diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b7383c3e..4963fdc7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ A preview of the next release can be installed from
 - [#1646](https://github.com/babashka/babashka/issues/1646): command-line-args are dropped when file exists with same name
 - [#1645](https://github.com/babashka/babashka/issues/1645): Support for clojure.lang.LongRange
 - [#1652](https://github.com/babashka/babashka/issues/1652): allow `bb.edn` to be empty
+- [#1586](https://github.com/babashka/babashka/issues/1586): warn when config file doesn't exist and `--debug` is enabled
 
 ## 1.3.186 (2023-11-02)
 
diff --git a/src/babashka/main.clj b/src/babashka/main.clj
index dff681ae..442a4eed 100644
--- a/src/babashka/main.clj
+++ b/src/babashka/main.clj
@@ -1145,14 +1145,18 @@ Use bb run --help to show this help output.
                args)
         [args opts] (parse-global-opts args)
         ;; TODO: drop jar file from opts
-        [args {:keys [jar file config merge-deps] :as opts}]
+        [args {:keys [jar file config merge-deps debug] :as opts}]
         (if-not (or (:file opts)
                     (:jar opts))
           (parse-file-opt args opts)
           [args opts])
         abs-path #(-> % io/file .getAbsolutePath)
         config (cond
-                 config (when (fs/exists? config) (abs-path config))
+                 config (if (fs/exists? config) (abs-path config)
+                            (when debug
+                              (binding [*out* *err*]
+                                (println "[babashka] WARNING: config file does not exist:" config))
+                              nil))
                  jar (some-> [jar] cp/new-loader (cp/resource "META-INF/bb.edn") .toString)
                  :else (if (and file (fs/exists? file))
                          ;; file relative to bb.edn