diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index f73f75f..cd5cf60 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@
             resolveTimeDeps = [ pkgs.bash pkgs.coreutils pkgs.file pkgs.findutils pkgs.gettext ];
           in {
             default = pkgs.mkShell {
-              buildInputs = [ pkgs.bash pkgs.resholve pkgs.bats ];
+              buildInputs = [ pkgs.bash pkgs.resholve (pkgs.bats.withLibraries (p: [ bats-require ])) ];
               RESHOLVE_PATH = "${pkgs.lib.makeBinPath resolveTimeDeps}";
               RESHOLVE_LORE = "${pkgs.binlore.collect { drvs = resolveTimeDeps; } }";
               INTERP = "${pkgs.bash}/bin/bash";
diff --git a/nixpkgs/test.nix b/nixpkgs/test.nix
index 7834d84..7799986 100644
--- a/nixpkgs/test.nix
+++ b/nixpkgs/test.nix
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 , jq
 , bash
 , bats
+, bats-require
 , libressl
 , openssl
 , python27
@@ -127,7 +128,7 @@ rec {
     '';
     doCheck = true;
     buildInputs = [ resholve ];
-    nativeCheckInputs = [ coreutils bats ];
+    nativeCheckInputs = [ coreutils (bats.withLibraries (p: [ bats-require ])) ];
     # LOGLEVEL="DEBUG";
 
     # default path
diff --git a/tests/behavior.bats b/tests/behavior.bats
index ba2b4c6..31ed3fc 100644
--- a/tests/behavior.bats
+++ b/tests/behavior.bats
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 # that try to stake out/exercise specific behavior that demonstrate and
 # codify where the boundaries of what resholve knows how to handle are.
 
+bats_load_library bats-require
 load helpers
 
 # TODO: replace w/ real test once issue is sorted
diff --git a/tests/cli.bats b/tests/cli.bats
index 24fcc88..c129a67 100644
--- a/tests/cli.bats
+++ b/tests/cli.bats
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 # it is also covered here. But not the inverse--the demo doesn't need to cover the same
 # exact ground as thoroughly as this suite.
 
+bats_load_library bats-require
 load helpers
 
 @test "invoking resholve without --interpreter prints an error" {
diff --git a/tests/demo.bash b/tests/demo.bash
index 98bfed1..95abaa6 100644
--- a/tests/demo.bash
+++ b/tests/demo.bash
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+bats_load_library bats-require
 load helpers
 
 _cols="${COLUMNS:-80}"
diff --git a/tests/helpers.bash b/tests/helpers.bash
index 4393746..687c338 100644
--- a/tests/helpers.bash
+++ b/tests/helpers.bash
@@ -11,164 +11,6 @@ teardown() {
     } > /dev/null
 }
 
-# status <num>
-_expect_status() {
-    if [[ $status != "$1" ]]; then
-        return 1
-    fi
-}
-
-# line (-)<num> equals|contains|begins|ends|!equals|!contains|!begins|!ends "value"
-# CAUTION: one gotcha; blank lines not included; you have to
-# adjust down for each one
-_expect_line() {
-    if [[ $1 -lt 0 ]]; then
-        let lineno=$1
-    else
-        # adjust to 0-index
-        let lineno=$1-1 || true # 1-0 causes let to return 1
-    fi
-
-    local line=${lines[$lineno]} kind=$2
-    case $kind in
-        equals)
-            if [[ $line == "$3" ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        contains)
-            if [[ $line == *"$3"* ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        begins)
-            if [[ $line == "$3"* ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1 to begin with:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual line:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        ends)
-            if [[ $line == *"$3" ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1 to end with:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual line:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        !equals)
-            if [[ $line != "$3" ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        !contains)
-            if [[ $line != *"$3"* ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        !begins)
-            if [[ $line != "$3"* ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1 to begin with:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual line:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-        !ends)
-            if [[ $line != *"$3" ]]; then
-                return 0
-            else
-                echo "  expected line $1 to end with:"
-                echo "     '$3'"
-                echo "  actual line:"
-                echo "     '$line'"
-                return 1
-            fi
-            ;;
-    esac
-    # shouldn't get here
-    echo "unexpected input: $@"
-    return 2
-}
-
-status() {
-    echo "_expect_status ${@@Q}"
-}
-
-line() {
-    echo "_expect_line ${@@Q}"
-}
-
-# cases are on STDIN
-# expectations in fd passed as arg 1
-require() {
-    mapfile _cases
-    mapfile _expectations < "$1"
-
-    # TODO: I'd like to print numbers by these in the TAP output, but contrary to the docs they're leaking into the pretty-print output. Worth trying after the next bats version bump.
-    # casenum=0
-    for case in "${_cases[@]}"; do
-        # ((casenum = casenum + 1))#
-        run eval "${case@E}"
-        # echo "#  ${BATS_TEST_NUMBER}-${casenum}: ${case%$'\n'}" >&3
-        printf "status: %s\n" $status
-        printf "output:\n%s" "$output"
-
-        echo ""
-        echo "expectations:"
-        echo "${_expectations[@]}"
-        for expected in "${_expectations[@]}"; do
-            echo "expected=${expected%$'\n'}"
-            eval "$expected"
-        done
-
-        # TODO: this is probably a little faster
-        # but it was only respecting the last line
-        # and my efforts to shim in errexit weren't
-        # working for some reason and it's hard to debug down under bats.
-        # if ! source "$1"; then
-
-        #     # eval "$case"
-        #     false
-        # fi
-
-    done
-}
-
 parsers() {
     cat parse_*.sh > parsed.sh
     resholve --interpreter none --path "${PKG_PARSED}:${PKG_COREUTILS}" < parsed.sh > resolved.sh
diff --git a/tests/in-file-directives.bats b/tests/in-file-directives.bats
index 649714b..0c7a003 100644
--- a/tests/in-file-directives.bats
+++ b/tests/in-file-directives.bats
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 # older version of resholve against this suite to learn how compatible it is
 # with newer versions of the format.
 
+bats_load_library bats-require
 load helpers
 
 @test "modern resholve versions reject v1 files" {