I'm guessing the current behavior for require is to bubble up the directory structure and look for "node_packages".

So resolving things at runtime is already happening.

I agree using package.json at runtime is not the best solution though.

A way to keep things clean and avoid using package.json is to use symlinks instead of downloading a fresh copy, which would make putting everything at the top level a possibility.

I'm sure that option was considered, but I'm curious about why it was not taken.

I suppose I should look at the discussion notes. Hope I'll remember to do that when I'm home!