diff --git a/.github/workflows/cliff.toml b/.github/workflows/cliff.toml
index f421e9d..acb66aa 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/cliff.toml
+++ b/.github/workflows/cliff.toml
@@ -89,8 +89,9 @@ commit_preprocessors = [
     # remove issue numbers from commits
     { pattern = '\((\w+\s)?#([0-9]+)\)', replace = "" },
     # escape doxygen command prefixes
-    { pattern = '\s(@\w)', replace = " \\$1" },
-    { pattern = '\s(\\\w)', replace = " \\$1" },
+    { pattern = '(\s?)(@\w)', replace = "$1\\$2" },
+    { pattern = '(\s?)(\\\w)', replace = "$1\\$2" },
+    { pattern = '(\s?)(#\w)', replace = "$1\\$2" },
 ]
 # regex for parsing and grouping commits
 commit_parsers = [
diff --git a/.github/workflows/increment_version.py b/.github/workflows/increment_version.py
index 8b728a7..6a36470 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/increment_version.py
+++ b/.github/workflows/increment_version.py
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ def get_changelog(
         "FIRST_COMMIT": first_commit,
         "GIT_CLIFF_CONFIG": str(GIT_CLIFF_CONFIG),
         "GIT_CLIFF_OUTPUT": str(output),
-        "GIT_CLIFF_TAG": tag,
+        "GIT_CLIFF_TAG": f"v{tag}",
     }
     subprocess.run(args, env=env, check=True)
     if full: