diff --git a/packages/testlab/fixtures/README.md b/packages/testlab/fixtures/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b1296db403b3
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+++ b/packages/testlab/fixtures/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# Static fixtures
+
+This directory contains test fixture files that we want to use in verbatim and
+also files that TypeScript compiler would not copy from `src` to `dist`.
+
+For example:
+
+- text files
+- JSON files not imported by any `.ts` file
diff --git a/packages/testlab/src/__tests__/fixtures/README.md b/packages/testlab/src/__tests__/fixtures/README.md
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/packages/testlab/src/__tests__/fixtures/README.md
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+# Compiled fixtures
+
+This directory contains test fixture files that we want to compile by TypeScript
+before using in tests.