diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 72d68d7..973c726 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,3 +2,5 @@
 vignettes/*.html
 vignettes/*.md
 *.zip
+src/*.so
+src/*.o
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 4319269..aabbf17 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Description: Director is responsible for managing and loading resources in
     consecutive loads of resources (so that we can tell if a script was modified
     since we last ran it) and defining parsers that allow us to generalize from
     the pernicious simple linear execution that is common to R.
-Version: 0.2.3
+Version: 0.2.4
 Authors@R: c(person("Robert", "Krzyzanowski",
     email = "technoguyrob@gmail.com", role = c("aut", "cre")))
 Depends:
diff --git a/R/resource.R b/R/resource.R
index 7434650..af3bc2f 100644
--- a/R/resource.R
+++ b/R/resource.R
@@ -123,13 +123,13 @@ resource <- function(name, provides = list(), body = TRUE, soft = FALSE, ...,
       !isTRUE(modified) # No point in checking modifications in helpers otherwise
       
     # Touch helper files to see if they got modified.
-    helper_files <- get_helpers(resource_dir)
-    for (file in helper_files) {
-      helper <- resource(file.path(resource_key, file), body = FALSE,
-                         tracking = FALSE, check.helpers = FALSE,
-                         defining_environment = defining_environment)
-      if (tracking_is_on_and_resource_has_helpers)
-        modified <- modified || helper$modified
+    if (tracking_is_on_and_resource_has_helpers) {
+      helper_files <- get_helpers(dirname(filename), full.names = TRUE, leave_idempotent = TRUE)
+      mtime <- max(file.info(helper_files)$mtime, na.rm = TRUE)
+      if (!is.null(cached_details$info$mtime) && mtime > cached_details$info$mtime) {
+        modified <- TRUE
+        .cache[[cache_key]]$info$mtime <<- mtime
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/R/utils.r b/R/utils.r
index e777d79..a30e7f3 100644
--- a/R/utils.r
+++ b/R/utils.r
@@ -149,6 +149,9 @@ resource_cache_key <- function(resource_key) {
 #' Get all helper files associated with an idempotent resource directory.
 #'
 #' @param path character. The *absolute* path of the idempotent resource.
+#' @param ... additional parameters to pass to \code{list.files}.
+#' @param leave_idempotent logical. Whether or not to leave the
+#'   idempotent file (non-helper). By default \code{FALSE}.
 #' @return a character list of relative helper paths.
 #' @examples
 #' \dontrun{
@@ -157,11 +160,15 @@ resource_cache_key <- function(resource_key) {
 #'   # below will return \code{c("constants.R", "functions.R")}.
 #'   get_helpers("model")
 #' }
-get_helpers <- function(path) {
-  helper_files <- list.files(path, pattern = '\\.[rR]$') # TODO: (RK) Recursive helpers?
-  same_file <- which(vapply(helper_files, 
-    function(f) strip_r_extension(f) == basename(path), logical(1)))
-  helper_files <- helper_files[-same_file]
+get_helpers <- function(path, ..., leave_idempotent = FALSE) {
+  helper_files <- list.files(path, pattern = '\\.[rR]$', ...)
+  if (leave_idempotent) {
+    helper_files
+  } else {
+    same_file <- which(vapply(helper_files, 
+      function(f) basename(strip_r_extension(f)) == basename(path), logical(1)))
+    helper_files[-same_file]
+  }
 }
 
 #' Whether or not any substring of a string is any of a set of strings.
diff --git a/inst/tests/test-director_resource.R b/inst/tests/test-director_resource.R
index 005b560..15866e9 100644
--- a/inst/tests/test-director_resource.R
+++ b/inst/tests/test-director_resource.R
@@ -187,12 +187,11 @@ test_that('a sourced resource can pass args', {
 })
 
 test_that("it does not allow access to another resource file's locals", {
-  within_file_structure(list(one.R = "one <- 1; browser(); resource('two')$value()", two.R = "2"), {
+  within_file_structure(list(one.R = "one <- 1; resource('two')$value()", two.R = "2"), {
     d <- director(tempdir)
     d$register_parser("one", function(source_args, source) { 
       source_args$local$resource <- d$resource
     })
-    browser()
     expect_error(d$resource("one")$value())
   })
 })