diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/__fixtures__/docker-compose.3-tags.yml b/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/__fixtures__/docker-compose.3-tags.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..dcf8cd77ffa3527
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/__fixtures__/docker-compose.3-tags.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+services:
+  web:
+    image: node:20.0.0
+    build:
+      context: '.'
+      dockerfile: 'Dockerfile'
+    ports:
+      - "80:8000"
+
+  worker:
+    extends:
+      service: web
+    build: !reset null
+    ports: !override
+      - "443:8000"
+
+  db:
+    image: "postgres:9.4.0"
+    volumes:
+      - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
+    networks:
+      - backend
+    deploy:
+      placement:
+        constraints: [node.role == manager]
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/extract.spec.ts b/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/extract.spec.ts
index b9436050d88ae17..ca4f45a06339fe6 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/extract.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/docker-compose/extract.spec.ts
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ const yamlFile1 = Fixtures.get('docker-compose.1.yml');
 const yamlFile3 = Fixtures.get('docker-compose.3.yml');
 const yamlFile3NoVersion = Fixtures.get('docker-compose.3-no-version.yml');
 const yamlFile3DefaultValue = Fixtures.get('docker-compose.3-default-val.yml');
+const yamlFile3WithTags = Fixtures.get('docker-compose.3-tags.yml');
 
 describe('modules/manager/docker-compose/extract', () => {
   describe('extractPackageFile()', () => {
@@ -56,6 +57,23 @@ describe('modules/manager/docker-compose/extract', () => {
       expect(res?.deps).toHaveLength(1);
     });
 
+    it('extracts can parse yaml tags for version 3', () => {
+      const res = extractPackageFile(yamlFile3WithTags, '', {});
+      expect(res?.deps).toMatchInlineSnapshot(`
+        [
+          {
+            "autoReplaceStringTemplate": "{{depName}}{{#if newValue}}:{{newValue}}{{/if}}{{#if newDigest}}@{{newDigest}}{{/if}}",
+            "currentDigest": undefined,
+            "currentValue": "9.4.0",
+            "datasource": "docker",
+            "depName": "postgres",
+            "replaceString": "postgres:9.4.0",
+          },
+        ]
+      `);
+      expect(res?.deps).toHaveLength(1);
+    });
+
     it('extracts image and replaces registry', () => {
       const compose = codeBlock`
         version: "3"
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci-include/extract.ts b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci-include/extract.ts
index 9de7408d4a4ed52..8e7303a09caaae1 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci-include/extract.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci-include/extract.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ import type {
   GitlabIncludeProject,
   GitlabPipeline,
 } from '../gitlabci/types';
-import { replaceReferenceTags } from '../gitlabci/utils';
 import type { PackageDependency, PackageFileContent } from '../types';
 
 function extractDepFromIncludeFile(
@@ -72,7 +71,7 @@ export function extractPackageFile(
   const endpoint = GlobalConfig.get('endpoint');
   try {
     // TODO: use schema (#9610)
-    const doc = parseSingleYaml<GitlabPipeline>(replaceReferenceTags(content));
+    const doc = parseSingleYaml<GitlabPipeline>(content);
     const includes = getAllIncludeProjects(doc);
     for (const includeObj of includes) {
       const dep = extractDepFromIncludeFile(includeObj);
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/common.spec.ts b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/common.spec.ts
index 9c491ef848f968a..5f55bcdb4b83ec7 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/common.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/common.spec.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 import { codeBlock } from 'common-tags';
 import { parseSingleYaml } from '../../../util/yaml';
 import type { GitlabPipeline } from '../gitlabci/types';
-import { replaceReferenceTags } from '../gitlabci/utils';
 import {
   filterIncludeFromGitlabPipeline,
   isGitlabIncludeComponent,
@@ -12,7 +11,7 @@ import {
 
 // TODO: use schema (#9610)
 const pipeline = parseSingleYaml<GitlabPipeline>(
-  replaceReferenceTags(codeBlock`
+  codeBlock`
     include:
     - project: mikebryant/include-source-example
       file: /template.yaml
@@ -25,7 +24,7 @@ const pipeline = parseSingleYaml<GitlabPipeline>(
 
     script:
     - !reference [.setup, script]
-    - !reference [arbitrary job name with space and no starting dot, nested1, nested2, nested3]`),
+    - !reference [arbitrary job name with space and no starting dot, nested1, nested2, nested3]`,
 );
 const includeLocal = { local: 'something' };
 const includeProject = { project: 'something' };
@@ -37,7 +36,15 @@ describe('modules/manager/gitlabci/common', () => {
       const filtered_pipeline = filterIncludeFromGitlabPipeline(pipeline);
       expect(filtered_pipeline).not.toHaveProperty('include');
       expect(filtered_pipeline).toEqual({
-        script: [null, null],
+        script: [
+          ['.setup', 'script'],
+          [
+            'arbitrary job name with space and no starting dot',
+            'nested1',
+            'nested2',
+            'nested3',
+          ],
+        ],
       });
     });
   });
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.spec.ts b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.spec.ts
index 3c563ce93cbb932..0b89036dd8f5df4 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.spec.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
-import { Fixtures } from '../../../../test/fixtures';
 import type { PackageDependency } from '../types';
-import { getGitlabDep, replaceReferenceTags } from './utils';
+import { getGitlabDep } from './utils';
 
 describe('modules/manager/gitlabci/utils', () => {
   describe('getGitlabDep', () => {
@@ -82,12 +81,4 @@ describe('modules/manager/gitlabci/utils', () => {
       });
     });
   });
-
-  describe('replaceReferenceTags', () => {
-    it('replaces all !reference tags with empty strings', () => {
-      const yamlFileReferenceConfig = Fixtures.get('gitlab-ci.reference.yaml');
-      const replaced = replaceReferenceTags(yamlFileReferenceConfig);
-      expect(replaced).not.toContain('!reference');
-    });
-  });
 });
diff --git a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.ts b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.ts
index e69552b2a61f69a..1a861897df735d3 100644
--- a/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.ts
+++ b/lib/modules/manager/gitlabci/utils.ts
@@ -2,19 +2,6 @@ import { regEx } from '../../../util/regex';
 import { getDep } from '../dockerfile/extract';
 import type { PackageDependency } from '../types';
 
-const re = /!reference \[[^\]]+\]/g;
-
-/**
- * Replaces GitLab reference tags before parsing, because our yaml parser cannot process them anyway.
- * @param content pipeline yaml
- * @returns replaced pipeline content
- * https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#reference-tags
- */
-export function replaceReferenceTags(content: string): string {
-  const res = content.replace(re, '');
-  return res;
-}
-
 const depProxyRe = regEx(
   `(?<prefix>\\$\\{?CI_DEPENDENCY_PROXY_(?:DIRECT_)?GROUP_IMAGE_PREFIX\\}?/)(?<depName>.+)`,
 );
diff --git a/lib/util/yaml.spec.ts b/lib/util/yaml.spec.ts
index de9491f458054a8..74f37c3e89f560e 100644
--- a/lib/util/yaml.spec.ts
+++ b/lib/util/yaml.spec.ts
@@ -281,5 +281,23 @@ describe('util/yaml', () => {
         },
       });
     });
+
+    it('should parse content with yaml tags', () => {
+      expect(
+        parseSingleYaml(
+          codeBlock`
+      myObject:
+        aString: value
+        aStringWithTag: !reset null
+      `,
+          { removeTemplates: true },
+        ),
+      ).toEqual({
+        myObject: {
+          aString: 'value',
+          aStringWithTag: 'null',
+        },
+      });
+    });
   });
 });