diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index b01b163..4e16dbb 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -101,9 +101,8 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "cargo-manifest"
-version = "0.14.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "7db7ad32d2729eca70d1669bae38b6a29dabc30a16f1892cc00977873f450d0a"
+version = "0.15.2"
+source = "git+https://github.com/hdoordt/cargo-manifest.git#7fd5e7a28410971d323251fed6399ca701ec4050"
 dependencies = [
  "serde",
  "thiserror",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 0979ebf..5de43ca 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ anyhow = "1.0.80"
 clap = { version = "4", features = ["derive"] }
 guppy = "0.17.5"
 fs-err = "2.11.0"
-cargo-manifest = "0.14.0"
+cargo-manifest = "0.15.2"
 toml = "0.8.10"
 semver = "1.0.22"
 toml_edit = "0.22.6"
@@ -37,3 +37,7 @@ installers = []
 targets = ["aarch64-apple-darwin", "x86_64-apple-darwin", "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu", "x86_64-pc-windows-msvc"]
 # Publish jobs to run in CI
 pr-run-mode = "plan"
+
+[patch.crates-io]
+# TODO remove me once https://github.com/LukeMathWalker/cargo-manifest/pull/57 is released
+cargo-manifest = { git = "https://github.com/hdoordt/cargo-manifest.git" }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5016a9b..fb52e74 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -43,6 +43,33 @@ It collects all the dependencies in your workspace, determines which ones can be
 the `[workspace.dependencies]` section of the root `Cargo.toml`. It also takes care of updating the members' 
 `Cargo.toml` files, setting the correct `features` field for each package.
 
+To exclude workspace members from the autoinherit process, you can either pass their packgage names as an
+option like so:
+
+```bash
+cargo autoinherit -e cargo-inherit-test-web
+```
+
+or you can define the exclusion in the workspace metadata:
+
+```toml
+# Cargo.toml
+[workspace]
+members = [
+    "cli",
+    "config",
+    "db",
+    "web",
+    "macros"
+]
+
+[workspace.metadata.cargo-autoinherit]
+# Skip cargo-autoinherit for these packages
+exclude-members = [
+    "cargo-autoinherit-test-web" # <= This member will be excluded
+]
+```
+
 ## Installation
 
 You can find prebuilt binaries on the [Releases page](https://github.com/mainmatter/cargo-autoinherit/releases).  
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
index ca253b8..5325c1f 100644
--- a/src/lib.rs
+++ b/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 use crate::dedup::MinimalVersionSet;
-use anyhow::Context;
-use cargo_manifest::{Dependency, DependencyDetail, DepsSet, Manifest};
+use anyhow::{anyhow, Context};
+use cargo_manifest::{Dependency, DependencyDetail, DepsSet, Manifest, Workspace};
 use guppy::VersionReq;
 use std::collections::{BTreeMap, BTreeSet};
 use std::fmt::Formatter;
@@ -20,6 +20,41 @@ pub struct AutoInheritConf {
     exclude: Vec<String>,
 }
 
+#[derive(Debug, Default)]
+struct AutoInheritMetadata {
+    exclude: Vec<String>,
+}
+
+impl AutoInheritMetadata {
+    fn from_workspace(workspace: &Workspace<toml::Table>) -> Result<Self, anyhow::Error> {
+        fn error() -> anyhow::Error {
+            anyhow!("Excpected value of `exclude` in `workspace.metadata.cargo-autoinherit` to be an array of strings")
+        }
+
+        let Some(exclude) = workspace
+            .metadata
+            .as_ref()
+            .and_then(|m| m.get("cargo-autoinherit"))
+            .and_then(|v| v.as_table())
+            .and_then(|t| t.get("exclude-members").or(t.get("exclude_members")))
+        else {
+            return Ok(Self::default());
+        };
+
+        let exclude: Vec<String> = match exclude {
+            toml::Value::Array(excluded) => excluded
+                .iter()
+                .map(|v| v.as_str().ok_or_else(error).map(|s| s.to_string()))
+                .try_fold(Vec::with_capacity(excluded.len()), |mut res, item| {
+                    res.push(item?);
+                    Ok::<_, anyhow::Error>(res)
+                })?,
+            _ => return Err(error()),
+        };
+        Ok(Self { exclude })
+    }
+}
+
 /// Rewrites a `path` dependency as being absolute, based on a given path
 fn rewrite_dep_paths_as_absolute<'a, P: AsRef<std::path::Path>>(
     deps: impl Iterator<Item = &'a mut Dependency>,
@@ -87,7 +122,7 @@ pub fn auto_inherit(conf: AutoInheritConf) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
         .build_graph()
         .context("Failed to build package graph")?;
     let workspace_root = graph.workspace().root();
-    let mut root_manifest: Manifest = {
+    let mut root_manifest: Manifest<toml::Value, toml::Table> = {
         let contents = fs_err::read_to_string(workspace_root.join("Cargo.toml").as_std_path())
             .context("Failed to read root manifest")?;
         toml::from_str(&contents).context("Failed to parse root manifest")?
@@ -99,7 +134,10 @@ pub fn auto_inherit(conf: AutoInheritConf) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
             workspace_root
         )
     };
-    let excluded = BTreeSet::from_iter(conf.exclude);
+
+    let autoinherit_metadata = AutoInheritMetadata::from_workspace(workspace)?;
+    let excluded =
+        BTreeSet::from_iter(conf.exclude.into_iter().chain(autoinherit_metadata.exclude));
 
     let mut package_name2specs: BTreeMap<String, Action> = BTreeMap::new();
     if let Some(deps) = &mut workspace.dependencies {
@@ -113,7 +151,7 @@ pub fn auto_inherit(conf: AutoInheritConf) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
 
         let mut manifest: Manifest = {
             if excluded.contains(package.name()) {
-                println!("Excluded package `{}`", package.name());
+                println!("Excluded workspace member `{}`", package.name());
                 continue;
             }
             let contents = fs_err::read_to_string(package.manifest_path().as_std_path())