diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 173464f30..1db976b39 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   "description": "OAS (Swagger v3) API Definition for Template API",
   "scripts": {
     "lint-oas": "redocly lint specification/e-referrals-service-api.yaml",
-    "publish": "mkdir -p build && redocly bundle specification/e-referrals-service-api.yaml --dereferenced --remove-unused-components --ext json | poetry run python scripts/set_version.py | poetry run python scripts/populate_placeholders.py > build/e-referrals-service-api.json",
+    "publish": "mkdir -p build && redocly bundle specification/e-referrals-service-api.yaml --dereferenced --remove-unused-components --ext json | poetry run python scripts/resolve_example_refs.py | poetry run python scripts/set_version.py | poetry run python scripts/populate_placeholders.py > build/e-referrals-service-api.json",
     "serve": "redocly preview-docs -p 5000 build/e-referrals-service-api.json",
     "check-licenses": "node_modules/.bin/license-checker --failOn GPL --failOn LGPL"
   },
diff --git a/scripts/resolve_example_refs.py b/scripts/resolve_example_refs.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..decc32eec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/resolve_example_refs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""
+resolve_example_refs.py
+
+Reads a bundled OpenAPI spec on stdin and resolves any remaining $ref
+objects found inside example 'value' fields. This is needed because
+Redocly CLI v2 no longer dereferences $ref inside example values
+during bundling.
+
+The script walks the entire spec looking for objects of the form:
+    {"$ref": "some/path/to/file.json"}
+
+that appear inside example value contexts, loads the referenced JSON
+file from disk relative to the specification directory, and replaces
+the $ref object with the actual file content.
+
+Prints the resolved spec on stdout.
+"""
+import json
+import os
+import sys
+
+SCRIPT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+REPO_ROOT = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(SCRIPT_DIR, ".."))
+SPEC_COMPONENTS_DIR = os.path.join(REPO_ROOT, "specification", "components")
+
+
+def resolve_ref_path(ref_path):
+    """
+    Resolve a relative $ref path from the bundled output to an
+    absolute file path on disk.
+
+    In the source YAML, $refs are relative to the file they appear in:
+    - From schemas/endpoints/:  ../../examples/...  (up 2 = stu3/)
+    - From schemas/responses/:  ../../../examples/... (up 3 = stu3/)
+
+    All paths contain 'examples/' which maps to
+    specification/components/{stu3,r4}/examples/.
+
+    We extract the part starting from 'examples/' and look for it
+    under both stu3 and r4 component directories.
+    """
+    # Find the 'examples/' segment in the path
+    examples_idx = ref_path.find("examples/")
+    if examples_idx == -1:
+        return None
+
+    relative_from_examples = ref_path[examples_idx:]
+
+    # Try both stu3 and r4 directories
+    for subdir in ["stu3", "r4"]:
+        candidate = os.path.join(SPEC_COMPONENTS_DIR, subdir, relative_from_examples)
+        if os.path.isfile(candidate):
+            return candidate
+
+    return None
+
+
+def resolve_refs(obj):
+    """
+    Recursively walk the parsed JSON object. When we find a dict that
+    is exactly {"$ref": "<path>"} where the path points to a .json
+    file, load that file and return its content instead.
+    """
+    if isinstance(obj, dict):
+        if list(obj.keys()) == ["$ref"] and obj["$ref"].endswith(".json"):
+            ref_path = obj["$ref"]
+            abs_path = resolve_ref_path(ref_path)
+            if abs_path:
+                with open(abs_path, "r") as f:
+                    return json.load(f)
+            else:
+                print(
+                    f"Warning: Could not resolve $ref: {ref_path}",
+                    file=sys.stderr,
+                )
+                return obj
+        else:
+            return {k: resolve_refs(v) for k, v in obj.items()}
+    elif isinstance(obj, list):
+        return [resolve_refs(item) for item in obj]
+    else:
+        return obj
+
+
+def main():
+    """Main entrypoint"""
+    data = json.loads(sys.stdin.read())
+    resolved = resolve_refs(data)
+    sys.stdout.write(json.dumps(resolved, indent=2))
+    sys.stdout.close()
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()