The simple answer is that you aren't doing anything wrong. Per a little research, the require function looks for one of:

• a core module such as fs


• a relative filepath that you specify in your require call


• a directory search for the appropriately named module in a node_modules folder somewhere in a parent directory of the file in which the require function is called.

See: http://www.bennadel.com/blog/2169-Where-Does-Node-js-And-Require-Look-For-Modules-.htm
And: http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#loading_from_node_modules_Folders

Both resources above reference the ability to also modify a NODE_PATH environment variable, however this sounds like very bad practice and at a minimum would make your code way less portable. It also probably wouldn't even work for a file like config.json since, though I'd never done it, I'd imagine changing the NODE_PATH variable only changes where require() looks for package.json files corresponding to real modules.

In summary, see: How to make the require in node.js to be always relative to the root folder of the project? as referenced above by Piotr Kowalczuk. Per that post, you have two real options:

1. Use relative file paths.


2. Package up your desired resource as a real module with a package.json file and drop it into the node_modules folder.

Finally, just bear in mind that what you are trying to do goes against the grain of the program that you are using. I think this is one case where you will ultimately make your life easier (and your collaborators'!) by going with the grain of Node and using relative file paths as the design intends.