restdocs SnippetException due to HAL "_links" elements from spring-data-rest

Seems like the _links are always going to have that self-reference back to the same entity, right?

Yes, that's right.

I may have your solution for ignoring some links in a small github sample. Especially the part:

mockMvc.perform(RestDocumentationRequestBuilders.get(beerLocation)).andExpect(status().isOk())
       .andDo(document("beer-get", links(
                linkWithRel("self").ignored(),
                linkWithRel("beerapi:beer").description("The <<beers, Beer resource>> itself"),
                linkWithRel("curies").ignored()
               ),
               responseFields(
                  fieldWithPath("name").description("The name of the tasty fresh liquid"),
                  fieldWithPath("_links").description("<<beer-links,Links>> to other resources")
               )
            ));

where I completely ignore all "generated" fields and only create a documentation entry for the domain. Your item link would be my beerapi:beer.

I really don't know what is best practice here, but I would always document as much as possible since you can use asciidoctor links (like <<beer-links,Links>>) wherever possible to reference other parts with more documentation.