diff --git a/.rubocop.yml b/.rubocop.yml
index 4fffd7f3..2dbf4503 100644
--- a/.rubocop.yml
+++ b/.rubocop.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ AllCops:
   DisplayCopNames: true
   ExtraDetails: true
   DisplayStyleGuide: true
-  TargetRubyVersion: '2.6'
+  TargetRubyVersion: '2.7'
   Include:
   - "**/*.rb"
   Exclude:
diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 91a389e8..86e337ad 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ group :development do
   gem "voxpupuli-puppet-lint-plugins", '~> 5.0', require: false
   gem "facterdb", '~> 1.18',                     require: false
   gem "metadata-json-lint", '~> 3.0',            require: false
-  gem "puppetlabs_spec_helper", '~> 6.0',        require: false
   gem "rspec-puppet-facts", '~> 2.0',            require: false
   gem "codecov", '~> 0.2',                       require: false
   gem "dependency_checker", '~> 1.0.0',          require: false
@@ -41,6 +40,10 @@ group :system_tests do
   gem "puppet_litmus", '~> 1.0', require: false, platforms: [:ruby, :x64_mingw]
   gem "serverspec", '~> 2.41',   require: false
 end
+group :release_prep do
+  gem "puppet-strings", '~> 4.0',         require: false
+  gem "puppetlabs_spec_helper", '~> 7.0', require: false
+end
 
 puppet_version = ENV['PUPPET_GEM_VERSION']
 facter_version = ENV['FACTER_GEM_VERSION']
diff --git a/metadata.json b/metadata.json
index 9968540d..39072557 100644
--- a/metadata.json
+++ b/metadata.json
@@ -70,5 +70,5 @@
   ],
   "pdk-version": "3.0.0",
   "template-url": "https://github.com/puppetlabs/pdk-templates.git#main",
-  "template-ref": "heads/main-0-g9b627e8"
+  "template-ref": "heads/main-0-g01c6a19"
 }
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index ffddd1eb..12433407 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
   next unless File.exist?(f) && File.readable?(f) && File.size?(f)
 
   begin
-    default_facts.deep_merge!(YAML.safe_load(File.read(f), permitted_classes: [], permitted_symbols: [], aliases: true))
+    default_facts.merge!(YAML.safe_load(File.read(f), permitted_classes: [], permitted_symbols: [], aliases: true))
   rescue StandardError => e
     RSpec.configuration.reporter.message "WARNING: Unable to load #{f}: #{e}"
   end