diff --git a/library/yaml_format.py b/library/yaml_format.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..4e00117
--- /dev/null
+++ b/library/yaml_format.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import yaml
+import sys
+
+# https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45004464/yaml-dump-adding-unwanted-newlines-in-multiline-strings
+yaml.SafeDumper.org_represent_str = yaml.SafeDumper.represent_str
+
+# Represent strings as multiline within YAML file, if the string contains the newline character
+def repr_str(dumper, data):
+    if '\n' in data:
+        return dumper.represent_scalar(u'tag:yaml.org,2002:str', data, style='|')
+    return dumper.org_represent_str(data)
+
+
+yaml.add_representer(str, repr_str, Dumper=yaml.SafeDumper)
+
+
+file_path = sys.argv[1]
+with open(file_path, 'r') as file:
+    document = file.read()
+
+structure = yaml.safe_load(document)
+with open(file_path, 'w') as file:
+  yaml.safe_dump(structure, file)
diff --git a/tasks/migrations/run-step.yaml b/tasks/migrations/run-step.yaml
index f7c1fdb..bed7fea 100644
--- a/tasks/migrations/run-step.yaml
+++ b/tasks/migrations/run-step.yaml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 - name: "{{ migration_to_version }} applying migration"
   ansible.builtin.include_tasks: "tasks/migrations/{{ migration_filename }}"
 
-- ansible.builtin.include_tasks: "tasks/migrations/update-repo-yaml-version.yaml"
+- ansible.builtin.include_tasks: tasks/migrations/update-version.yaml
   vars:
     to_version: "{{ migration_to_version }}"
diff --git a/tasks/migrations/update-repo-yaml-version.yaml b/tasks/migrations/update-version.yaml
similarity index 53%
rename from tasks/migrations/update-repo-yaml-version.yaml
rename to tasks/migrations/update-version.yaml
index 44a5794..89b96cd 100644
--- a/tasks/migrations/update-repo-yaml-version.yaml
+++ b/tasks/migrations/update-version.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 - name: "updating version in repo.yaml"
   copy:
     dest: "{{ repo_path }}/repo.yaml"
-    content: "{{ repo_yaml | combine({'version': to_version}) | to_nice_yaml(sort_keys=False, indent=2) }}"
+    content: "{{ repo_yaml | combine({'version': to_version}) | to_nice_yaml }}"
+
+- name: reformat repo.yaml file
+  ansible.builtin.command: "./library/yaml_format.py '{{ repo_path }}/repo.yaml'"
diff --git a/tasks/version-migrations.yaml b/tasks/version-migrations.yaml
index b4b43b3..9d43ea6 100644
--- a/tasks/version-migrations.yaml
+++ b/tasks/version-migrations.yaml
@@ -44,6 +44,6 @@
         # XXX renamed to avoid warnings if included tasks include loops of their own
         loop_var: item_migration
 
-  - ansible.builtin.include_tasks: "tasks/migrations/update-repo-yaml-version.yaml"
+  - ansible.builtin.include_tasks: "tasks/migrations/update-version.yaml"
     vars:
       to_version: "{{ target_repo_ansible_version }}"