To reproduce the issue several things need to come together: 1. Value on 2nd+ level of nestiness. 2. Value should be set via optional env var syntax `${?FOO}`. 3. There should be another config referenced with **same structure** but w/o overriding that value. 4. Env var must be unset. Please see an example for above (`url2` added for use-case example only and does not affect reproducibility): `app.conf`: ``` root { level1 { url1 = "http://default-1" url1 = ${?FOO} url2 = "http://default-2" } } include "dev.conf" ``` `dev.conf`: ``` root { level1 { url2 = "http://dev-2" } } ``` `test.py`: ``` from pyhocon import ConfigFactory print(ConfigFactory.parse_file('app.conf').get_string('root.level1.url1')) ``` Expected: `http://default-1` Actual: `None` Reproduced with `v0.3.61`, Python 3.9