diff --git a/.gitlab/README.md.template b/.gitlab/README.md.template
index 5c9e3a156270960dac68b09d5fe238d7c3b644e5..4c3d68cc3b0506503e900924a17566b693edd670 100644
--- a/.gitlab/README.md.template
+++ b/.gitlab/README.md.template
@@ -29,10 +29,6 @@ together with an OpenTofu version.
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/full-pipeline@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
 
 stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
@@ -43,10 +39,6 @@ stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
 
 stages: [validate, build, deploy]
@@ -55,10 +47,6 @@ stages: [validate, build, deploy]
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
       trigger_in_child_pipeline: true
 ```
@@ -70,10 +58,6 @@ A concrete example may look like this:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/full-pipeline@0.10.0
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: 0.10.0 # component version
       opentofu_version: 1.6.1
 
 stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
@@ -100,10 +84,6 @@ Or import all jobs as hidden templates ready to be extended:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/job-templates@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
 
 stages: [...]
@@ -188,10 +168,6 @@ The following snippet will auto-encrypt your state with a passphrase coming from
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
       auto_encryption: true
       auto_encryption_passphrase: $PASSPHRASE
@@ -220,10 +196,6 @@ An example setup may look like this:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
       enable_id_tokens: true
 
@@ -298,10 +270,6 @@ and compose your own pipeline, for example, to just run the `fmt` job you can do
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/fmt@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION>
       opentofu_version: 1.6.1
       root_dir: tofu/
 ```
@@ -315,10 +283,6 @@ you want to extend the jobs:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/job-templates@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION>
       opentofu_version: 1.6.1
 
 plan:
diff --git a/.gitlab/release-notes.md.template b/.gitlab/release-notes.md.template
index aa5790cc63b027fd7c288ac971e57dddc922644e..3cb628d84cce76220b907cc78ee497699e1474bb 100644
--- a/.gitlab/release-notes.md.template
+++ b/.gitlab/release-notes.md.template
@@ -19,10 +19,6 @@ You can use the OpenTofu CI/CD component from the CI/CD catalog using:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/$CI_PROJECT_PATH/full-pipeline@$CI_COMMIT_TAG
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: $CI_COMMIT_TAG # component version
       opentofu_version: $LATEST_OPENTOFU_VERSION
 
 stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
diff --git a/.gitlab/scripts/release.sh b/.gitlab/scripts/release.sh
index d6ed49bec1aceb0a6418e9dd7341d73a10cd93ae..d4ec83b17482749e03187487462d07f3d6283b06 100755
--- a/.gitlab/scripts/release.sh
+++ b/.gitlab/scripts/release.sh
@@ -26,6 +26,13 @@ echo "${version}" | "${script_dir}/check-semantic-version.sh"
 
 echo "Starting release process for ${version} ..."
 
+echo "Updating default value for version input to match ${version} ..."
+
+"${script_dir}/update-self-version.sh" "${version}"
+
+git commit templates/*.yml -m "Update version input default for ${version} release"
+git push origin main
+
 echo "Determing last stable version ..."
 last_stable_version_sha="$(git tag | grep -E '^(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)\.(0|[1-9]\d*)$' | sort --version-sort --reverse | head -n1 | xargs git rev-list -n1)"
 echo "Using commit '${last_stable_version_sha}' to start the changelog from ..."
diff --git a/.gitlab/scripts/update-self-versions.sh b/.gitlab/scripts/update-self-versions.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..595b4469f7d39b133d440c7961609eca28da535d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab/scripts/update-self-versions.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env sh
+
+set -e
+
+script_dir="$(dirname "$0")"
+project_dir="$script_dir/../.."
+
+VERSION="$1"
+if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
+  echo "Error: version must be passed as first argument" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "Updating template files ..."
+
+templates="templates/*.yml"
+templates_exclude="templates/delete-state.yml templates/module-release.yml templates/__internal_id_tokens_base_job.yml"
+
+for relative_template_file in $templates; do
+  if echo "$templates_exclude" | grep -q "$relative_template_file"; then continue; fi
+  template_file="$project_dir/$relative_template_file"
+  tmp_template_file=$(mktemp)
+  echo "Updating $template_file ... "
+  yq eval-all '
+    select(document_index == 0).spec.inputs.version.default
+     = "'"$VERSION"'"
+    ' "$template_file" > "$tmp_template_file"
+  diff -Bw "$template_file" "$tmp_template_file" | patch "$template_file" -
+done
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4f490c5065775ebde64263861b3436519a502f43..c5d7dba2cb27e3e0f865023d1e6f97e50c9f54c8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,10 +31,6 @@ together with an OpenTofu version.
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/full-pipeline@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
 
 stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
@@ -45,10 +41,6 @@ stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
 
 stages: [validate, build, deploy]
@@ -57,10 +49,6 @@ stages: [validate, build, deploy]
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
       trigger_in_child_pipeline: true
 ```
@@ -72,10 +60,6 @@ A concrete example may look like this:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/full-pipeline@0.10.0
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: 0.10.0 # component version
       opentofu_version: 1.6.1
 
 stages: [validate, test, build, deploy, cleanup]
@@ -102,10 +86,6 @@ Or import all jobs as hidden templates ready to be extended:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/job-templates@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
 
 stages: [...]
@@ -190,10 +170,6 @@ The following snippet will auto-encrypt your state with a passphrase coming from
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
       auto_encryption: true
       auto_encryption_passphrase: $PASSPHRASE
@@ -222,10 +198,6 @@ An example setup may look like this:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/validate-plan-apply@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION> # component version
       opentofu_version: <OPENTOFU_VERSION>
       enable_id_tokens: true
 
@@ -300,10 +272,6 @@ and compose your own pipeline, for example, to just run the `fmt` job you can do
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/fmt@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION>
       opentofu_version: 1.6.1
       root_dir: tofu/
 ```
@@ -317,10 +285,6 @@ you want to extend the jobs:
 include:
   - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/components/opentofu/job-templates@<VERSION>
     inputs:
-      # The version must currently be specified explicitly as an input,
-      # to find the correctly associated images. # This can be removed
-      # once https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/438275 is solved.
-      version: <VERSION>
       opentofu_version: 1.6.1
 
 plan: