diff --git a/mocha.coverage.opts b/mocha.coverage.opts
deleted file mode 100644
index cfec67a99a..0000000000
--- a/mocha.coverage.opts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
---require source-map-support/register
---full-trace
---recursive
-test/test.js
diff --git a/mocha.opts b/mocha.opts
deleted file mode 100644
index 427b029758..0000000000
--- a/mocha.opts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-test/test.js
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mocharc.coverage.js b/mocharc.coverage.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4198f15f55
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mocharc.coverage.js
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+module.exports = Object.assign(
+  {},
+  require('./mocharc.js'),
+  {
+    //recursive: true, // fails
+    fullTrace: true,
+    require: [
+      'source-map-support/register',
+    ],
+  }
+);
diff --git a/mocharc.js b/mocharc.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0c6b2e5ae2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mocharc.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+module.exports = {
+  diff: true,
+  extension: ['js'],
+  package: './package.json',
+  reporter: 'spec',
+  slow: 75,
+  timeout: 2000,
+  ui: 'bdd',
+  // files to import before tests
+  file: [
+    'test/test.js',
+    //'test/setup.js',
+    //'test/helpers.js',
+    //'internal/index.js',
+  ],
+  // test files
+  //'watch-files': ['test/*/index.js'],
+};
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 36453769e6..c2c2b5a4da 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -23,10 +23,10 @@
   },
   "types": "types/runtime/index.d.ts",
   "scripts": {
-    "test": "mocha --opts mocha.opts",
+    "test": "mocha --config mocharc.js",
     "test:unit": "mocha --require sucrase/register --recursive src/**/__test__.ts",
-    "quicktest": "mocha --opts mocha.opts",
-    "precoverage": "c8 mocha --opts mocha.coverage.opts",
+    "quicktest": "mocha --config mocharc.js",
+    "precoverage": "c8 mocha --config mocharc.coverage.js",
     "coverage": "c8 report --reporter=text-lcov > coverage.lcov && c8 report --reporter=html",
     "codecov": "codecov",
     "precodecov": "npm run coverage",