diff --git a/src/browser/atom-protocol-handler.coffee b/src/browser/atom-protocol-handler.coffee
index 6777a21ee..50d5298b7 100644
--- a/src/browser/atom-protocol-handler.coffee
+++ b/src/browser/atom-protocol-handler.coffee
@@ -5,8 +5,15 @@ protocol = require 'protocol'
 
 # Handles requests with 'atom' protocol.
 #
-# It's created by {AtomApplication} upon instantiation, and is used to create a
-# custom resource loader by adding the 'atom' custom protocol.
+# It's created by {AtomApplication} upon instantiation and is used to create a
+# custom resource loader for 'atom://' URLs.
+#
+# The following directories are searched in order:
+#   * ~/.atom/assets
+#   * ~/.atom/dev/packages
+#   * ~/.atom/packages
+#   * RESOURCE_PATH/node_modules
+#
 module.exports =
 class AtomProtocolHandler
   constructor: (@resourcePath) ->
@@ -22,7 +29,15 @@ class AtomProtocolHandler
   registerAtomProtocol: ->
     protocol.registerProtocol 'atom', (request) =>
       relativePath = path.normalize(request.url.substr(7))
-      for loadPath in @loadPaths
-        filePath = path.join(loadPath, relativePath)
-        break if fs.statSyncNoException(filePath).isFile?()
-      return new protocol.RequestFileJob(filePath)
+
+      if relativePath.indexOf('assets/') is 0
+        assetsPath = path.join(app.getHomeDir(), '.atom', relativePath)
+        if fs.statSyncNoException(assetsPath).isFile?()
+          filePath = assetsPath
+
+      unless filePath
+        for loadPath in @loadPaths
+          filePath = path.join(loadPath, relativePath)
+          break if fs.statSyncNoException(filePath).isFile?()
+
+      new protocol.RequestFileJob(filePath)