diff --git a/config.go b/config.go
index 9167b17..f110ace 100644
--- a/config.go
+++ b/config.go
@@ -13,35 +13,34 @@ import (
 )
 
 // write to ~/.config/forge/ unless ENV{FORGE_REPOSDIR} is set
-func (all *Repos) ConfigSave() error {
-	if os.Getenv("FORGE_REPOSDIR") == "" {
-		homeDir, _ := os.UserHomeDir()
-		fullpath := filepath.Join(homeDir, ".config/forge")
-		os.Setenv("FORGE_REPOSDIR", fullpath)
-	}
+func (all *Repos) ConfigSave(fname string) error {
 	if all == nil {
-		log.Warn("gitpb all == nil")
-		return errors.New("gitpb.ConfigSave() all == nil")
+		log.Warn("gitpb repos == nil")
+		return errors.New("gitpb.ConfigSave() repos == nil")
 	}
 
 	data, err := all.Marshal()
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Info("gitpb proto.Marshal() failed len", len(data), err)
 		// often this is because strings have invalid UTF-8. This should probably be fixed in the protobuf code
+		// this might be fixed in the create code, but it can't hurt to try this as a last ditch effort here
+		log.Info("gitpb.ConfigSave() ATTEMPTING TO VALIDATE UTF-8 strings in the protobuf file")
 		if err := all.tryValidate(); err != nil {
+			log.Info("gitpb.ConfigSave() STILL FAILEd", err)
 			return err
 		} else {
 			// re-attempt Marshal() here
 			data, err = all.Marshal()
 			if err == nil {
 				// validate & sanitize strings worked
-				configWrite("repos.pb", data)
+				configWrite(fname, data)
 				return nil
 			}
+			log.Info("gitpb.ConfigSave() STILL FAILEd", err)
 		}
 		return err
 	}
-	configWrite("repos.pb", data)
+	configWrite(fname, data)
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -172,9 +171,7 @@ func loadFile(fullname string) ([]byte, error) {
 	return data, nil
 }
 
-func configWrite(filename string, data []byte) error {
-	fullname := filepath.Join(os.Getenv("FORGE_REPOSDIR"), filename)
-
+func configWrite(fullname string, data []byte) error {
 	log.Infof("%s your repos have changed state. cached state. (%d) bytes\n", fullname, len(data))
 	cfgfile, err := os.OpenFile(fullname, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREATE|os.O_TRUNC, 0644)
 	defer cfgfile.Close()
@@ -182,16 +179,6 @@ func configWrite(filename string, data []byte) error {
 		log.Warn("open config file :", err)
 		return err
 	}
-	if filename == "forge.text" {
-		// add header
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("# this file is automatically re-generated from forge.pb, however,\n"))
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("# if you want to edit it by hand, you can:\n"))
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("# stop forge; remove forge.pb; edit forge.text; start forge\n"))
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("# this will cause the default behavior to fallback to parsing this file for the config\n"))
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("\n"))
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("# this file is intended to be used to customize settings on what\n"))
-		cfgfile.Write([]byte("# git repos you have write access to. That is, where you can run 'git push'\n"))
-	}
 	cfgfile.Write(data)
 	return nil
 }