diff --git a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/HttpOp.java b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/HttpOp.java
index 50893bda1..84a5994ad 100644
--- a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/HttpOp.java
+++ b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/HttpOp.java
@@ -1,13 +1,14 @@
 package io.nosqlbench.activitytype.cmds;
 
 import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 public class HttpOp {
-    public final String ok_status;
-    public final String ok_body;
+    public final Pattern ok_status;
+    public final Pattern ok_body;
     public final HttpRequest request;
 
-    public HttpOp(HttpRequest request, String ok_status, String ok_body) {
+    public HttpOp(HttpRequest request, Pattern ok_status, Pattern ok_body) {
         this.request = request;
         this.ok_status = ok_status;
         this.ok_body = ok_body;
diff --git a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/ReadyHttpOp.java b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/ReadyHttpOp.java
index 59dbe2339..de3243449 100644
--- a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/ReadyHttpOp.java
+++ b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/cmds/ReadyHttpOp.java
@@ -12,21 +12,25 @@ import java.time.Duration;
 import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Optional;
 import java.util.function.LongFunction;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 
 public class ReadyHttpOp implements LongFunction<HttpOp> {
 
     private final CommandTemplate propertyTemplate;
+    public static final String DEFAULT_OK_BODY = ".+?";
+    public static final String DEFAULT_OK_STATUS = "2..";
 
     // only populated if there is no value which is an actual bindings template
     private final HttpOp cachedOp;
 
     public ReadyHttpOp(OpTemplate stmtDef) {
         propertyTemplate = new CommandTemplate(stmtDef,
-                List.of(
-                        HttpFormatParser::parseUrl,
-                        HttpFormatParser::parseInline
-                )
+            List.of(
+                HttpFormatParser::parseUrl,
+                HttpFormatParser::parseInline
+            )
         );
 
         sanityCheckUri();
@@ -83,7 +87,7 @@ public class ReadyHttpOp implements LongFunction<HttpOp> {
         if (cmd.containsKey("version")) {
             String versionName = cmd.remove("version")
                     .replaceAll("/1.1", "_1_1")
-                    .replaceAll("/2.0", "_2");
+                .replaceAll("/2.0", "_2");
             HttpClient.Version version = HttpClient.Version.valueOf(versionName);
             builder.version(version);
         }
@@ -93,8 +97,8 @@ public class ReadyHttpOp implements LongFunction<HttpOp> {
             builder.uri(uri);
         }
 
-        String ok_status = cmd.remove("ok-status");
-        String ok_body = cmd.remove("ok-body");
+        Pattern ok_status = Pattern.compile(Optional.ofNullable(cmd.remove("ok-status")).orElse(DEFAULT_OK_STATUS));
+        Pattern ok_body = Optional.ofNullable(cmd.remove("ok-body")).map(Pattern::compile).orElse(null);
 
         String timeoutStr = cmd.remove("timeout");
         if (timeoutStr != null) {
diff --git a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/HttpAction.java b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/HttpAction.java
index 9c7464551..a815682bd 100644
--- a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/HttpAction.java
+++ b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/HttpAction.java
@@ -90,12 +90,12 @@ public class HttpAction implements SyncAction {
             try {
                 response = responseFuture.get(httpActivity.getTimeoutMillis(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
                 if (httpOp.ok_status!=null) {
-                    if (!String.valueOf(response.statusCode()).matches(httpOp.ok_status)) {
-                        throw new InvalidStatusCodeException(cycleValue,httpOp.ok_status,response.statusCode());
+                    if (!httpOp.ok_status.matcher(String.valueOf(response.statusCode())).matches()) {
+                        throw new InvalidStatusCodeException(cycleValue, httpOp.ok_status, response.statusCode());
                     }
                 }
                 if (httpOp.ok_body!=null) {
-                    if (!response.body().matches(httpOp.ok_body)) {
+                    if (!httpOp.ok_body.matcher(response.body()).matches()) {
                         throw new InvalidResponseBodyException(cycleValue, httpOp.ok_body, response.body());
                     }
                 }
diff --git a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidResponseBodyException.java b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidResponseBodyException.java
index 8d1146773..b7a498696 100644
--- a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidResponseBodyException.java
+++ b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidResponseBodyException.java
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 package io.nosqlbench.activitytype.http;
 
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
 public class InvalidResponseBodyException extends RuntimeException {
     private final long cycleValue;
-    private final String ok_body;
+    private final Pattern ok_body;
     private final String body;
 
-    public InvalidResponseBodyException(long cycleValue, String ok_body, String body) {
+    public InvalidResponseBodyException(long cycleValue, Pattern ok_body, String body) {
         this.cycleValue = cycleValue;
         this.ok_body = ok_body;
         this.body = body;
diff --git a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidStatusCodeException.java b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidStatusCodeException.java
index 471250b50..e13c5986c 100644
--- a/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidStatusCodeException.java
+++ b/driver-http/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/activitytype/http/InvalidStatusCodeException.java
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 package io.nosqlbench.activitytype.http;
 
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
 public class InvalidStatusCodeException extends RuntimeException {
     private final long cycleValue;
-    private final String ok_status;
+    private final Pattern ok_status;
     private final int statusCode;
 
-    public InvalidStatusCodeException(long cycleValue, String ok_status, int statusCode) {
+    public InvalidStatusCodeException(long cycleValue, Pattern ok_status, int statusCode) {
         this.cycleValue = cycleValue;
         this.ok_status = ok_status;
         this.statusCode = statusCode;