diff --git a/e2e/commands_test.go b/e2e/commands_test.go
index a3521c4c7..3005ea07f 100644
--- a/e2e/commands_test.go
+++ b/e2e/commands_test.go
@@ -82,6 +82,17 @@ func testRenderApp(appPath string, env ...string) func(*testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestRenderParametersWithSpecialChars(t *testing.T) {
+	cmd, cleanup := dockerCli.createTestCmd()
+	defer cleanup()
+	dir := fs.NewDir(t, "")
+	defer dir.Remove()
+
+	appPath := filepath.Join("testdata", "parameters-with-special-chars")
+	cmd.Command = dockerCli.Command("app", "render", filepath.Join(appPath, "my.dockerapp"))
+	result := icmd.RunCmd(cmd).Assert(t, icmd.Success)
+	golden.Assert(t, result.Stdout(), filepath.Join("parameters-with-special-chars", "expected.golden"))
+}
 func TestRenderFormatters(t *testing.T) {
 	cmd, cleanup := dockerCli.createTestCmd()
 	defer cleanup()
diff --git a/e2e/testdata/parameters-with-special-chars/expected.golden b/e2e/testdata/parameters-with-special-chars/expected.golden
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..09f1850b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/e2e/testdata/parameters-with-special-chars/expected.golden
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+version: "3.0"
+services:
+  test:
+    command:
+    - echo
+    - brave
+    - gnu
+    - world
+    image: alpine:latest
diff --git a/e2e/testdata/parameters-with-special-chars/my.dockerapp b/e2e/testdata/parameters-with-special-chars/my.dockerapp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ebb10d421
--- /dev/null
+++ b/e2e/testdata/parameters-with-special-chars/my.dockerapp
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+version: 0.1.0
+name: myapp
+maintainers:
+  - name: dev
+    email: dev@example.com
+---
+version: "3.0"
+services:
+  test:
+    image: alpine:latest
+    command: echo ${texts.first} ${texts.second-1} ${texts.second-2}
+---
+texts:
+  first: "brave"
+  second-1: "gnu"
+  second-2: "world"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/internal/compose/compose.go b/internal/compose/compose.go
index 8b16c26bc..db9565454 100644
--- a/internal/compose/compose.go
+++ b/internal/compose/compose.go
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	delimiter    = "\\$"
-	substitution = "[_a-z][._a-z0-9]*(?::?[-?][^}]*)?"
+	delimiter           = "\\$"
+	substitution        = "[_a-z][._a-z0-9-]*"
+	composeSubstitution = "[_a-z][._a-z0-9]*(?::?[-?][^}]*)?"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -21,8 +22,15 @@ var (
 		"%s(?i:(?P<escaped>%s)|(?P<named>%s)|{(?P<braced>%s)}|(?P<invalid>))",
 		delimiter, delimiter, substitution, substitution,
 	)
+	composePatternString = fmt.Sprintf(
+		"%s(?i:(?P<escaped>%s)|(?P<named>%s)|{(?P<braced>%s)}|(?P<invalid>))",
+		delimiter, delimiter, composeSubstitution, composeSubstitution,
+	)
 	// ExtrapolationPattern is the variable regexp pattern used to interpolate or extract variables when rendering
 	ExtrapolationPattern = regexp.MustCompile(patternString)
+	// ComposeExtrapolationPattern is the compose original variable regexp pattern used to interpolate or extract
+	// variables when rendering. This pattern is only used when a docherapp file is initialized from a compose file
+	ComposeExtrapolationPattern = regexp.MustCompile(composePatternString)
 )
 
 // Load applies the specified function when loading a slice of compose data
diff --git a/internal/packager/init.go b/internal/packager/init.go
index 180d45c23..0df322110 100644
--- a/internal/packager/init.go
+++ b/internal/packager/init.go
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ func initFromComposeFile(name string, composeFile string) error {
 			}
 		}
 	}
-	vars, err := compose.ExtractVariables(composeRaw, compose.ExtrapolationPattern)
+	vars, err := compose.ExtractVariables(composeRaw, compose.ComposeExtrapolationPattern)
 	if err != nil {
 		return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to parse compose file")
 	}
diff --git a/internal/packager/init_test.go b/internal/packager/init_test.go
index 7e03f8f08..339956063 100644
--- a/internal/packager/init_test.go
+++ b/internal/packager/init_test.go
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ services:
     image: image1
     ports:
       - ${ports.service1:-9001}
-
   service2:
     image: image2
     ports: