diff --git a/compiler/nim.nim b/compiler/nim.nim
index 0b69a940e529b..9af642bccbaec 100644
--- a/compiler/nim.nim
+++ b/compiler/nim.nim
@@ -85,8 +85,14 @@ proc handleCmdLine(cache: IdentCache; conf: ConfigRef) =
       if fileExists(scriptFile):
         runNimScript(cache, scriptFile, freshDefines=false, conf)
 
-    runNimScriptIfExists(getConfigDir() / "nim" / "config.nims")
-    runNimScriptIfExists(conf.projectPath / "config.nims")
+    # TODO:
+    # merge this complex logic with `loadConfigs`
+    # check whether these should be controlled via
+    # optSkipConfigFile, optSkipUserConfigFile
+    let config_nims = "config.nims"
+    runNimScriptIfExists(getSystemConfigPath(conf, config_nims))
+    runNimScriptIfExists(getUserConfigPath(config_nims))
+    runNimScriptIfExists(conf.projectPath / config_nims)
     block:
       let scriptFile = conf.projectFull.changeFileExt("nims")
       runNimScriptIfExists(scriptFile)
diff --git a/compiler/nimconf.nim b/compiler/nimconf.nim
index 1a8a0acb5bcb0..d26ed5deb6ea2 100644
--- a/compiler/nimconf.nim
+++ b/compiler/nimconf.nim
@@ -219,10 +219,10 @@ proc readConfigFile(
     closeLexer(L)
     return true
 
-proc getUserConfigPath(filename: string): string =
+proc getUserConfigPath*(filename: string): string =
   result = joinPath([getConfigDir(), "nim", filename])
 
-proc getSystemConfigPath(conf: ConfigRef; filename: string): string =
+proc getSystemConfigPath*(conf: ConfigRef; filename: string): string =
   # try standard configuration file (installation did not distribute files
   # the UNIX way)
   let p = getPrefixDir(conf)