diff --git a/.github/workflows/codespell-private.yml b/.github/workflows/codespell-private.yml
index 9a14d55169..1318451862 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/codespell-private.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/codespell-private.yml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # For general usage in your repo, see the example in codespell.yml
 # https://github.com/codespell-project/codespell
 # Concurrency cancels an action on a given PR once a new commit is pushed
-name: Test Codespell
+name: Pytest
 concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.event.number }}-${{ github.event.ref }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
@@ -23,7 +23,12 @@ jobs:
           - '3.9'
           - '3.10'
           - '3.11'
-    name: Python ${{ matrix.python-version }} test
+        no-toml:
+          - ''
+        include:
+          - python-version: '3.10'
+            no-toml: 'no-toml'
+    name: ${{ matrix.python-version }} ${{ matrix.no-toml }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
         with:
@@ -44,10 +49,14 @@ jobs:
       - run: codespell --version
       - run: make check
       - uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
-      - run: codespell --check-filenames --skip="./.git/*,*.pyc,./codespell_lib/tests/test_basic.py,./codespell_lib/data/*,./example/code.c,./build/lib/codespell_lib/tests/test_basic.py,./build/lib/codespell_lib/data/*,README.rst,*.egg-info/*,pyproject-codespell.precommit-toml"
+      # tomli should not be required for the next two steps (and make sure it's not)
+      - run: pip uninstall -yq tomli
+        if: ${{ matrix.no-toml == 'no-toml' }}
+      - run: codespell --check-filenames --skip="./.git/*,*.pyc,./codespell_lib/tests/test_basic.py,./codespell_lib/data/*,./example/code.c,./build/lib/codespell_lib/tests/test_basic.py,./build/lib/codespell_lib/data/*,README.rst,*.egg-info/*,pyproject-codespell.precommit-toml,./.mypy_cache"
       # this file has an error
       - run: "! codespell codespell_lib/tests/test_basic.py"
 
+
   make-check-dictionaries:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
diff --git a/codespell_lib/_codespell.py b/codespell_lib/_codespell.py
index 0e4209a1a5..3b79286f77 100644
--- a/codespell_lib/_codespell.py
+++ b/codespell_lib/_codespell.py
@@ -563,10 +563,12 @@ def parse_options(
                         f"tomllib or tomli are required to read pyproject.toml "
                         f"but could not be imported, got: {e}"
                     ) from None
-        for toml_file in toml_files:
-            with open(toml_file, "rb") as f:
-                data = tomllib.load(f).get("tool", {})
-            config.read_dict(data)
+                tomllib = None
+        if tomllib is not None:
+            for toml_file in toml_files:
+                with open(toml_file, "rb") as f:
+                    data = tomllib.load(f).get("tool", {})
+                config.read_dict(data)
 
     # Collect which config files are going to be used
     used_cfg_files = []