typoscript-lint looks for a file tslint.yml in the current working directory. If such a file is found, it will be merged with the tslint.dist.yml from the installation root directory.
However, a tslint.yml is not loaded unless explicitly passed via -c tslint.yml.
The README says:
However, a
tslint.ymlis not loaded unless explicitly passed via-c tslint.yml.