diff --git a/src/parser-includes.ts b/src/parser-includes.ts
index 171b516fb..cbb3f6aa6 100644
--- a/src/parser-includes.ts
+++ b/src/parser-includes.ts
@@ -282,8 +282,8 @@ export class ParserIncludes {
                             const stdout = getGitRemoteInfo(this, "--tags");
                             const tags = stdout.split("\n").map(line => line.split("\t")[1].split("/")[2]);
                             const version = resolveSemanticVersionRange(this.reference, tags);
-                            assert(version, `This GitLab CI configuration is invalid: component: \`${this.name}\` - The reference (${this.reference}) is invalid`);
-                            this._cache.version = version;
+                            assert(version ?? tags.includes(this.reference), `This GitLab CI configuration is invalid: component: \`${this.name}\` - The reference (${this.reference}) is invalid`);
+                            this._cache.version = version ?? null;
                         } else {
                             this._cache.version = null;
                         }
diff --git a/tests/test-cases/include-component/component-non-semver-tag/.gitlab-ci.yml b/tests/test-cases/include-component/component-non-semver-tag/.gitlab-ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1cca144be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test-cases/include-component/component-non-semver-tag/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+# https://gitlab.com/ANGkeith/gitlab-ci-local-test tags a commit as `1`, which
+# matches the semver range pattern but is not a valid semver version.
+include:
+  - component: gitlab.com/angkeith/gitlab-ci-local-test/my-components@1
diff --git a/tests/test-cases/include-component/integration.test.ts b/tests/test-cases/include-component/integration.test.ts
index b907b47a8..0381c65c5 100644
--- a/tests/test-cases/include-component/integration.test.ts
+++ b/tests/test-cases/include-component/integration.test.ts
@@ -197,3 +197,28 @@ component-job:
 
     expect(writeStreams.stdoutLines[0]).toEqual(expected);
 });
+
+test.concurrent("include-component component (non semver tag)", async () => {
+    initSpawnSpy([WhenStatics.mockGitRemoteHttp]);
+
+    const writeStreams = new WriteStreamsMock();
+    await handler({
+        cwd: "tests/test-cases/include-component/component-non-semver-tag",
+        preview: true,
+        stateDir: ".gitlab-ci-local-include-component-non-semver-tag",
+    }, writeStreams);
+
+    const expected = `---
+stages:
+  - .pre
+  - build
+  - test
+  - deploy
+  - .post
+component-job:
+  script:
+    - echo job 1
+  stage: test`;
+
+    expect(writeStreams.stdoutLines[0]).toEqual(expected);
+});