diff --git a/.changeset/smart-crabs-lick.md b/.changeset/smart-crabs-lick.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..05f603cfc359
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/smart-crabs-lick.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+'@sveltejs/kit': minor
+---
+
+feat: redact internal stack trace when reporting config errors
diff --git a/packages/kit/src/core/config/index.js b/packages/kit/src/core/config/index.js
index a6e37d794277..cb2a44670bfd 100644
--- a/packages/kit/src/core/config/index.js
+++ b/packages/kit/src/core/config/index.js
@@ -69,7 +69,15 @@ export async function load_config({ cwd = process.cwd() } = {}) {
 
 	const config = await import(`${url.pathToFileURL(config_file).href}?ts=${Date.now()}`);
 
-	return process_config(config.default, { cwd });
+	try {
+		return process_config(config.default, { cwd });
+	} catch (e) {
+		const error = /** @type {Error} */ (e);
+
+		// redact the stack trace — it's not helpful to users
+		error.stack = `Could not load svelte.config.js: ${error.message}\n`;
+		throw error;
+	}
 }
 
 /**