diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5f7733ce..14369deb 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ pre-commit:
   commands:
     backend-linter:
       glob: "*.rb" # glob filter
-      exclude: "application.rb|routes.rb" # regexp filter
+      exclude: '(^|/)(application|routes)\.rb$' # regexp filter
       run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {all_files}
 ```
 
diff --git a/docs/configuration.md b/docs/configuration.md
index c1135a44..e2273d73 100644
--- a/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/docs/configuration.md
@@ -609,7 +609,7 @@ pre-commit:
     rubocop:
       tags: backend style
       glob: "*.rb"
-      exclude: "application.rb|routes.rb"
+      exclude: '(^|/)(application|routes)\.rb$'
       run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {all_files}
 ```
 
@@ -871,7 +871,7 @@ If you've specified `glob` but don't have a files template in [`run`](#run) opti
 pre-commit:
   commands:
     lint:
-      glob: ".js"
+      glob: "*.js"
       run: npm run lint # skipped if no .js files staged
 ```
 
@@ -997,6 +997,10 @@ pre-commit:
 
 You can provide a regular expression to exclude some files from being passed to [`run`](#run) command.
 
+The regular expression is matched against full paths to files in the repo,
+relative to the repo root, using `/` as the directory separator on all platforms.
+File paths do not begin with the separator or any other prefix.
+
 **Example**
 
 Run Rubocop on staged files with `.rb` extension except for `application.rb`, `routes.rb`, and `rails_helper.rb` (wherever they are).
@@ -1007,13 +1011,15 @@ Run Rubocop on staged files with `.rb` extension except for `application.rb`, `r
 pre-commit:
   commands:
     lint:
-      glob: ".rb"
-      exclude: "application.rb|routes.rb|rails_helper.rb"
+      glob: "*.rb"
+      exclude: '(^|/)(application|routes|rails_helper)\.rb$'
       run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {staged_files}
 ```
 
 **Notes**
 
+Be careful with the config file format's string quoting and escaping rules when writing regexps in it. For YAML, single quotes are often the simplest choice.
+
 If you've specified `exclude` but don't have a files template in [`run`](#run) option, lefthook will check `{staged_files}` for `pre-commit` hook and `{push_files}` for `pre-push` hook and apply filtering. If no files left, the command will be skipped.
 
 ```yml
@@ -1022,7 +1028,7 @@ If you've specified `exclude` but don't have a files template in [`run`](#run) o
 pre-commit:
   commands:
     lint:
-      exclude: "application.rb"
+      exclude: '(^|/)application\.rb$'
       run: bundle exec rubocop # skipped if only application.rb was staged
 ```
 
diff --git a/examples/complete/lefthook.yml b/examples/complete/lefthook.yml
index 4235a4e6..25a5804e 100644
--- a/examples/complete/lefthook.yml
+++ b/examples/complete/lefthook.yml
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ pre-commit:
     rubocop:
       tags: backend style
       glob: "*.rb"
-      exclude: "application.rb|routes.rb"
+      exclude: '(^|/)(application|routes)\.rb$'
       run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {all_files}
   scripts:
     "good_job.js":
diff --git a/internal/lefthook/run/filter/filters_test.go b/internal/lefthook/run/filter/filters_test.go
index 996525ed..17ce2c8c 100644
--- a/internal/lefthook/run/filter/filters_test.go
+++ b/internal/lefthook/run/filter/filters_test.go
@@ -77,22 +77,22 @@ func TestByExclude(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 		{
 			source:  []string{"folder/subfolder/0.rb", "1.txt", "2.RB", "3.rb"},
-			exclude: "^[^/]*\\.rb",
+			exclude: "^[^/]*\\.rb$",
 			result:  []string{"folder/subfolder/0.rb", "1.txt", "2.RB"},
 		},
 		{
 			source:  []string{"folder/subfolder/0.rb", "1.rb"},
-			exclude: "^.+/.+.*\\.rb",
+			exclude: "^.+/.+.*\\.rb$",
 			result:  []string{"1.rb"},
 		},
 		{
 			source:  []string{"folder/0.rb", "1.rBs", "2.rbv"},
-			exclude: ".*\\.rb.?",
+			exclude: ".*\\.rb.?$",
 			result:  []string{"1.rBs"},
 		},
 		{
 			source:  []string{"f.a", "f.b", "f.c", "f.cn"},
-			exclude: ".*\\.(a|b|cn)",
+			exclude: ".*\\.(a|b|cn)$",
 			result:  []string{"f.c"},
 		},
 	} {
diff --git a/internal/templates/config.tmpl b/internal/templates/config.tmpl
index 0f013f56..f6e5dfe5 100644
--- a/internal/templates/config.tmpl
+++ b/internal/templates/config.tmpl
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 #     rubocop:
 #       tags: backend style
 #       glob: "*.rb"
-#       exclude: "application.rb|routes.rb"
+#       exclude: '(^|/)(application|routes)\.rb$'
 #       run: bundle exec rubocop --force-exclusion {all_files}
 #     govet:
 #       tags: backend style