thx Nicolas for the answer.

im still having issues getting this to work

here is my modified example

**** main i3 conf

:PROPERTIES:

:ID: f17b5518-2695-4484-a958-2fc7b8aa2479

:header-args: :tangle ~/.i3/config

:END:

mod is win key and mod1 is alt key in below config

***** General definitions

:PROPERTIES:

:ID: 97fcf6e4-a81d-4fe8-badc-6a9b48668ec2

:END:

#+BEGIN_SRC conf

# i3 general settings

#set variable names

set $mod Mod4

# Use Mouse+$mod to drag floating windows to their wanted position

floating_modifier $mod

#+END_SRC

yet when i try to tangle recursively i get:

org-babel-execute-src-block: No org-babel-execute function for conf!

is my syntax wrong?

best and thx again

Z