diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/universal-ctags/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/universal-ctags/default.nix
index 47aa491781418f..906057719585af 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/misc/universal-ctags/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/misc/universal-ctags/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, perl, pythonPackages, libiconv }:
+{ stdenv, fetchFromGitHub, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, perl, pythonPackages, libiconv, jansson }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation {
   pname = "universal-ctags";
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation {
   };
 
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook pkgconfig pythonPackages.docutils ];
-  buildInputs = stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin libiconv;
+  buildInputs = [ jansson ] ++ stdenv.lib.optional stdenv.isDarwin libiconv;
 
   # to generate makefile.in
   autoreconfPhase = ''