diff --git a/src/tui/tui.zig b/src/tui/tui.zig
index 98251fc..b8a85e9 100644
--- a/src/tui/tui.zig
+++ b/src/tui/tui.zig
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ fn init(allocator: Allocator) !*Self {
 
     const theme = get_theme_by_name(conf.theme) orelse get_theme_by_name("dark_modern") orelse return tp.exit("unknown theme");
     conf.theme = theme.name;
+    conf.whitespace_mode = try allocator.dupe(u8, conf.whitespace_mode);
     conf.input_mode = try allocator.dupe(u8, conf.input_mode);
     conf.top_bar = try allocator.dupe(u8, conf.top_bar);
     conf.bottom_bar = try allocator.dupe(u8, conf.bottom_bar);