diff --git a/tools/cli/zsh.go b/tools/cli/zsh.go
index cbd003462..b55de7e56 100644
--- a/tools/cli/zsh.go
+++ b/tools/cli/zsh.go
@@ -60,12 +60,11 @@ func (self *Match) FormatForCompletionList(max_word_len int, f *markup.Context,
 	desc = f.Prettify(line)
 
 	multiline := false
-	max_desc_len := screen_width - 2
+	max_desc_len := screen_width - max_word_len - 3
 	if word_len > max_word_len {
 		multiline = true
 	} else {
 		word += strings.Repeat(" ", max_word_len-word_len)
-		max_desc_len = screen_width - max_word_len - 3
 	}
 	if wcswidth.Stringwidth(desc) > max_desc_len {
 		desc = wcswidth.TruncateToVisualLength(desc, max_desc_len-2) + "\x1b[m…"
@@ -108,7 +107,7 @@ func serialize(completions *Completions, f *markup.Context, screen_width int) ([
 				fmt.Fprintln(&output, "compdescriptions=(")
 				limit := mg.max_visual_word_length(16)
 				for _, m := range mg.Matches {
-					fmt.Fprintln(&output, utils.QuoteStringForSH(m.FormatForCompletionList(limit, f, screen_width)))
+					fmt.Fprintln(&output, utils.QuoteStringForSH(wcswidth.StripEscapeCodes(m.FormatForCompletionList(limit, f, screen_width))))
 				}
 				fmt.Fprintln(&output, ")")
 				cmd.WriteString(" -l -d compdescriptions")
diff --git a/tools/wcswidth/wcswidth.go b/tools/wcswidth/wcswidth.go
index 0cda35645..10d3a0610 100644
--- a/tools/wcswidth/wcswidth.go
+++ b/tools/wcswidth/wcswidth.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ package wcswidth
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 
 	"kitty/tools/utils"
 )
@@ -125,3 +126,16 @@ func Stringwidth(text string) int {
 	w := CreateWCWidthIterator()
 	return w.Parse(utils.UnsafeStringToBytes(text))
 }
+
+func StripEscapeCodes(text string) string {
+	out := strings.Builder{}
+	out.Grow(len(text))
+
+	p := EscapeCodeParser{}
+	p.HandleRune = func(ch rune) error {
+		out.WriteRune(ch)
+		return nil
+	}
+	p.ParseString(text)
+	return out.String()
+}