Understanding require.resolve.paths

I was excited to see the new require.resolve options and require.resolve.pathsin Node 8.9 as it seems to address a need I (and many others) have. But it doesn't work as I was expecting. Maybe I'm not using it right or I've misunderstood the problem that it solves.

What I want

.
├── global
│   ├── cli.js
│   └── node_modules
│       └── dep
│           └── index.js
└── local
   └── node_modules
       └── dep
           └── index.js

I want to invoke the global CLI from the local folder and have it load a dependency from the local node_modules instead of the global one.

What I get

$ node ../global/cli.js

  process.cwd()
   /Users/tamlyn/resolve/local

  require.resolve.paths(process.cwd())
   [ '/Users/tamlyn/resolve/global/node_modules',
  '/Users/tamlyn/resolve/node_modules',
  '/Users/tamlyn/node_modules',
  '/Users/node_modules',
  '/node_modules',
  '/Users/tamlyn/.node_modules',
  '/Users/tamlyn/.node_libraries',
  '/usr/local/lib/node' ]

  require.resolve.paths('../local')
   [ '/Users/tamlyn/resolve/global' ]

  require.resolve('dep', {paths: [process.cwd()]})
   /Users/tamlyn/resolve/global/node_modules/dep/index.js

  Module._nodeModulePaths(process.cwd())
   [ '/Users/tamlyn/resolve/local/node_modules',
  '/Users/tamlyn/resolve/node_modules',
  '/Users/tamlyn/node_modules',
  '/Users/node_modules',
  '/node_modules' ]

  Module._findPath('dep', Module._nodeModulePaths(process.cwd()), false)
   /Users/tamlyn/resolve/local/node_modules/dep/index.js

Try it

• Clone this repo
• cd local
• node ../global/cli.js