diff --git a/dev/ctags-install.sh b/dev/ctags-install.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..1ffe7102ba8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/ctags-install.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -euf -o pipefail
+pushd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." >/dev/null
+mkdir -p .bin
+
+# Commit hash of github.com/universal-ctags/ctags.
+# Last bumped 2022-04-04.
+# When bumping please remember to also update Zoekt: https://github.com/sourcegraph/zoekt/blob/d3a8fbd8385f0201dd54ab24114ebd588dfcf0d8/install-ctags-alpine.sh
+CTAGS_VERSION=f95bb3497f53748c2b6afc7f298cff218103ab90
+NAME="ctags-${CTAGS_VERSION}"
+TARGET="$PWD/.bin/${NAME}"
+
+if [ $# -ne 0 ]; then
+  if [ "$1" == "which" ]; then
+    echo "$TARGET"
+    exit 0
+  fi
+fi
+
+tmpdir=$(mktemp -d -t sg.ctags-install.XXXXXX)
+
+function print_build_tips() {
+  echo "---------------------------------------------"
+  echo "Please make sure that libjansson is installed"
+  echo "  MacOs: brew install jansson"
+  echo "  Ubuntu: apt-get install libjansson-dev"
+  echo "---------------------------------------------"
+}
+
+function ctrl_c() {
+  rm -f "$tmpdir" &>/dev/null
+  printf "[-] Installation cancelled.\n"
+  exit 1
+}
+
+trap ctrl_c INT
+trap 'rm -Rf \"$tmpdir\" &>/dev/null' EXIT
+
+function build_ctags {
+  case "$OSTYPE" in
+    darwin*)  NUMCPUS=$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu);; 
+    linux*)   NUMCPUS=$(grep -c '^processor' /proc/cpuinfo) ;;
+    bsd*)     NUMCPUS=$(grep -c '^processor' /proc/cpuinfo) ;;
+    *)        NUMCPUS="4" ;;
+  esac
+
+  curl --retry 5 "https://codeload.github.com/universal-ctags/ctags/tar.gz/$CTAGS_VERSION" | tar xz -C "$tmpdir"
+  cd "${tmpdir}/ctags-${CTAGS_VERSION}"
+  set +e
+  ./autogen.sh
+  exit_code="$?"
+  if [ "$exit_code" != "0" ]; then
+    print_build_tips
+    exit "$exit_code"
+  fi
+  ./configure --program-prefix=universal- --enable-json
+  exit_code="$?"
+  if [ "$exit_code" != "0" ]; then
+    print_build_tips
+    exit "$exit_code"
+  fi
+  make -j"$NUMCPUS" --load-average="$NUMCPUS"
+  exit_code="$?"
+  if [ "$exit_code" != "0" ]; then
+    print_build_tips
+    exit "$exit_code"
+  fi
+  set -e
+  cp ./ctags "$TARGET"
+}
+
+if [ ! -f "${TARGET}" ]; then 
+  echo "Installing universal-ctags $CTAGS_VERSION"
+  build_ctags 
+else
+  echo "universal-ctags $CTAGS_VERSION is already available at $TARGET"
+fi
+
+popd >/dev/null
diff --git a/cmd/symbols/universal-ctags-dev b/dev/universal-ctags-dev
similarity index 54%
rename from cmd/symbols/universal-ctags-dev
rename to dev/universal-ctags-dev
index 3be8c001fab..4923d1d4bf7 100755
--- a/cmd/symbols/universal-ctags-dev
+++ b/dev/universal-ctags-dev
@@ -2,12 +2,21 @@
 
 # This script is a wrapper around `universal-ctags`.
 #
+# It checks if universal-ctags has been installed through ./dev/ctags-install.sh or falls back to a dockerized version.
+#
 # To use your own `universal-ctags` binary instead of this wrapper in your local dev server, use
 # `CTAGS_COMMAND=path/to/ctags sg start`.
 
-exec docker run --rm -i \
+root="$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/.." >/dev/null
+TARGET=$("$root/dev/ctags-install.sh" which)
+
+if [ ! -f "${TARGET}" ]; then 
+  exec docker run --rm -i \
     -a stdin -a stdout -a stderr \
     --user guest \
     --name=universal-ctags-$$ \
     --entrypoint /usr/local/bin/universal-ctags \
     ctags "$@"
+else 
+  ${TARGET} "$@"
+fi
diff --git a/sg.config.yaml b/sg.config.yaml
index 78d4d10df3d..0cb8e67fa10 100644
--- a/sg.config.yaml
+++ b/sg.config.yaml
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ commands:
       go build -gcflags="$GCFLAGS" -o .bin/oss-symbols github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/cmd/symbols
     checkBinary: .bin/oss-symbols
     env:
-      CTAGS_COMMAND: cmd/symbols/universal-ctags-dev
+      CTAGS_COMMAND: dev/universal-ctags-dev
       CTAGS_PROCESSES: 2
     watch:
       - lib
@@ -324,7 +324,7 @@ commands:
       go build -gcflags="$GCFLAGS" -o .bin/symbols github.com/sourcegraph/sourcegraph/enterprise/cmd/symbols
     checkBinary: .bin/symbols
     env:
-      CTAGS_COMMAND: cmd/symbols/universal-ctags-dev
+      CTAGS_COMMAND: dev/universal-ctags-dev
       CTAGS_PROCESSES: 2
       USE_ROCKSKIP: 'false'
     watch:
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ commands:
       go install github.com/sourcegraph/zoekt/cmd/zoekt-sourcegraph-indexserver
     checkBinary: .bin/zoekt-sourcegraph-indexserver
     env: &zoektenv
-      CTAGS_COMMAND: cmd/symbols/universal-ctags-dev
+      CTAGS_COMMAND: dev/universal-ctags-dev
 
   zoekt-index-0:
     <<: *zoekt_indexserver_template