diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ea53ce9..1d5bde7 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,3 +10,5 @@ pom.xml.asc
 /.nrepl-port
 .hgignore
 .hg/
+.clj-kondo/*
+.shadow-cljs/*
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 27d735c..7295ec8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. This
 change log follows the conventions of
 [keepachangelog.com](http://keepachangelog.com/).
 
+## 3.8.6 / unreleased
+- fix issue when using non-composite matchers (`m/regex`, `m/pred`, etc)
+  inside `match-with`.
+
 ## 3.8.5 / 2023-03-24
 - fix clj-kondo lint warnings for `match?` in Clojurescript
 
diff --git a/src/cljc/matcher_combinators/matchers.cljc b/src/cljc/matcher_combinators/matchers.cljc
index c8fb00c..5eaeda7 100644
--- a/src/cljc/matcher_combinators/matchers.cljc
+++ b/src/cljc/matcher_combinators/matchers.cljc
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 (ns matcher-combinators.matchers
-  (:require #?(:cljs [matcher-combinators.core :as core :refer [Absent]]
+  (:require #?(:cljs [matcher-combinators.core :as core :refer [Matcher]]
                :clj [matcher-combinators.core :as core])
             [clojure.string :as string]
             [matcher-combinators.utils :as utils])
-  #?(:clj (:import [matcher_combinators.core Absent])))
+  #?(:clj (:import [matcher_combinators.core Matcher])))
 
 (defn- non-internal-record? [v]
   (and (record? v)
@@ -223,7 +223,8 @@
          (and (record? value) (coll? (:expected value)))
          (update value :expected match-with-elements overrides)
 
-         (= Absent (type value))
+         ;; non-nested matcher like `(m/equals 1)` or `(m/regex #"hi")`
+         (instance? Matcher value)
          value
 
          (map? value)
diff --git a/test/clj/matcher_combinators/matchers_test.clj b/test/clj/matcher_combinators/matchers_test.clj
index e628388..755928b 100644
--- a/test/clj/matcher_combinators/matchers_test.clj
+++ b/test/clj/matcher_combinators/matchers_test.clj
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
             [matcher-combinators.result :as result]
             [matcher-combinators.test :refer [match?]]
             [matcher-combinators.test-helpers :as test-helpers :refer [abs-value-matcher]])
-  (:import [matcher_combinators.model Mismatch Missing InvalidMatcherType]))
+  (:import [matcher_combinators.model Mismatch Missing InvalidMatcherContext InvalidMatcherType]))
 
 (defn any? [_x] true)
 
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
   (instance? Missing actual))
 (defn invalid-type? [actual]
   (instance? InvalidMatcherType actual))
+(defn invalid-matcher-context? [actual]
+  (instance? InvalidMatcherContext actual))
 
 (defn one-mismatch? [mismatch-list]
   (= 1 (count (filter #(or (mismatch? %) (missing? %)) mismatch-list))))
@@ -300,6 +302,26 @@
                          #{odd?})
            #{1 2}))))
 
+  (testing "non-nested matchers"
+    (testing "irrelevant match-with doesn't affect results"
+      (is (match? (m/match-with [map? m/equals]
+                                [:key (m/regex #"valu*")])
+                  [:key "value"]))
+      (is (match? [:key (m/regex #"valu*")]
+                  [:key "value"]))
+
+      (is (match? (m/match-with [map? m/equals]
+                                [:key (m/pred even?)])
+                  [:key 2]))
+      (is (match? [:key (m/pred even?)]
+                  [:key 2]))
+
+      (is (match? (m/match-with [vector? m/equals]
+                                {:key (m/regex #"value")})
+                  {:key "value"}))
+      (is (match? {:key (m/regex #"value")}
+                  {:key "value"}))))
+
   (testing "multiple scopes"
     (let [expected
           {:a (m/match-with [map? m/equals]
@@ -431,6 +453,11 @@
                ::result/value  {:expected "seq-of expects a non-empty sequence" :actual []}
                ::result/weight number?}
         (c/match (m/seq-of integer?) [])))
+  (testing "`seq-of` + `absent` fails because absent should only be used in maps"
+    (is (match? {::result/type  :mismatch
+                 ::result/value [invalid-matcher-context?]}
+                (c/match (m/seq-of m/absent)
+                         [1]))))
   (is (match? (m/seq-of {:name string? :id (partial instance? java.util.UUID)})
               [{:name "Michael"
                 :id    #uuid "c70e35eb-9eb6-4e3d-b5da-1f7f80932db9"}])))