diff --git a/editcheck/includes/ResourceLoaderData.php b/editcheck/includes/ResourceLoaderData.php
index 2cb80026f8..912502f341 100644
--- a/editcheck/includes/ResourceLoaderData.php
+++ b/editcheck/includes/ResourceLoaderData.php
@@ -13,19 +13,6 @@ use MessageLocalizer;
 
 class ResourceLoaderData {
 
-	private const DEFAULTS = [
-		'addReference' => [
-			'minimumCharacters' => 50,
-			'beforePunctuation' => false,
-			// TODO: when we have multiple edit checks this will likely be a generic block:
-			// account: loggedin, loggedout, anything non-truthy means allow either
-			'account' => false,
-			'maximumEditcount' => 100,
-			'ignoreSections' => [],
-			'ignoreLeadSection' => false,
-		],
-	];
-
 	/**
 	 * Return configuration data for edit checks, fetched from an on-wiki JSON message
 	 *
@@ -35,6 +22,6 @@ class ResourceLoaderData {
 	public static function getConfig( MessageLocalizer $context ): array {
 		$raw_config = json_decode( $context->msg( 'editcheck-config.json' )->inContentLanguage()->plain(), true );
 
-		return array_replace_recursive( self::DEFAULTS, $raw_config ?? [] );
+		return $raw_config ?? [];
 	}
 }
diff --git a/editcheck/modules/BaseEditCheck.js b/editcheck/modules/BaseEditCheck.js
index e5d8a81a51..84da82d225 100644
--- a/editcheck/modules/BaseEditCheck.js
+++ b/editcheck/modules/BaseEditCheck.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 mw.editcheck.BaseEditCheck = function MWBaseEditCheck( config ) {
-	this.config = config;
+	this.config = ve.extendObject( {}, this.constructor.static.defaultConfig, config );
 };
 
 OO.initClass( mw.editcheck.BaseEditCheck );
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@ mw.editcheck.BaseEditCheck.static.choices = [
 	}
 ];
 
+mw.editcheck.BaseEditCheck.static.defaultConfig = {
+	account: false, // 'loggedin', 'loggedout', anything non-truthy means allow either
+	maximumEditcount: 100,
+	ignoreSections: [],
+	ignoreLeadSection: false
+};
+
 mw.editcheck.BaseEditCheck.static.description = ve.msg( 'editcheck-dialog-addref-description' );
 
 /**
diff --git a/editcheck/modules/editchecks/AddReferenceEditCheck.js b/editcheck/modules/editchecks/AddReferenceEditCheck.js
index db3ddece86..caf8828085 100644
--- a/editcheck/modules/editchecks/AddReferenceEditCheck.js
+++ b/editcheck/modules/editchecks/AddReferenceEditCheck.js
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ mw.editcheck.AddReferenceEditCheck.static.name = 'addReference';
 
 mw.editcheck.AddReferenceEditCheck.static.description = ve.msg( 'editcheck-dialog-addref-description' );
 
+mw.editcheck.AddReferenceEditCheck.static.defaultConfig = ve.extendObject( {}, mw.editcheck.BaseEditCheck.static.defaultConfig, {
+	minimumCharacters: 50,
+	beforePunctuation: false
+} );
+
 mw.editcheck.AddReferenceEditCheck.prototype.onBeforeSave = function ( surfaceModel ) {
 	return this.findAddedContent( surfaceModel.getDocument() ).map( ( range ) => {
 		const fragment = surfaceModel.getLinearFragment( range );