diff --git a/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts b/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts
index ed402458d..46c357d46 100644
--- a/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/buildSrc/build.gradle.kts
@@ -16,5 +16,6 @@ dependencies {
     implementation("com.adarshr:gradle-test-logger-plugin:4.0.0")
     // used by yaml-to-json buildSrc plugin
     implementation("com.fasterxml.jackson.core:jackson-databind:2.15.3")
-    implementation("com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat:jackson-dataformat-yaml:2.15.3")
+    // use snakeyaml instead of jackson-dataformat-yaml to properly handle yaml anchors and write them as actual values to json
+    implementation("org.yaml:snakeyaml:2.2")
 }
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/yaml-to-json.gradle.kts b/buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/yaml-to-json.gradle.kts
index 0e7e54cc8..e659fb5d2 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/yaml-to-json.gradle.kts
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/yaml-to-json.gradle.kts
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.yaml.YAMLFactory
-import org.gradle.kotlin.dsl.create
+import org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml
 
 interface Yaml2JsonPluginExtension {
     val input: Property<File>
@@ -9,7 +8,13 @@ interface Yaml2JsonPluginExtension {
 
 class Yaml2JsonPlugin : Plugin<Project> {
     val jsonMapper = ObjectMapper()
-    val yamlMapper = ObjectMapper(YAMLFactory())
+    // https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformats-text/issues/98
+    /* We use snakeyaml since it can handle Anchors and References (Aliases) in yml files, which jackson can't apparently.
+     * We still can use jackson to write to json, because at that time,
+     * the Map we created from yaml will contain proper values and not simply anchor names,
+     * like it happens when using jackson to read yaml.
+     */
+    val yamlMapper = Yaml()
 
     override fun apply(p: Project) {
         val ext = p.extensions.create<Yaml2JsonPluginExtension>("yaml2jsonExt")
@@ -50,8 +55,7 @@ class Yaml2JsonPlugin : Plugin<Project> {
     }
 
     private fun writeYamlToJson(src: File, dest: File) {
-        val map = yamlMapper.readValue(src.inputStream(), Map::class.java)
+        val map = yamlMapper.loadAs(src.inputStream(), Map::class.java)
         jsonMapper.writeValue(dest, map)
     }
 }
-