diff --git a/scripts/playground b/scripts/playground
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..62b805f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/playground
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+export SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)"
+export NAVI_PATH="${SCRIPT_DIR}/test:${SCRIPT_DIR}/cheats"
+
+"${SCRIPT_DIR}/navi" "$@"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/arg.sh b/src/arg.sh
index 9033a39..f01fd40 100644
--- a/src/arg.sh
+++ b/src/arg.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-ARG_REGEX="<[0-9a-zA-Z_]+>"
+ARG_REGEX="<[a-zA-Z_]+([- ]?\w+)*>"
 ARG_DELIMITER="\f"
 ARG_DELIMITER_2="\v"
 ARG_DELIMITER_3="\r"
diff --git a/src/main.sh b/src/main.sh
index 97d323a..947811f 100644
--- a/src/main.sh
+++ b/src/main.sh
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ handler::main() {
          break
       fi
 
+      escaped_arg="$(echo "$arg" | tr '-' '_' | tr ' ' '_')"
+      cmd="$(echo "$cmd" | sed "s|<${arg}>|<${escaped_arg}>|g")"
+      arg="$escaped_arg"
+
       value="$(arg::pick "$arg" "$cheat" || echo "")"
       if [ -z "$value" ]; then
          echoerr "Unable to fetch suggestions for '$arg'!"
diff --git a/test/core.sh b/test/core.sh
index 0af5d48..bf7d348 100644
--- a/test/core.sh
+++ b/test/core.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ source "${SCRIPT_DIR}/src/main.sh"
 source "${SCRIPT_DIR}/test/log.sh"
 
 opts::eval "$@"
+TEST_DIR="${SCRIPT_DIR}/test"
 
 PASSED=0
 FAILED=0
diff --git a/test/playground.cheat b/test/playground.cheat
index f451a71..abd859f 100644
--- a/test/playground.cheat
+++ b/test/playground.cheat
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 # this should be the first test. single and double quotes + newlines
 echo <x> <y>
 
+# variable names
+echo <x> <foo> <foo_bar> <lorem-ipsum> <dolor sit>
+
 # use %
 coll::new 1 2 3 | xargs -I% echo "hello %"
 
diff --git a/test/var_test.sh b/test/var_test.sh
index 38f148a..e9bfbd5 100644
--- a/test/var_test.sh
+++ b/test/var_test.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ check_all_vars() {
    done
 }
 
+path="$NAVI_PATH"
+NAVI_PATH="${NAVI_PATH}:${TEST_DIR}"
 for cheat in $(cheat::find); do
    test::run "All variables in $(basename $cheat) are valid" \
       'check_all_vars "$cheat"'
 done
+NAVI_PATH="$path"
\ No newline at end of file