diff --git a/lisp/forge-gitlab.el b/lisp/forge-gitlab.el
index a087b6ca..49ba74ec 100644
--- a/lisp/forge-gitlab.el
+++ b/lisp/forge-gitlab.el
@@ -504,18 +504,20 @@
     (oset repo topic-templates
           (mapcan
            (pcase-lambda (`(,type . ,dir))
-             (seq-keep (lambda (file)
-                         (let* ((file (file-name-nondirectory file))
-                                (name (file-name-sans-extension file)))
-                           (and (equal (file-name-extension file) "md")
-                                (list (forge--object-id repoid name)
-                                      type file name nil nil
-                                      (with-temp-buffer
-                                        (insert-file-contents file)
-                                        (buffer-str))
-                                      nil nil nil nil nil))))
-                       (magit-git-items "ls-tree" "-z" "--full-tree"
-                                        "--name-only" "-r" branch "--" dir)))
+             (seq-keep
+              (lambda (path)
+                (let* ((file (file-name-nondirectory path))
+                       (name (file-name-sans-extension file)))
+                  (and (equal (file-name-extension file) "md")
+                       (list (forge--object-id repoid name)
+                             type file name nil nil
+                             (with-temp-buffer
+                               (magit-git-insert "cat-file" "-p"
+                                                 (concat branch ":" path))
+                               (buffer-str))
+                             nil nil nil nil nil))))
+              (magit-git-items "ls-tree" "-z" "--full-tree"
+                               "--name-only" "-r" branch "--" dir)))
            '((issue   . ".gitlab/issue_templates")
              (pullreq . ".gitlab/merge_request_templates"))))))