title: How can I make Mocha load a helper.js file that defines global hooks or utilities?
body: <p>I have a file named <code>test/helper.js</code> that I use to run Mocha tests on my Node.js apps. My tests structure looks like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>test/
  test/helper.js    # global before/after
  test/api/sometest.spec.js
  test/models/somemodel.spec.js
  ... more here
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The file <code>helper.js</code> has to be loaded because it contains global hooks for my test suite. When I run Mocha to execute the whole test suite like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mocha --recursive test/
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the <code>helper.js</code> file is loaded before my tests and my <code>before</code> hook gets executed as expected.</p>
  
  <p>However, when I run just one specific test, <code>helper.js</code> is not loaded before the test. This is how I run it:</p>
  
  <pre><code>mocha test/api/sometest.spec.js
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>No global <code>before</code> called, not even a <code>console.log('I WAS HERE');</code>.</p>
  
  <p>So how can I get Mocha to <em>always</em> load my <code>helper.js</code> file?</p>