diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 786668c4a..3ae298293 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -112,3 +112,6 @@ v0.21 + 1
   now uint32_t instead of uint16_t. This allows to set them to UINT_MAX,
   in effect asking for "infinite" context e.g. to iterate over all the
   unmodified lines of a diff.
+
+* git_status_file now takes an exact path. Use git_status_list_new if
+  pathspec searching is needed.
diff --git a/include/git2/status.h b/include/git2/status.h
index 3c86e5d7b..5f211810d 100644
--- a/include/git2/status.h
+++ b/include/git2/status.h
@@ -281,7 +281,8 @@ GIT_EXTERN(int) git_status_foreach_ext(
  *
  * @param status_flags Output combination of git_status_t values for file
  * @param repo A repository object
- * @param path The file to retrieve status for relative to the repo workdir
+ * @param path The exact path to retrieve status for relative to the
+ * repository working directory
  * @return 0 on success, GIT_ENOTFOUND if the file is not found in the HEAD,
  *      index, and work tree, GIT_EAMBIGUOUS if `path` matches multiple files
  *      or if it refers to a folder, and -1 on other errors.
diff --git a/src/status.c b/src/status.c
index cb2490042..720ccb7eb 100644
--- a/src/status.c
+++ b/src/status.c
@@ -494,7 +494,8 @@ int git_status_file(
 		GIT_STATUS_OPT_RECURSE_IGNORED_DIRS |
 		GIT_STATUS_OPT_INCLUDE_UNTRACKED |
 		GIT_STATUS_OPT_RECURSE_UNTRACKED_DIRS |
-		GIT_STATUS_OPT_INCLUDE_UNMODIFIED;
+		GIT_STATUS_OPT_INCLUDE_UNMODIFIED |
+		GIT_STATUS_OPT_DISABLE_PATHSPEC_MATCH;
 	opts.pathspec.count = 1;
 	opts.pathspec.strings = &sfi.expected;
 
diff --git a/tests/status/worktree_init.c b/tests/status/worktree_init.c
index 296c27c86..3e43c8c20 100644
--- a/tests/status/worktree_init.c
+++ b/tests/status/worktree_init.c
@@ -195,9 +195,7 @@ void test_status_worktree_init__bracket_in_filename(void)
 	cl_git_pass(git_status_file(&status_flags, repo, "LICENSE\\[1\\].md"));
 	cl_assert(status_flags == GIT_STATUS_INDEX_NEW);
 
-	error = git_status_file(&status_flags, repo, FILE_WITH_BRACKET);
-	cl_git_fail(error);
-	cl_assert_equal_i(GIT_EAMBIGUOUS, error);
+	cl_git_pass(git_status_file(&status_flags, repo, FILE_WITH_BRACKET));
 
 	git_index_free(index);
 	git_repository_free(repo);