diff --git a/modules/home/config.nix b/modules/home/config.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3a0b70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/home/config.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+{
+  config,
+  inputs,
+  lib,
+  ...
+}: {
+  options.modules.home.config = lib.mkOption {
+    type = with lib.types; attrsOf path;
+    default = {};
+    description = ''
+      Files and directories to expose under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME as
+      out-of-store symlinks pointing at the live source tree in
+      ~/.nix.
+
+      This lets tools that prefer to manage their own config (Emacs,
+      Helix, etc.) edit their config files in place without needing a
+      home-manager rebuild between changes, while still letting Nix
+      catch missing source files at eval time.
+
+      Keys are paths relative to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Values are Nix
+      paths into this repo (e.g. `./emacs/init.el`).
+    '';
+    example = lib.literalExpression ''
+      {
+        "emacs/init.el" = ./emacs/init.el;
+        "emacs/lisp" = ./emacs/lisp;
+      }
+    '';
+  };
+
+  config = let
+    cfg = config.modules.home.config;
+    repoRoot = "${config.home.homeDirectory}/.nix";
+
+    # Under flakes, a path literal like `./init.el` evaluates to a
+    # store path (the source tree gets copied to /nix/store/HASH-source/).
+    # We strip that prefix and re-anchor at the live repo so the symlink
+    # points at the editable file, not the immutable store copy.
+    storePrefix = "${inputs.self}/";
+    mkLivePath = path: let
+      pathStr = toString path;
+    in
+      if lib.hasPrefix storePrefix pathStr
+      then "${repoRoot}/${lib.removePrefix storePrefix pathStr}"
+      else pathStr;
+  in {
+    xdg.configFile =
+      lib.mapAttrs (_: path: {
+        source = config.lib.file.mkOutOfStoreSymlink (mkLivePath path);
+      })
+      cfg;
+  };
+}
diff --git a/modules/home/default.nix b/modules/home/default.nix
index 768366e..2542417 100644
--- a/modules/home/default.nix
+++ b/modules/home/default.nix
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
     ./carapace.nix
     ./claude-code.nix
     ./cli-common.nix
+    ./config.nix
     ./datagrip.nix
     ./discord.nix
     ./docker.nix