diff --git a/shell-integration/ssh/kitty b/shell-integration/ssh/kitty
index 78ecdde7b..ef830322a 100755
--- a/shell-integration/ssh/kitty
+++ b/shell-integration/ssh/kitty
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 die() { printf "\033[31m%s\033[m\n\r" "$*" > /dev/stderr; exit 1; }
 
 exec_kitty() {
-    exec "$kitty_exe" "$@"
+    [ -n "$kitty_exe" ] && exec "$kitty_exe" "$@"
     die "Failed to execute kitty"
 }
 
@@ -14,15 +14,17 @@ script_path=$(command readlink -f "$0" 2> /dev/null)
 [ $? == 0 ] || script_path="$0"
 script_dir=$(command dirname "$script_path")
 install_dir="$(command dirname "$script_dir")/install"
+local_kitty_version_file="$install_dir/installed-kitty-version"
 kitty_exe="$install_dir/bin/kitty"
-if [ -e "$kitty_exe" ]; then
-    local_kitty_version=$("$kitty_exe" +runpy "from kitty.constants import str_version; print(str_version)")
+if [ -r "$local_kitty_version_file" -a -f "$local_kitty_version_file" ]; then
     if [ $? = 0 ]; then
         version_sort_key() {
             printf "%05d%05d%05d" $(echo "$1" | command tr '.' '\n' | command head -n 3)
         }
-        remote_kitty_version=$(command cat "$script_dir"/../version)
+        remote_kitty_version=$(command cat "$script_dir/../version")
         [ $? = 0 ] || die "Failed to read remote kitty version"
+        local_kitty_version=$(command cat "$local_kitty_version_file")
+        [ $? = 0 ] || die "Failed to read local kitty version"
         [ $(version_sort_key "$remote_kitty_version") -le $(version_sort_key "$local_kitty_version") ] && exec_kitty "$@"
     fi
 fi
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@ case "$(command uname)" in
     *) die "kitty pre-built binaries are not available for the $(command uname) operating system";;
 esac
 
-release_version=$(fetch_quiet "https://api.github.com/repos/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/latest" | command grep tag_name | command cut -dv -f2 | command cut -d '"' -f1)
+release_version=$(fetch_quiet "https://api.github.com/repos/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/latest" | command grep tag_name | command head -n1 | command cut -dv -f2 | command cut -d '"' -f1)
 [ -z "$release_version" ] && die "Could not get kitty latest release version"
 command rm -rf "$install_dir"
 
@@ -89,4 +91,5 @@ else
     command mkdir "$install_dir/bin"
     command ln -sf "$install_dir/kitty.app/Contents/MacOS/kitty" "$install_dir/bin/kitty"
 fi
+command "$kitty_exe" +runpy "from kitty.constants import str_version; print(end=str_version)" > "$local_kitty_version_file"
 exec_kitty "$@"