diff --git a/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md b/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
index 42cd36ad59..5c7a0508b9 100644
--- a/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/NEXT_CHANGELOG.md
@@ -240,6 +240,12 @@ By [@Geal](https://github.com/Geal) in https://github.com/apollographql/router/p
 
 ## 🐛 Fixes
 
+### Fix panic when dev mode enabled with empty config file ([Issue #2182](https://github.com/apollographql/router/issues/2182))
+
+If you're running the Router with dev mode with an empty config file, it will no longer panic
+
+By [@bnjjj](https://github.com/bnjjj) in https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/2165
+
 ### fix build_docker_image.sh script when using default repo ([PR #2163](https://github.com/apollographql/router/pull/2163))
 
 Adding the `-r` flag recently broke the existing functionality to build from the default repo using `-b`. This fixes that.
diff --git a/apollo-router/src/configuration/mod.rs b/apollo-router/src/configuration/mod.rs
index 30ed5dab67..721004b4ee 100644
--- a/apollo-router/src/configuration/mod.rs
+++ b/apollo-router/src/configuration/mod.rs
@@ -217,8 +217,8 @@ impl Configuration {
         // Enable experimental_response_trace_id
         self.apollo_plugins
             .plugins
-            .get_mut("telemetry")
-            .expect("telemetry plugin must be initialized at this point")
+            .entry("telemetry")
+            .or_insert_with(|| json!({}))
             .as_object_mut()
             .expect("configuration for telemetry must be an object")
             .entry("tracing")