diff --git a/releasenotes.md b/releasenotes.md
index 46c8f1ff7..e896b18f6 100644
--- a/releasenotes.md
+++ b/releasenotes.md
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 - Shadowing not detected for generic declarations #2876
 - Const inline enums would not always implicitly get converted to the underlying type.
 - Update to dstring.append_string to take any type converting to String.
+- Flag `--cpu-flags` doesn't work if the first item is an exclusion. #2905
 
 ## 0.7.9 Change list
 
diff --git a/src/build/build_options.c b/src/build/build_options.c
index d2ab4084b..c1d2dd7f8 100644
--- a/src/build/build_options.c
+++ b/src/build/build_options.c
@@ -1083,7 +1083,7 @@ static void parse_option(BuildOptions *options)
 			}
 			if (match_longopt("cpu-flags"))
 			{
-				if (at_end() || next_is_opt()) error_exit("error: --cpu-flags expected a comma-separated list, like '+a,-b,+x'.");
+				if (at_end()) error_exit("error: --cpu-flags expected a comma-separated list, like '+a,-b,+x'.");
 				scratch_buffer_clear();
 				if (options->cpu_flags)
 				{