diff --git a/hive.go b/hive.go
index 7e228e353a..9534c2df95 100644
--- a/hive.go
+++ b/hive.go
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ func main() {
 		dockerBuildOutput     = flag.Bool("docker.buildoutput", false, "Relay only docker build output to stderr.")
 		simPattern            = flag.String("sim", "", "Regular `expression` selecting the simulators to run.")
 		simTestPattern        = flag.String("sim.limit", "", "Regular `expression` selecting tests/suites (interpreted by simulators).")
+		simTestExact          = flag.Bool("sim.exact", true, "Exact `expression` match for tests/suites (interpreted by simulators).")
 		simParallelism        = flag.Int("sim.parallelism", 1, "Max `number` of parallel clients/containers (interpreted by simulators).")
 		simRandomSeed         = flag.Int("sim.randomseed", 0, "Randomness seed number (interpreted by simulators).")
 		simTestLimit          = flag.Int("sim.testlimit", 0, "[DEPRECATED] Max `number` of tests to execute per client (interpreted by simulators).")
@@ -109,6 +110,10 @@ func main() {
 		slog.Warn("--sim is ignored when using --dev mode")
 		simList = nil
 	}
+	if *simTestExact && *simTestPattern != "" {
+		pattern := "^" + regexp.QuoteMeta(*simTestPattern) + "$"
+		simTestPattern = &pattern
+	}
 
 	// Create the docker backends.
 	dockerConfig := &libdocker.Config{