So there is no failure when the config cannot be read: (first load): https://github.com/facebook/osquery/blob/master/osquery/core/init.cpp#L600 (subsequent): https://github.com/facebook/osquery/blob/master/osquery/config/plugins/tls.cpp#L115 If you fail to get a config 3 times in a row you will wait another

FLAGS_config_tls_refresh

number of seconds before trying 3 more times