diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5fd9eff..b5f93bd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -59,12 +59,18 @@ The output for the created file looks like the following
   },
   "references": [ // will be added after running update-ts-references 
     {
-      "path": "../some-other-package
+      "path": "../some-other-package"
     }
   ]
 }
 ```
 
+## using update-ts-references.yaml for configurations
+You can configure paths via the update-ts-references.yaml file. This is useful if your repo is having no package.json or pnp-workspace.yaml in the root folder. Additional to that it can also expand the paths config next to the normal workspace setup via npm, pnpm, yarn and lerna. 
+
+Example configuration see [here](./test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/update-ts-references.yaml)
+```yaml
+
 
 ## FAQ
 ### Why is my pnpm workspace alias not working?
diff --git a/src/update-ts-references.js b/src/update-ts-references.js
index b63e836..e1a7f61 100644
--- a/src/update-ts-references.js
+++ b/src/update-ts-references.js
@@ -28,7 +28,11 @@ const getAllPackageJsons = async (workspaces,cwd) => {
 
   workspaces.forEach((workspaceGlob) => {
     if (workspaceGlob.startsWith('!')) {
-      ignoreGlobs.push(workspaceGlob);
+      let ignoreGlob = workspaceGlob;
+        if (!ignoreGlob.includes('/')) {
+          ignoreGlob = `${ignoreGlob}/${PACKAGE_JSON}`;
+        }
+      ignoreGlobs.push(ignoreGlob);
     } else {
       workspaceGlobs.push(workspaceGlob);
     }
@@ -60,6 +64,7 @@ const getAllPackageJsons = async (workspaces,cwd) => {
         (packageName) =>
           ignoreGlobs.reduce((prev, actualPattern) => {
             if (!prev) return prev;
+
             return minimatch(packageName, actualPattern);
           }, true) && !packageName.includes('node_modules')
       )
@@ -134,7 +139,6 @@ const getReferencesFromDependencies = (
   }
 
   return Object.keys(mergedDependencies)
-      .filter(name => !name.includes('test-utils'))
     .reduce((referenceArray, dependency) => {
       if (packagesMap.has(dependency)) {
         const { packageDir: dependencyDir } = packagesMap.get(dependency);
@@ -232,6 +236,10 @@ const execute = async ({
     );
 
     workspaces = [...(config.packages ? config.packages : []), ...(workspaces ? workspaces : [])];
+
+    if (verbose) {
+      console.log('joined workspaces config', workspaces);
+    }
   }
 
   if (!workspaces) {
diff --git a/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/update-ts-references.yaml b/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/update-ts-references.yaml
index 5ec5a20..431ed23 100644
--- a/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/update-ts-references.yaml
+++ b/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/update-ts-references.yaml
@@ -3,3 +3,4 @@ packages:
   - 'workspace-a'
   # exclude packages that are inside test directories
   - '!**/tests/**'
+  - '!workspace-ignore'
diff --git a/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/workspace-ignore/package.json b/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/workspace-ignore/package.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..280f2d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/workspace-ignore/package.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "name": "ignore",
+  "version": "1.0.0",
+  "dependencies": {
+    "cross-env": "5.0.5"
+  },
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "foo-b": "1.0.0"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/workspace-ignore/tsconfig.json b/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/workspace-ignore/tsconfig.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1dd8e13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-scenarios/ts-ref-yaml/workspace-ignore/tsconfig.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{
+  "compilerOptions": {
+    "outDir": "dist",
+    "rootDir": "src"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/tests/update-ts-references.test.js b/tests/update-ts-references.test.js
index 52ee21c..f4b36f2 100644
--- a/tests/update-ts-references.test.js
+++ b/tests/update-ts-references.test.js
@@ -258,6 +258,11 @@ test('Support update-ts-reference.yaml workspaces', async () => {
         parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(rootFolderTsRefYaml, configPath, 'tsconfig.json')).toString())
     ).toEqual(config);
   });
+
+  // should not touch the ignore config
+  expect(
+      parse(fs.readFileSync(path.join(rootFolderTsRefYaml,'workspace-ignore', 'tsconfig.json')).toString())
+  ).toEqual( {compilerOptions});
 });
 
 test('Test create tsconfig', async () => {