diff --git a/testdata/README.md b/testdata/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ff08cb1de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/README.md
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+Some of the test data in this folder contains colon characters which causes "go get" commands to fail with "invalid char ':'".
+The empty go.mod file is a workaround to prevent this error. This effectively makes this folder its own go module, so it will be
+ignored when "go get" is executed.
diff --git a/testdata/go.mod b/testdata/go.mod
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index 000000000..effa25957
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testdata/go.mod
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+// This empty go.mod file ensures that the testdata folder is not included
+// in the top-level module. This prevents issues such as unsupported characters
+// in path names.