diff --git a/fetch_posts.py b/fetch_posts.py
index ba41d71..29c0391 100755
--- a/fetch_posts.py
+++ b/fetch_posts.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class PostFetcher:
 				raise_for_status=True,
 			),
 		)
-		self._db = await stack.enter_async_context(aiosqlite.connect(self.config.get('db_path', 'posts.db')))
+		self._db = await stack.enter_async_context(aiosqlite.connect(self.config['db_path']))
 		self._db.row_factory = aiosqlite.Row
 		self._ctx_stack = stack
 		return self
diff --git a/generators/markov.py b/generators/markov.py
index ae7e76f..bea9268 100644
--- a/generators/markov.py
+++ b/generators/markov.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ def make_sentence(cfg):
 		def test_sentence_input(self, sentence):
 			return True  # all sentences are valid <3
 
-	db = sqlite3.connect(cfg.get("db_path", "posts.db"))
+	db = sqlite3.connect(cfg["db_path"])
 	db.text_factory = str
 	c = db.cursor()
 	if cfg['learn_from_cw']:
diff --git a/third_party/utils.py b/third_party/utils.py
index f36afb3..1eac5f3 100644
--- a/third_party/utils.py
+++ b/third_party/utils.py
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ def load_config(cfg_path):
 		sys.exit(1)
 
 	cfg['generation_mode'] = TextGenerationMode.__members__[cfg['generation_mode']]
+	cfg.setdefault('db_path', 'posts.db')
 
 	return cfg