diff --git a/ci/order-crates-for-publishing.py b/ci/order-crates-for-publishing.py
index 8f9cbcad41484c..18ea6c5776ebc4 100755
--- a/ci/order-crates-for-publishing.py
+++ b/ci/order-crates-for-publishing.py
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ def is_self_dev_dep_with_dev_context_only_utils(package, dependency):
         if dependency['req'] == no_explicit_version_specified:
             is_special_cased = True
         else:
+            # it's likely `{ workspace = true, ... }` is used, which implicitly pulls the
+            # version in...
             sys.exit(
                 'Error: wrong dev-context-only-utils circular dependency. try: ' +
                     '{} = {{ path = ".", features = {} }}\n'