diff --git a/src/main/java/life/qbic/qpostman/common/options/SampleIdentifierOptions.java b/src/main/java/life/qbic/qpostman/common/options/SampleIdentifierOptions.java
index fccbaba..eb4323e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/life/qbic/qpostman/common/options/SampleIdentifierOptions.java
+++ b/src/main/java/life/qbic/qpostman/common/options/SampleIdentifierOptions.java
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ public List<String> getIds() {
           : ids;
       // we want to prevent matching to something shorter than a project code.
       List<String> toShortSampleIds = identifiers.stream()
-          .filter(it -> !it.matches("^\\w{5,}"))
+          .filter(it -> !it.matches("^\\w{5,}\\*?"))
           .toList();
       if (!toShortSampleIds.isEmpty()) {
         throw new ToShortSampleIdsException(toShortSampleIds);