Putting simplified version of 'resolve' in routes.json and modifying .eslintrc to create a convention that any variable matching ^_ (starts with _) will be excempt from the variable used check.

.eslintrc

@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@
         "linebreak-style": [2, "unix"],
         "max-len": [2, 120, 4],
         "semi": [2, "always"],
-        "strict": [2, "never"]
+        "strict": [2, "never"],
+        "no-unused-vars": [2, {"args": "after-used", "varsIgnorePattern": "^_"}]
     },
     "env": {
         "browser": true,

server/index.js

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 var compression = require('compression');
 var express = require('express');
+var _path = require('path');
 
 var handler = require('./handler');
 var log = require('./log');

server/routes.json

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
     },
     {
         "static": true,
-        "resolve": "(function(){ var path = require('path'); return(path.resolve(__dirname, '../build'));})()",
+        "resolve": "_path.resolve(__dirname, '../build')",
         "attributes": { "lastModified": true, "maxAge": "1y" },
         "_todo": " TODO: Define a specification for how each entry is used/expected to look like, given the nginx conf generator's needs and stand-alone run-time needs.  An outline of this so far: static requires resolve/attributes but could use pattern too.  ..."
     }