I am quite new in gitlab environment and working on how to reuse code as possible in our pipelines. I was trying to use !reference in the following scenario:

common.yml

.test1:
  changes:
    - somelistpath

.test2:
  changes:
    - anotherpath

.all:
  changes:
    - !reference [.test1, changes]
    - !reference [.test2, changes]

then .build-template:

spec:
  inputs:
    stage:
      default: build
    changes:
      description: "Paths job needs to run their rules against"
      default: []
      type: array
    tags:
      default:
        - linux
      description: "Tags used during Job run. Right now we use windows or linux to choose runner"
      type: array
---

.default_build_rules:
  rules:
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"'
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ /^release/.*$/'
    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ /^hotfix/.*$/'
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"'
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "webide"'
    - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"'
      changes: $[[inputs.changes]]
...

then .appbuild-ci.yml

include:
  - local: "/buildTemplates/.common.yml"
  - local: "/buildTemplates/.build-template.yml"
    inputs:
      changes: 
        - !reference [ .all, changes]

app-build-job:
  extends: 
    - .common-build-job
    - .common-build-cache-job
  before_script:
    - echo specific job
  script:
    - cd testapp
    - npm install
    - npm build

I receive an error in jobs:app-build-job:rules:rule:changes config should be an array of strings.

When I check the full configuration section .defaul-build-rules looks good:

".common-build-job":
  stage: build
  tags:
  - linux
  rules:
  - - if: "$CLEAR_DOCKER != null"
      when: never
  - - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"
    - if: "$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ /^release\/.*$/"
    - if: "$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ /^hotfix\/.*$/"
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "webide"
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
      changes:
      - !reference
        data: &1
          :tag: "!reference"
          :style: 1
          :seq:
          - ".all"
          - changes
          :scalar:
          :map: {}
        resolved_status: :done
        resolved_value: &2
        - - somelistpath
        - - anotherpath
  interruptible: true
  before_script:
  - echo template build
  artifacts:
    when: always
    expire_in: 1 day
    paths:
    - _artifacts/publish/*

but app-build-job does not have a good rules section defined:

app-build-job:
  stage: build
  tags:
  - linux
  rules:
  - - if: "$CLEAR_DOCKER != null"
      when: never
  - - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "develop"
    - if: "$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ /^release\/.*$/"
    - if: "$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH =~ /^hotfix\/.*$/"
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "web"
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "webide"
    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "merge_request_event"
      changes:
      - !reference
        data: *1
        resolved_status: :done
        resolved_value: *2

That resolved_value: *2 confuses me and I have no idea why this was resolved as that value. Does anyone have any ideas? I appreciate any help you can provide.