diff --git a/rc/ctags.kak b/rc/ctags.kak
index dc7a2fcf..5d340f29 100644
--- a/rc/ctags.kak
+++ b/rc/ctags.kak
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ def -shell-params \
         export tagname=${1:-${kak_selection}}
         readtags ${tagname} | awk -F '\t|\n' -e '
             /[^\t]+\t[^\t]+\t\/\^.*\$\// {
-                gsub("^/\\^", "", $3); gsub("\\$/$", "", $3); gsub("(\\{|\\}).*$", "", $3);
-                out = out " %{" $2 " [" $3 "]} %{try %{ edit %{" $2 "}; exec %{/\\Q" $3 "<ret>vc} } catch %{ echo %{unable to find tag} } }"
+                re=$0; sub(".*\t/\\^", "", re); sub("\\$/.*", "", re); gsub("(\\{|\\}).*$", "", re);
+                out = out " %{" $2 " [" re "]} %{try %{ edit %{" $2 "}; exec %{/\\Q" re "<ret>vc} } catch %{ echo %{unable to find tag} } }"
             }
             /[^\t]+\t[^\t]+\t([0-9]+)/ { out = out " %{" $2 ":" $3 "} %{edit %{" $2 "} %{" $3 "}}" }
             END { print length(out) == 0 ? "echo -color Error no such tag " ENVIRON["tagname"] : "menu -auto-single " out }'