This code https://github.com/puppetlabs/puppetlabs_spec_helper/blob/01886e8fb8c9470e74ffde39445732ce06209125/lib/puppetlabs_spec_helper/tasks/fixtures.rb#L110 prevents the use of symlinks section of the fixtures file for any other purpose than self reference for example: symlinks: peadm_spec: "#{source_dir}/spec/fixtures/modules/peadm/spec/acceptance/peadm_spec/" would mean the code above would not also include this in the fixtures symlinks: <module_name>: "#{source_dir}" It would be preferred if instead of a check and replace fixtures['symlinks'] = auto_symlink if fixtures['symlinks'].nil? that fixtures['symlinks'] wold be merged with auto_symlink to prevent loss of testing context