diff --git a/ext/auto_tagger/main.php b/ext/auto_tagger/main.php
index f58be08f2..6a4315b92 100644
--- a/ext/auto_tagger/main.php
+++ b/ext/auto_tagger/main.php
@@ -162,14 +162,17 @@ public function onTagSet(TagSetEvent $event): void
         }
         $results = $this->apply_auto_tags($event->new_tags);
         if (!empty($results)) {
+            # do we need this?
+            $event->new_tags = $results;
+
             error_log("auto-tagger: results:");
             foreach($results as $i) {
                 error_log($i);
             }
             error_log("auto-tagger: checking results for metatags...");
             # need to check tags again for metatags
-            foreach ($tags as $tag) {
-                if ((!str_contains($tag, ':')) && (!str_contains($tag, '='))) {
+            foreach ($results as $r) {
+                if ((!str_contains($r, ':')) && (!str_contains($r, '='))) {
                     $event->new_tags[] = $r;
                     error_log("auto-tagger: ".$r." is definitely a normal tag.");
                     continue;