diff --git a/playground/slicemachine.config.json b/playground/slicemachine.config.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2aed13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/playground/slicemachine.config.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+	"foo": "bar"
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/devtools/index.ts b/src/devtools/index.ts
index 5d6a6d6..976af18 100644
--- a/src/devtools/index.ts
+++ b/src/devtools/index.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { existsSync } from 'node:fs'
+import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises'
 
 import { extendServerRpc, onDevToolsInitialized, startSubprocess } from '@nuxt/devtools-kit'
 import type { Resolver } from '@nuxt/kit'
@@ -71,7 +72,7 @@ export const setupDevToolsUI = (nuxt: Nuxt, resolver: Resolver) => {
 					const configPath = resolve(nuxt.options.rootDir, 'slicemachine.config.json')
 
 					if (existsSync(configPath)) {
-						return await import(configPath)
+						return JSON.parse(await readFile(configPath, 'utf-8'))
 					}
 
 					return null