Can't exclude relative to project root.

[callenAUS]

I wish to exclude //dist/ but not //src/lib/example/dist/ with the exclude_folders setting. (with // being the relative path from the project root seen here.
*dist* excludes both.
dist excludes everything but the //dist/ folder.
//dist and extentions of it seem to do nothing.

What is the correct way to only exclude a top level folder?