diff --git a/go/cmd/dolt/commands/sqlserver/yaml_config.go b/go/cmd/dolt/commands/sqlserver/yaml_config.go
index 86d10ae395..c5d7c6db61 100644
--- a/go/cmd/dolt/commands/sqlserver/yaml_config.go
+++ b/go/cmd/dolt/commands/sqlserver/yaml_config.go
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ type ListenerYAMLConfig struct {
 	// AllowCleartextPasswords enables use of cleartext passwords.
 	AllowCleartextPasswords *bool `yaml:"allow_cleartext_passwords"`
 	// Socket is unix socket file path
-	Socket *string `yaml:"socket"`
+	Socket *string `yaml:"socket,omitempty"`
 }
 
 // PerformanceYAMLConfig contains configuration parameters for performance tweaking
@@ -129,24 +129,24 @@ type UserSessionVars struct {
 
 // YAMLConfig is a ServerConfig implementation which is read from a yaml file
 type YAMLConfig struct {
-	LogLevelStr       *string               `yaml:"log_level"`
-	MaxQueryLenInLogs *int                  `yaml:"max_logged_query_len"`
-	EncodeLoggedQuery *bool                 `yaml:"encode_logged_query"`
+	LogLevelStr       *string               `yaml:"log_level,omitempty"`
+	MaxQueryLenInLogs *int                  `yaml:"max_logged_query_len,omitempty"`
+	EncodeLoggedQuery *bool                 `yaml:"encode_logged_query,omitempty"`
 	BehaviorConfig    BehaviorYAMLConfig    `yaml:"behavior"`
 	UserConfig        UserYAMLConfig        `yaml:"user"`
 	ListenerConfig    ListenerYAMLConfig    `yaml:"listener"`
 	DatabaseConfig    []DatabaseYAMLConfig  `yaml:"databases"`
 	PerformanceConfig PerformanceYAMLConfig `yaml:"performance"`
-	DataDirStr        *string               `yaml:"data_dir"`
-	CfgDirStr         *string               `yaml:"cfg_dir"`
+	DataDirStr        *string               `yaml:"data_dir,omitempty"`
+	CfgDirStr         *string               `yaml:"cfg_dir,omitempty"`
 	MetricsConfig     MetricsYAMLConfig     `yaml:"metrics"`
 	RemotesapiConfig  RemotesapiYAMLConfig  `yaml:"remotesapi"`
-	ClusterCfg        *ClusterYAMLConfig    `yaml:"cluster"`
-	PrivilegeFile     *string               `yaml:"privilege_file"`
-	BranchControlFile *string               `yaml:"branch_control_file"`
+	ClusterCfg        *ClusterYAMLConfig    `yaml:"cluster,omitempty"`
+	PrivilegeFile     *string               `yaml:"privilege_file,omitempty"`
+	BranchControlFile *string               `yaml:"branch_control_file,omitempty"`
 	Vars              []UserSessionVars     `yaml:"user_session_vars"`
 	Jwks              []engine.JwksConfig   `yaml:"jwks"`
-	GoldenMysqlConn   *string               `yaml:"golden_mysql_conn"`
+	GoldenMysqlConn   *string               `yaml:"golden_mysql_conn,omitempty"`
 }
 
 var _ ServerConfig = YAMLConfig{}