A resource loader provides resource lookup and redirection to computer software applications. The resource loader allows applications to be written using relative Uniform Resource Identifier ("URI") rather than hard-coded URI that includes a protocol identified at the beginning of the URI and further indicates the location of the resource in a fully qualified path. During execution, applications may initiate execution of the resource loader that in turn locates and returns the resource to the application. In this way, applications may be written that are agnostic as to how their resources are packaged. That is, a change of resource packaging does not necessitate a re-write of the application source code. In some cases, the resource loader may be accessed by one or more applications through an Application Program Interface (API) provided by the resource loader. The applications may also pass a resource identifier for the desired resource to the resource loader.