diff --git a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityimpl/BaseOpDispenser.java b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityimpl/BaseOpDispenser.java
index f8e797ce9..3354d3879 100644
--- a/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityimpl/BaseOpDispenser.java
+++ b/adapters-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/adapters/api/activityimpl/BaseOpDispenser.java
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ public abstract class BaseOpDispenser<T extends Op, S> implements OpDispenser<T>
             final int hdrDigits = pop.getStaticConfigOr("hdr_digits", 4).intValue();
             successTimer = ActivityMetrics.timer(pop, "success", hdrDigits);
             errorTimer = ActivityMetrics.timer(pop, "error", hdrDigits);
-            resultSizeHistogram = ActivityMetrics.histogram(pop, "resultset-size", hdrDigits);
+            resultSizeHistogram = ActivityMetrics.histogram(pop, "resultset_size", hdrDigits);
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/metrics/ExceptionHistoMetrics.java b/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/metrics/ExceptionHistoMetrics.java
index 806e650d8..198491a4e 100644
--- a/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/metrics/ExceptionHistoMetrics.java
+++ b/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/metrics/ExceptionHistoMetrics.java
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ public class ExceptionHistoMetrics {
     public ExceptionHistoMetrics(final NBLabeledElement parentLabels, final ActivityDef activityDef) {
         this.parentLabels = parentLabels;
         this.activityDef = activityDef;
-        this.allerrors = ActivityMetrics.histogram(parentLabels, "errorhistos.ALL", activityDef.getParams().getOptionalInteger("hdr_digits").orElse(4));
+        this.allerrors = ActivityMetrics.histogram(parentLabels, "errorhistos_ALL", activityDef.getParams().getOptionalInteger("hdr_digits").orElse(4));
     }
 
     public void update(final String name, final long magnitude) {
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ public class ExceptionHistoMetrics {
         if (null == h) synchronized (this.histos) {
             h = this.histos.computeIfAbsent(
                 name,
-                k -> ActivityMetrics.histogram(this.parentLabels, "errorhistos." + name, this.activityDef.getParams().getOptionalInteger("hdr_digits").orElse(4))
+                errName -> ActivityMetrics.histogram(this.parentLabels, "errorhistos_"+errName, this.activityDef.getParams().getOptionalInteger("hdr_digits").orElse(4))
             );
         }
         h.update(magnitude);
diff --git a/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/scenarios/NBCLIScenarioParser.java b/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/scenarios/NBCLIScenarioParser.java
index bce1f7cf9..24cadfd59 100644
--- a/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/scenarios/NBCLIScenarioParser.java
+++ b/engine-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/api/scenarios/NBCLIScenarioParser.java
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ public class NBCLIScenarioParser {
                 alias = alias.replaceAll("STEP", sanitize(stepName));
                 alias = (alias.startsWith("alias=") ? alias : "alias=" + alias);
                 buildingCmd.put("alias", alias);
-                buildingCmd.put("labels","labels=workload:"+sanitize(workloadToken));
+                buildingCmd.put("labels","labels=workload:$"+sanitize(workloadToken));
 
                 logger.debug(() -> "rebuilt command: " + String.join(" ", buildingCmd.values()));
                 buildCmdBuffer.addAll(buildingCmd.values());
@@ -221,11 +221,12 @@ public class NBCLIScenarioParser {
     public static String sanitize(String word) {
         String sanitized = word;
         sanitized = sanitized.replaceAll("\\..+$", "");
+        String shortened = sanitized;
         sanitized = sanitized.replaceAll("-","_");
         sanitized = sanitized.replaceAll("[^a-zA-Z0-9_]+", "");
 
-        if (!word.equals(sanitized)) {
-            logger.warn("The identifier or value '" + word + "' was sanitized to '" + sanitized + "' to be compatible with monitoring systems. You should probably change this to make diagnostics easier.");
+        if (!shortened.equals(sanitized)) {
+            logger.warn("The identifier or value '" + shortened + "' was sanitized to '" + sanitized + "' to be compatible with monitoring systems. You should probably change this to make diagnostics easier.");
         }
         return sanitized;
     }