diff --git a/airbyte-cdk/python/airbyte_cdk/sources/declarative/parsers/yaml_parser.py b/airbyte-cdk/python/airbyte_cdk/sources/declarative/parsers/yaml_parser.py
index e404378c969a3..155098f382f6b 100644
--- a/airbyte-cdk/python/airbyte_cdk/sources/declarative/parsers/yaml_parser.py
+++ b/airbyte-cdk/python/airbyte_cdk/sources/declarative/parsers/yaml_parser.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
 
 class YamlParser(ConfigParser):
-    ref_tag = "ref"
+    ref_tag = "$ref"
 
     def parse(self, config_str: str) -> Mapping[str, Any]:
         """