diff --git a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions
index 2d51f00d..b0686eda 100755
--- a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions
+++ b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/codemod/remove_all_unused_functions
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ fi
 
 list_of_unused_things="$(dead | grep -E '^[a-z].*is never read')"
 
+filename_patterns_to_ignore="(codemod|migrations/versions|conftest.py|noxfile.py)"
+
 while read -r line; do
   function_name="$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $1}')"
   echo "possible function_name: ${function_name}"
@@ -25,8 +27,8 @@ while read -r line; do
     echo "skipping $function_name in ${file_name} because it's not a function"
     continue
   fi
-  if grep -E codemod <<< "$file_name" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    echo "skipping ${file_name} because it's a codemod file"
+  if grep -E "$filename_patterns_to_ignore" <<< "$file_name" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "skipping ${file_name} because it's in the list of files to ignore (probably because it is a false positive and actually used)"
     continue
   fi
   echo "trying to remove $function_name from: ${file_name}"