diff --git a/src/brittle_star_project/dataclasses/PPOArgs.py b/src/brittle_star_project/dataclasses/PPOArgs.py
index edaf318..6d8b9b4 100644
--- a/src/brittle_star_project/dataclasses/PPOArgs.py
+++ b/src/brittle_star_project/dataclasses/PPOArgs.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ class PPOArgs:
     """
 
     # path to environment config file, if None, use default config
-    config_path: str | None = None
+    env_config_path: str | None = None
 
     # the name of this experiment
     exp_name: str = "brittle_star_ppo"
diff --git a/src/brittle_star_project/environment/BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.py b/src/brittle_star_project/environment/BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.py
index 259f1a5..7c86d51 100644
--- a/src/brittle_star_project/environment/BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.py
+++ b/src/brittle_star_project/environment/BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ from brittle_star_project import (
     ArenaConfig,
     Backend,
 )
-from brittle_star_project.environment import from_json
+from brittle_star_project.environment import from_file
 
 
 class BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper:
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ class BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper:
     def from_config(
         config_path: str, num_envs: int, backend: Backend = Backend.MJX
     ) -> "BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper":
-        morphology_cfg, arena_cfg, env_cfg = from_json(config_path)
+        morphology_cfg, arena_cfg, env_cfg = from_file(config_path)
         return BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper(
             morphology_cfg, arena_cfg, env_cfg, num_envs=num_envs, backend=backend
         )
diff --git a/src/brittle_star_project/environment/__init__.py b/src/brittle_star_project/environment/__init__.py
index f87eae5..aad8c35 100644
--- a/src/brittle_star_project/environment/__init__.py
+++ b/src/brittle_star_project/environment/__init__.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from .env_config import ArenaConfig, EnvConfig, MorphologyConfig, from_json
+from .env_config import ArenaConfig, EnvConfig, MorphologyConfig, from_file
 from .env_types import Backend, Task
 from .env_wrapper import BrittleStarEnv, StepResult
 from .factory import BrittleStarEnvFactory
@@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ __all__ = [
     "BrittleStarEnv",
     "StepResult",
     "BrittleStarEnvFactory",
-    "from_json",
+    "from_file",
 ]
diff --git a/src/brittle_star_project/environment/env_config.py b/src/brittle_star_project/environment/env_config.py
index 6f55f35..1420e19 100644
--- a/src/brittle_star_project/environment/env_config.py
+++ b/src/brittle_star_project/environment/env_config.py
@@ -50,10 +50,16 @@ class EnvConfig:
     light_perlin_noise_scale: int = 0
 
 
-def from_json(path: str) -> tuple[MorphologyConfig, ArenaConfig, EnvConfig]:
+def from_file(path: str) -> tuple[MorphologyConfig, ArenaConfig, EnvConfig]:
+    """Load configurations from a JSON or YAML file."""
     with open(path, "r") as f:
-        config_json = json.load(f)
-        morphology = MorphologyConfig(**config_json.get("morphology", {}))
-        arena = ArenaConfig(**config_json.get("arena", {}))
-        env = EnvConfig(**config_json.get("env", {}))
+        if path.endswith(".yaml") or path.endswith(".yml"):
+            import yaml
+            config_dict = yaml.safe_load(f)
+        else:
+            config_dict = json.load(f)
+            
+        morphology = MorphologyConfig(**config_dict.get("morphology", {}))
+        arena = ArenaConfig(**config_dict.get("arena", {}))
+        env = EnvConfig(**config_dict.get("env", {}))
         return morphology, arena, env
diff --git a/src/train.py b/src/train.py
index 3c9bdea..3995a36 100644
--- a/src/train.py
+++ b/src/train.py
@@ -31,11 +31,11 @@ def convert_obs_dict_to_array(obs_dict: dict) -> jnp.ndarray:
     )
 
 
-def make_env(config_path: str | None, num_envs: int) -> Callable:
+def make_env(env_config_path: str | None, num_envs: int) -> Callable:
     def thunk():
-        if config_path is None:
+        if env_config_path is None:
             return BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.default(num_envs=num_envs)
-        return BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.from_config(config_path, num_envs=num_envs)
+        return BrittleStarJaxEnvWrapper.from_config(env_config_path, num_envs=num_envs)
 
     return thunk
 
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ def train(args: PPOArgs):
     print(f"Running on device: {device}")
 
     print("Creating the environment...")
-    env = make_env(config_path=args.config_path, num_envs=args.num_envs)()
+    env = make_env(env_config_path=args.env_config_path, num_envs=args.num_envs)()
     print(f"Environment: {env}")
 
     episode_stats = EpisodeStatistics(