diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 19774dd..245a0f4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # Changelog
 
+### 5.62.0 04/03/2025
+feat: _tpl_testing_ added to the default ignore allowing a tpl to hold own test files
+
 ### 5.61.0 15/02/2025
 chore: typescript bumped to latest major and quicktype to latest minor in the 15 major range
 
diff --git a/docs/_pages/known-templates.md b/docs/_pages/known-templates.md
index b29fd2d..cb7b7d5 100644
--- a/docs/_pages/known-templates.md
+++ b/docs/_pages/known-templates.md
@@ -3,11 +3,6 @@ Below you can see the list of templates available for use with Generate-it
 - [generate-it-typescript-server](https://github.com/acr-lfr/generate-it-typescript-server)
   - All types derived from the openapi file
   - Uses the express http engine
-- [generate-it-typescript-api-test-rig](https://github.com/acr-lfr/generate-it-typescript-api-test-rig)
-  - Generates stub files to write tests for
-  - Uses jest and request promise
-  - Uses the out of the box Jest test coverage reporting
-  - Written in typescript
 - [generate-it-typescript-server-client](https://github.com/acr-lfr/generate-it-typescript-server-client)
   - A server side typescript client
 - [generate-it-asyncapi-rabbitmq](https://github.com/acr-lfr/generate-it-asyncapi-rabbitmq)
diff --git a/docs/_pages/templates.md b/docs/_pages/templates.md
index 7fefd98..272452c 100644
--- a/docs/_pages/templates.md
+++ b/docs/_pages/templates.md
@@ -68,3 +68,9 @@ NOTE: This is different to type OTHER which will always be added back if not fou
 Named: Anything, with or without .njk file extension.
 
 These files are every other file that is not one of the above special file types. They are also rendered by the templating engine unless the `renderOnlyExt` option is enabled.
+
+### Testing template files
+
+Generate-it will ignore any files in a folder called "\_tpl_testing\_". An example can be found in the https://github.com/j-d-carmichael/gen-it-ts-esm-server template.
+
+This allows the developer of the template to build and test locally before publishing.
diff --git a/package-lock.json b/package-lock.json
index 049fcaf..5fabcc4 100644
--- a/package-lock.json
+++ b/package-lock.json
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 {
   "name": "generate-it",
-  "version": "5.61.0",
+  "version": "5.62.0",
   "lockfileVersion": 3,
   "requires": true,
   "packages": {
     "": {
       "name": "generate-it",
-      "version": "5.61.0",
+      "version": "5.62.0",
       "license": "MIT",
       "dependencies": {
         "@apidevtools/json-schema-ref-parser": "^11.7.2",
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index b1a1eea..512ca1f 100755
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "generate-it",
-  "version": "5.61.0",
+  "version": "5.62.0",
   "description": "Generate-it, will generate servers, clients, web-socket and anything else you can template with nunjucks from yml files (openapi/asyncapi)",
   "author": "Acrontum GmbH & Liffery Ltd",
   "license": "MIT",
diff --git a/src/lib/helpers/__tests__/isFileToIgnore.ts b/src/lib/helpers/__tests__/isFileToIgnore.ts
index ad17dbc..4e6397c 100644
--- a/src/lib/helpers/__tests__/isFileToIgnore.ts
+++ b/src/lib/helpers/__tests__/isFileToIgnore.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ describe('Should not allow directories on black list, eg git idea vscode, even a
     expect(isFileToIgnore('som/dir/node_modules/blah', 'workspace')).toBe(true);
     expect(isFileToIgnore('som/dir/node_modules', 'workspace')).toBe(true);
     expect(isFileToIgnore('som/dir/node_modules/', 'workspace')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isFileToIgnore('som/dir/_tpl_testing_/', 'workspace')).toBe(true);
+    expect(isFileToIgnore('som/_tpl_testing_/nested/dir', 'workspace')).toBe(true);
   });
 
   it('should match exactly', () => {
diff --git a/src/lib/helpers/isFileToIgnore.ts b/src/lib/helpers/isFileToIgnore.ts
index b80fd4e..61e1797 100644
--- a/src/lib/helpers/isFileToIgnore.ts
+++ b/src/lib/helpers/isFileToIgnore.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { NodegenRc } from '@/interfaces';
 import path from 'path';
 
-const defaultIgnoreList = [`(\\.idea|\\.git|\\.vscode|node_modules|build|dist)\\b`];
+const defaultIgnoreList = [`(\\.idea|\\.git|\\.vscode|node_modules|build|dist|_tpl_testing_)\\b`];
 let ignoreList: string;
 let fullRegex: RegExp;