If you're on macOS you might enjoy this: https://github.com/babashka/obb There's also an #obb channel.

Can I tell bb to use a different bb.edn instead of the one in the current working directory?

@i Absolutely! since 0.7.3 this option is available as --config <.edn>

If you need to change the dir from which relative :paths are resolved, then also use --deps-root . By default the parent dir of the referred bb.edn is used.

Looks like 0.7.3 is the latest version

correct

Then I am luck on time.