",
- "quote",
- "syn 2.0.117",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "pem"
 version = "3.0.6"
@@ -4084,19 +4054,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-ident",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "proc-macro2-diagnostics"
-version = "0.10.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "af066a9c399a26e020ada66a034357a868728e72cd426f3adcd35f80d88d88c8"
-dependencies = [
- "proc-macro2",
- "quote",
- "syn 2.0.117",
- "version_check",
- "yansi",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "profiling"
 version = "1.0.18"
@@ -7244,12 +7201,6 @@ version = "0.6.3"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "1ffae5123b2d3fc086436f8834ae3ab053a283cfac8fe0a0b8eaae044768a4c4"
 
-[[package]]
-name = "yansi"
-version = "1.0.1"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "cfe53a6657fd280eaa890a3bc59152892ffa3e30101319d168b781ed6529b049"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "yoke"
 version = "0.8.2"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7bbd3f0c..49ec33ba 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ hex = "0.4"
 object_store = { version = "0.11", features = ["aws"] }
 axum = { version = "0.8.8", features = ["macros", "multipart"] }
 csv = "1"
-figment = { version = "0.10", features = ["toml", "env"] }
+figment = { version = "0.10", features = ["toml"] }
 
 api-types = { path = "crates/api-types" }
 domain = { path = "crates/domain" }
diff --git a/crates/config/src/loader.rs b/crates/config/src/loader.rs
index e0fc448b..250404f6 100644
--- a/crates/config/src/loader.rs
+++ b/crates/config/src/loader.rs
@@ -98,6 +98,9 @@ pub fn load() -> Result<AppConfig, ConfigError> {
 
     let figment = Figment::new().merge(Toml::file(path)).merge(LegacyEnv);
 
+    figment
+        .data()
+        .map_err(|e| ConfigError::Unreadable(Box::new(e)))?;
     if figment.find_value("database.url").is_err() {
         return Err(ConfigError::Missing("DATABASE_URL"));
     }
diff --git a/crates/config/tests/loader_test.rs b/crates/config/tests/loader_test.rs
index 88d984ad..58f8d11f 100644
--- a/crates/config/tests/loader_test.rs
+++ b/crates/config/tests/loader_test.rs
@@ -377,3 +377,15 @@ fn secure_cookies_and_image_conversion_accept_true_only() {
         Ok(())
     });
 }
+
+#[test]
+fn malformed_config_file_reports_the_file_not_a_missing_database_url() {
+    Jail::expect_with(|jail| {
+        jail_with(jail, &[]);
+        jail.create_file("config.toml", "[server\nport = = 1\n")?;
+        let err = load().expect_err("config.toml is malformed");
+        assert!(matches!(err, ConfigError::Unreadable(_)), "{err}");
+        assert!(!err.to_string().contains("DATABASE_URL"), "{err}");
+        Ok(())
+    });
+}