When starting, i3 looks for configuration files in the following order:
-1. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)
-2. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)
-3. ~/.i3/config
-4. /etc/i3/config
+1. ~/.i3/config
+2. ~/.config/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3/config if set)
+3. /etc/i3/config
+4. /etc/xdg/i3/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3/config if set)
You can specify a custom path using the -c option.