diff --git a/lib/__tests__/shellable.test.ts b/lib/__tests__/shellable.test.ts
index 681ded52..46d0771d 100644
--- a/lib/__tests__/shellable.test.ts
+++ b/lib/__tests__/shellable.test.ts
@@ -555,3 +555,36 @@ test('environment variables', () => {
     ],
   });
 });
+
+test('can exclude files from scriptDirectory', () => {
+  const app = new cdk.App();
+  const stack = new cdk.Stack(app, 'TestStack');
+
+  new Shellable(stack, 'EnvironmentVariables', {
+    scriptDirectory: path.join(__dirname, 'delivlib-tests/linux'),
+    // This should result in only `test.sh` being included
+    excludeFilePatterns: ['*.sh', '**/README', '!test.sh'],
+    entrypoint: 'test.sh',
+  });
+
+  const template = Template.fromStack(stack);
+  template.hasResourceProperties('AWS::CodeBuild::Project', {
+    Environment: {
+      EnvironmentVariables: [
+        {
+          Name: 'SCRIPT_S3_BUCKET',
+          Type: 'PLAINTEXT',
+          Value: {
+            'Fn::Sub': 'cdk-hnb659fds-assets-${AWS::AccountId}-${AWS::Region}',
+          },
+        },
+        {
+          Name: 'SCRIPT_S3_KEY',
+          Type: 'PLAINTEXT',
+          // This is the hash of a directory with only `test.sh` included
+          Value: 'f2ad7bd80137ae8bf3e86164ae8943f7ffbe8b99470f91eb3f24c3b83873a089.zip',
+        },
+      ],
+    },
+  });
+});
diff --git a/lib/shellable.ts b/lib/shellable.ts
index 2f4ab585..4ced79d5 100644
--- a/lib/shellable.ts
+++ b/lib/shellable.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import {
   Duration,
   aws_cloudwatch as cloudwatch, aws_codebuild as cbuild,
   aws_codepipeline as cpipeline, aws_codepipeline_actions as cpipeline_actions,
-  aws_iam as iam, aws_s3_assets as assets, aws_secretsmanager, aws_ssm,
+  aws_iam as iam, aws_s3_assets as assets, aws_secretsmanager, aws_ssm, IgnoreMode,
 } from 'aws-cdk-lib';
 import { IRole } from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-iam';
 import { Construct } from 'constructs';
@@ -170,10 +170,15 @@ export interface ShellableProps extends ShellableOptions {
   /**
    * Directory with the scripts.
    *
-   * The whole directory will be uploaded.
+   * By default the whole directory will be uploaded. Use `excludeFilePatterns` to ignore files.
    */
   scriptDirectory: string;
 
+  /**
+   * File paths matching the glob patterns will be excluded from the script dir.
+   */
+  excludeFilePatterns?: string[];
+
   /**
    * Filename of the initial script to start, relative to scriptDirectory.
    */
@@ -299,6 +304,8 @@ export class Shellable extends Construct {
 
     const asset = new assets.Asset(this, 'ScriptDirectory', {
       path: props.scriptDirectory,
+      exclude: props.excludeFilePatterns,
+      ignoreMode: IgnoreMode.GLOB,
     });
 
     this.outputArtifactName = (props.producesArtifacts ?? true) ? `Artifact_${this.node.addr}` : undefined;