Loading local libraries
Okay, here is how it works, and I checked it to make sure.

Sure you can use hard paths, but every programmer hates using hard paths. They are not portable at all, and they lock your program in place. You use soft or hard links to the files in the project (look up the man pages on "ln"). But,... talk about ugly! So the question is how to do it "correctly"? The key is learning with what parameters and in what path the C/C++ compiler runs.

You will find the conclusion is NOT intuitive at all. Cutting to the chase: relative paths don't work correctly. Now, why?

But first, let me explain why anyone would want to place program files outside the project directory. Programmers like writing program classes, structs, methods, functions, macros, etc., once. As soon as the programmer solidifies the program fragment, he/she wants to put the files in a common tree and move on. Every program thereafter could use that private library. Also, by having the files in a central place, you won't have multiple copies and versions of each. One private library for many private programs.

As of 1.6.13 (Teensy does not yet support 1.8.*), relative includes start from the library, not your directory. It appears that the ano-to-C filter (remember that Arduino does a "conversion" to the target then calls the C/C++ compiler) starts where you installed your Arduino tree. In my case, I installed in "~/bin/arduino". Teensy's home is "./hardware/teensy". The entire home path for the libraries is "~/bin/arduino/hardware/teensy/avr/libraries" where you will find all the support program trees.

In a source file, the '#include "test.hpp"' statement correctly picks the file from your current directory. HOWEVER, if you use '#include "../test.hpp",' the include path does not start in your project directory. Instead it starts in "./libraries"! So the resulting path is:

#include "../test.hpp" ==&gt; ./arduino/hardware/teensy/avr/libraries/test.hpp

In conclusion there is no clean way of making your own tree of tools in  a nearby directory. The only course is to commit your work in the Arduino library and be aware of those rules as well.