diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8125974f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "test_elasticsearch/rest-api-spec"]
+	path = test_elasticsearch/rest-api-spec
+	url = https://github.com/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-rest-api-spec.git
diff --git a/test_elasticsearch/rest-api-spec b/test_elasticsearch/rest-api-spec
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..f4a65cf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_elasticsearch/rest-api-spec
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit f4a65cf008c2a7037e24891555dfca3f9c55c03e
diff --git a/test_elasticsearch/test_server/test_common.py b/test_elasticsearch/test_server/test_common.py
index 1afb6a14..55a3f5e0 100644
--- a/test_elasticsearch/test_server/test_common.py
+++ b/test_elasticsearch/test_server/test_common.py
@@ -188,8 +188,8 @@ YAML_DIR = environ.get(
     'YAML_TEST_DIR',
     join(
         dirname(__file__),
-        pardir, pardir, pardir,
-        'elasticsearch-rest-api-spec', 'test'
+        pardir, 
+        'rest-api-spec', 'test'
     )
 )
 
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 5d7ec177..78d20463 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 [tox]
 envlist = pypy,py26,py27,py33
 [testenv]
+whitelist_externals = git
 setenv =
     NOSE_XUNIT_FILE = junit-{envname}.xml
-commands = python setup.py test
+commands =
+    git submodule init
+    python setup.py test